Defenceman Thomas Hickey played a big role in Canada's march to a fourth consecutive gold medal at the world junior hockey championship. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press

Statistics can sometimes be a useful tool, but often they don't tell the entire story.

There is no denying that a core of marquee players helped guide Team Canada to a fourth consecutive gold medal at the world junior hockey championship in the Czech Republic. Look at the statistics.

Steve Mason was named tournament MVP after posting a miniscule 1.19 goal-against average, tops among all goalies in the competition. Centre Kyle Turris, the third pick in the 2007 NHL draft, led Canada in scoring with eight points, fellow forward Steve Stamkos (projected to go No. 1 overall in this year's draft) tallied six points, while 17-year-old phenom John Tavares, who many believe could be the next Sidney Crosby, was the tournament's best faceoff man with a staggering 79.31 percentage.

And what did Thomas Hickey do? Not much, according to the statistics – he earned just a single assist in seven games. But what the cold, hard numbers don't take into account is the character, poise, and work ethic Hickey displayed every time he took to the ice.

There are no statistics to measure such traits, which is a pity because Hickey, an 18-year-old defenceman who plays for the Seattle Thunderbirds in the Western Hockey League, was one of Canada's unsung heroes in the Czech Republic.

Not that he's at all concerned about his more high-profile teammates garnering the majority of the headlines.

"The guys who do get the attention are definitely worthy of it. They're the ones who are really helping us win games. As for myself, I've always been a guy who's flown under the radar. Lots of people don't know about me but I'm completely fine with that," Hickey told CBCSports.ca.

Hickey is as skilled as he is humble.

Noted for his speed, on-ice vision and smooth puck-handling skills, the Calgary native distinguished himself as a workhorse at the world juniors by logging lots of ice time on the power play and the penalty killing unit while playing on Canada's second defensive line.

Shows off physical dimension of his game

Heading into the tournament, Hickey faced criticism that he was too offensive-minded and lacked physical presence, but he showed signs of developing into a solid two-way defenceman in the Czech Republic, moving the puck out of the neutral zone and pressuring the opposition's forwards up-ice, while also blocking shots and using his body at the blueline to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

Critics might have been pleasantly surprised to see him play a physical style of hockey, but Hickey insists he always had it in him.

"Sometimes when you have certain strengths, people look at you and they think you're a one-dimensional guy, and I think a lot of people just look at me as an offensive defenceman, and that the defensive side of my game isn't that strong," Hickey said.

"I think this tournament worked out really well for me because I was able to show that I could focus more on playing defence and that I'm very capable of playing a shutdown role and limit the other team's top forwards. I think I can do a little bit of everything and I was happy to be able to show that to people who didn't know that side of my game."

Hickey said he also benefited from being partnered on the blue-line with Luke Schenn of the WHL's Kelowna Rockets.

"He's great. We've been partners before for Canada and we've always been roommates. He's such an easy guy to play with," Hickey said. "He's great at the physical element of the game, he really puts guys down and clears them out from in front of the net. Playing with him, for a guy like me, is great because that's not really a big part of my game, so I think we complement each other nicely."

Hickey's performance for Canada was all the more impressive when you consider the tournament was played on an international sized-rink. Canadian defenceman sometimes struggle against speedy European forwards who are used to playing on the larger ice surface, but Hickey made the necessary adjustments and was rarely caught out of position for Canada.

"We played on the larger ice during the Super Series in Russia [this past summer], but it was still a bit of an adjustment at the start," the defenceman explained. "You have to know your boundaries compared to playing back home on the smaller ice and you have to realize you can't get sucked too far away out of your own net and that players are going to be in different positions than they normally are."

Hickey, currently in his third full season with Seattle, signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Los Angeles Kings after being selected fourth overall in last year's NHL draft.

Hickey was a first round pick (fourth overall) of the Los Angeles Kings in the 2007 draft. (Jay LaPrete/Associated Press)

He is projected to be a top-line defenceman, one that can quarterback the power play, once he makes the jump from junior hockey to the NHL, but he expects to be in Seattle for at least another season before the Kings are ready to call him up.

"As a player you don't get too caught up in that. What they've told me is to just do what I've been doing in Seattle and play as hard as I can. If I do that and I'm successful down there, I'm going to have a better chance of making the team, but there's no real timetable set," Hickey said.

That he's even been given a chance to play in the NHL is an indication of just how much the game has changed in such a short period of time.

It used to be that NHL defencemen had to stand at least six-foot-two and weigh a minimum of 200 pounds to even gain the attention of pro scouts, with Chris Pronger and Scott Stevens serving as the prototype. But the end of the NHL lockout in 2005 resulted in a series of significant rule changes, foremost among them being the clampdown on obstruction and clutch-and-grab hockey.

As a result, smaller defencemen such as Hickey (five-foot-11, 182 pounds) are no longer automatically discounted in the new NHL.

"It's really encouraging for guys like me, and younger kids who are seeing the success of smaller puck-moving defencemen because it's a testament to how the game has changed and how the rule changes have allowed guys like me to thrive," Hickey said.

"I'm so thankful for how things changed they way they did because I don't think I would have received the opportunities and chances I'm getting right now."