By Tracey Richardson

The parallels in the hockey careers of Owen Sound Attack veterans Chris Bigras and Zach Nastasiuk are downright spooky.

Four years in the Ontario Hockey League together after both being drafted by the Attack as 16-year-olds from the same minor midget team in Barrie – Nastasiuk in the first round, Bigras in the second round. Both earned world gold with the national under-18 team two years ago in Sochi, Russia. Both played in the CHL Top Prospects game in early 2013. Both played in the OHL All-Stars Super Series, twice. Both were drafted in the second round of the NHL's 2013 entry draft – Bigras by Colorado and Nastasiuk by Detroit. Both are team leaders on the Attack – Nastasiuk was named team captain last season and Bigras alternate captain. And both are having career years this year on the score sheet – right winger Nastasiuk with 57 points as of Feb. 10 and defenceman Bigras with 51 points.

They actually started playing summer hockey together about nine years ago. And no, they're not twins separated at birth (their birthdays are more than a month apart), but their longevity as teammates has been uncanny nevertheless.

"That's pretty unheard of to do all those years with the same guy," said Bigras, who's never played hockey with anyone else that long.

"It's been a blast," Nastasiuk said of their time together in Owen Sound. "I still remember the day before our first training camp, we were in a hotel room together talking about camp and the year and stuff like that, and now we're here talking about everything we've been through, and I'm really fortunate enough to go through it with a guy like Chris. And not just a guy, but a hockey player and a friend and even a brother. It's an honour."

Off the ice, they hang out together – working out at the gym, playing golf in the summer -- and they frequently go to one another for advice and to talk things over.

"I learn stuff from him every day still. Off the ice, on the ice," said Nastasiuk, who often asks his buddy for advice about his game. The two also team up on a lot of drills at practice, and their chemistry together has resulted in a tonne of goals and scoring opportunities.

"I think it helped both our careers to be able to stay together like that," said Bigras. "We always kind of push each other on the ice and in the gym. We try to better ourselves, and we progressed and got to the level we are together."

For all their accomplishments the last four years – and there have been many – Attack coach Greg Ireland reserves his most enthusiastic praise for the duo's leadership qualities.

"They're comfortable stepping on toes as leaders, yet they're the most popular guys in the room," he said. "That's the mark of a good leader. Leadership is an uncomfortable situation. It's not always, hey watch what I do and follow, or be everybody's buddy. Sometimes as a leader you've got to have that ability behind closed doors to call a guy out, to take a guy to lunch and say hey, what you're doing isn't right, it's not helping you, it's not helping the team, it's not helping your teammates. We've really watched those areas of their game grow and it doesn't get seen by a lot of people."

Nastasiuk remembers Ireland telling him about three years ago, that "to be a leader, first you have to lead yourself. I think the way you do that is in your actions, what you believe in and your attitude, and I think Chris and I have some pretty good leadership qualities, whether it's character or hard work or perseverance, stuff like that. I think we take pride in trying to lead ourselves first. We're both lead-by-example kind of guys."

In his time coaching Bigras and Nastasiuk, Ireland, who also coached them in their last year of midget hockey together in Barrie, has seen the two eager to put coaching advice into action.

"Zach, I remember being spurty in his goal scoring, and I remember talking to him early about what type of game he needed to play, and he grabbed a hold of it right away and he worked on it, and I've really seen big gains every year. And it started with him really really grabbing hold and taking what we said to heart . . . and he went after it."

As for Bigras, "Every year he gets a better grasp of the defensive zone coverage, more confident in his puck carrying, his puck rushing," said Ireland. "He's added dimensions to his game, his shot has improved a lot, I've seen a physical side of his game come out that a lot of people never thought would come, there's an edge to him now. I think every time you say to them, hey you're lacking in this area, I think you need to do (something), they've gone home and said okay, I'm going to do that. A lot of players don't do that, and for Chris to be as physical as he is now, I think there's a lot of NHL teams looking back now and thinking, maybe we should have taken that boy earlier."

The best advice Bigras and Nastasiuk have for rookies coming into the league is the same bit of wisdom they employed as rookies.

"Just work hard and stay out of trouble and just learn whenever you can," said Nastasiuk.

"Yeah, being a sponge your first year," added Bigras. "And like Nasty said, having a good work ethic and learning from the good and bad. Just be a sponge and absorb everything."

They admit that over the years, they've had to take a few youngsters aside and impress upon them the "shut and listen" rule.

"You don't always listen to your elders," said Bigras. "Sometimes there's a rebellious side. Sometimes hearing from a fellow brother in the room, someone who's been through it and has done the same thing, sometimes we don't associate the coaches as ever having played the game. But to hear from your peer, it's like, ok, if this guy has done it and gone this far, maybe I should hear him out and see what he's saying and apply it."

Being a leader on the team has its ups and downs, said Nastasiuk, who said he learned a lot from former Attack captain Mike Halmo.

"I think the whole part of leadership is recognizing when you need to step in and when you need to step out," he said. "It's not easy, and we both learned it's not easy to step on toes when maybe it's a good buddy. But if you want to have a successful team and year, it's the stuff you have to do. . . It's not like we have to do it all the time.

"The coach will do his part, and sometimes we'll have to play good cop, bad cop, where we're the guys and he (coach) is the bad guy, but there's also times where we have to play the bad guy and he's the good guy, so I think it's just recognizing your spot and what you need to do. And when something bad's going on, you need to recognize it early and stop it so it doesn't get worse. Like Chris said, hearing it from us, maybe they'll listen more."

The days of being teammates for Bigras and Nastasiuk are swiftly winding down, with one or both potentially not returning next year for their overage year. Both said they've enjoyed their time in Owen Sound, and have nothing but adoration for their billets and for the community.

"It's gone by really quickly," said Bigras. "Everything's been great. My billets have been awesome for me, they're a second family for me now, I'll definitely visit them in the summers. . . the organization for all the players that we've played with, there's been some pretty good guys and great people around the organization, and that's how you get better as a person too. You surround yourself with good people, and certainly there are a lot of good people here in Owen Sound."

As their paths finally diverge, both pledge that their friendship will remain intact and that they'll stay in touch every day.

"I'll miss this," admitted Bigras. "It's been great times. We've gone through a lot together."

"It's really been special, and I'm really happy I got to go through it with him," said Nastasiuk, grinning and throwing his arm around his buddy's shoulder.

"Yeah," Bigras agreed. "It's been a great nine years so far."

Tracey Richardson is an Owen Sound freelance journalist and fiction writer. Twitter@trich7117.