It probably shouldn't come as a surprise Kevin Baker is making a success of his career as a professional hockey player.

He obviously had some talent:he played pro briefly before agreeing to spend a few years playing university hockey, getting a degree and learning some valuable lessons about life in the process.

While at Acadia, Baker matured into a pretty decent hockey player; in his senior year, he won the Sullivan Trophy as Player of the Year in Canadian interuniversity sport.

Moving on to resume his interrupted pro career in the East Coast League, Baker had 36 goals and 81 points for the Texas Wildcatters this season - a pretty decent total in any league these days.

I'm not surprised. Darren Burns, after all, told me when he recruited Baker he “had a nose for the net” and great hockey instincts that would serve him (and Acadia) well.

Kevin Baker's university career was shorter than some and more successful than most - he is one of just two Acadia players (Duane Dennis is the other) and only a handful from the AUHC to be voted CIS Player of the Year. His on-ice success told a person a lot of about Baker's ability as a player, but his Acadia career overall also told you a lot about Baker the person.

Because of his previous pro experience, he had to sit out his first year, waiting to become eligible. He obviously chafed at the delay - anyone in his position would have - but he never complained, and I feel it made him both a better player and a better person.

The following year and part of the next, Baker showed flashes of the talent and ability Burns had spoken of, but was hampered by injuries. Again, he bided his time, helping the team where he could to reach the conference final in 2005.

In his final season at Acadia, Baker, finally able to play a full season without injury; turned in arguably the second finest season by a hockey Axeman (Dennis's 36 goals and 74 points in 1993-1994 still gets my vote for number one), leading the conference in scoring and leading the Axemen to a well-deserved conference title.

Baker, like his teammates, also bought wholeheartedly into both the Acadia hockey tradition and the Axemen “system” as promoted and embodied by Burns and his staff. He became an MVP, both as a player and a person, both on and off the ice.

I was glad to see him get his shot at a pro career, and even gladder to see him do so well in his first full season. His future is bright.

Baker's current success looks really good on Acadia, and especially good on Burns, who has a philosophy, sticks to it and expects all his players to do the same.

That philosophy, and how well the players buy into it, is why Acadia hockey continues to attract such fine all-round student-athletes, and graduate even better ones; and why Acadia, win or lose, is one of the most solid university hockey programs in Canada.

Baker is by no means the first Acadia graduate to go on to play professional hockey with some degree of success. It's actually a fairly lengthy list that includes Norm Batherson, Kevin Knopp, Mark McFarlane, Jeff MacLeod and Sean O'Reilly.

There are as many former Axemen who now have responsible positions in society, both within the sport of hockey (albeit off the ice) and elsewhere. That says a lot for a program whose main goal is graduating first-class citizens, some of whom are good hockey players and all of whom are solid people. It's a responsibility Burns and his fellow Acadia coaches, in hockey and in other sports, take very seriously.