Colorado Avalanche

By chance, Ronald "Popeye" Jones bumped into Joe Sakic in the weight room of the arena in Denver way back when.It shouldn't have been a big deal. After all, Jones' Denver Nuggets and Sakic's Colorado Avalanche shared the Pepsi Center.Jones, a 6-foot-8 power forward, had more than casual conversation in mind for their first meeting almost 13 years ago, though. He told Sakic, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, that he had two young boys who wanted to play hockey and no clue how to help them."He looked at me all the way up and into my eyes," Jones said. "He saw how big I was. He said, 'He's going to be huge. Make sure he knows how to skate.'"So Jones signed up his boys, including youngest, Seth, for skating lessons. Sakic's small piece of advice turned around one boy's direction.Now, it's Seth's turn to return the favor for an organization.The 18-year-old Jones has grown into one of the top prospects in hockey and is the consensus No. 1 pick in the NHL draft later this month.That pick belongs...

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