On Oct. 12, 2012, Post Falls native Tanner Mort had a budding hockey career with the Spokane Chiefs derailed by a neck injury.

For tonight, at least, he gets to relive his old passion.

Mort will get to play against none other than his boyhood idol, Wayne Gretzky, tonight at 6 p.m. in an exhibition game at Frontier Ice Arena in Coeur d'Alene.

IT WILL one of the first times Mort, a 21-year-old defenseman who shoots righthanded, played since he injured his neck playing at Kamloops on Oct. 12, 2012, as a 19-year-old playing in his fourth season with the Chiefs. After missing the majority of that season, Mort chose to retire from competitive hockey.

Does he think about what could have been, that perhaps he could have been called up to the next level of minor league hockey and, who knows, maybe one day to the National Hockey League?

"All the time," said Mort, who is now a sophomore studying toward his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Idaho. "I always wonder had I not gotten hurt. I've been watching all my friends go to the NHL. Tyler (Johnson), Mitch Holmberg (who was signed April 1 by the Edmonton Oilers and assigned to Oklahoma City) ...

Mort has also stayed busy at times on the ice, although not professionally.

"I've played a little bit of men's league this summer," Mort said. "I've just kind of built myself back to it. I played in the Northwest Classic up at Eagles Ice-A-Rena (in Spokane) this spring on a team with (former Chief and NHL player) Cam Severson, my brother (Tyler Mort) and a few friends of mine this year."

Although Mort does not plan to come back and play professional hockey at this time, health-wise he believes he could.

"I think if I wanted to, I'd probably have to be pretty lucky and know somebody who could set me up with a tryout somewhere if I wanted to play competitively," Mort said. "But that's not really in my plans right now."

"Obviously things could change, but I don't think I see that happening to me ... after two years, I've built up enough confidence that I'd probably be OK," Mort said. "Granted, I haven't really played in any contact games. But if I were to get hit, playing in a full-contact game, it could re-injure it as far as I know, but I hope I don't have to get put into that situation."

FOLLOWING HIS serious injury, Mort went through at least a couple of months of recovery.

"What happened was I got hit, a head-to-head hit, up in Kamloops," Mort said. "I went down, kind of blacked out for a little bit and when I came to, I automatically knew it was a concussion. And the head athletic trainer, Todd Daniels, took me in the back room and he took me through the tests, just a typical concussion, it was my fourth or fifth one. I went through all the concussion tests, got clear to skate again. I skated exactly one week after it happened. The next morning, I woke up with just a sharp pain in my neck. I could barely get out of bed. I told Todd about that the morning I went in. We were watching it and I told him I thought I slept on it wrong."

That was the start of Mort's neck problems.

"I skated that day and I had a really bad headache after the skate, so he shut me down for another few days," Mort said. "I came back a week later and I still had a bad neck pain and we skated and I really didn't have any concussion symptoms after that, so I started moving forward and I still had that neck pain. So I came to him and I said, 'Hey, I've been having this neck pain. Can you massage it out and see what you can do? He said 'No problem', he sat me down and massaged it out and he said 'You sure have a big knot back there' and the pain was instantly gone. So he said 'Here, take this tennis ball and tonight, when you go to bed, lean up against the wall and roll it around so it's nice and loose before you go to bed.

Unfortunately, after already missing nearly two months worth of hockey in mid-December, it got even worse.

"But I went home and I went to do that and my arm went numb, it started tingling," Mort said. "I pulled my neck out of position and it went away, which I kind of thought was weird. So I laid my neck back down again and I instantly did it again. Numbness, tingling, I felt like my arm was asleep. I told Todd and so the next day he completely shut me down. So the next day he was looking at it, I underwent an MRI and within 24 hours, had results saying I had a bulging disc in my neck. That was pretty much what shut me down; it wasn't the concussion. He had me seeing a couple of specialists and they wanted it to heal on its own, they didn't want to do those neck surgeries, period, because it's such a high-risk surgery. So they didn't want to operate with me being as young as I was. So they said, 'Well, give it a couple of months, see if it heals.' Two months was up and I didn't feel any better. The doctors told me I may have been able to play. At that point it scared me, because I thought 'Shoot, if I wasn't able to play two months ago, why would I be able to play now?' We split up for Christmas break and I spoke with a few doctors and friends who were in the physical therapy and we all decided it'd be best if I stepped away for a while. Nothing improved in my neck."

MORT, WHO attended Genesis Prep Academy in Post Falls instead of Post Falls High, in part so he could leave school at 11 a.m. each day to practice with the Chiefs, which he had been doing since he was 15. He took three classes at Genesis Prep and three home-school courses during parts of his time there.

Sports runs deep in the Mort family tree. Tanner's second cousin, former Post Falls High running back Josh Mort, set a few rushing records when he played running back during the 1994 season. His father, Tom Mort, once set a season record for passing yards at Post Falls and played basketball and baseball for the Trojans. His father currently owns Arrow Excavating in Post Falls and is married to Shawna Mort, with the couple living in Post Falls.

"I think it'll be neat," Tom Mort said of Tanner playing against the former NHL players. "With him growing up, those are the guys you always talked about. He was too young to see him (Gretzky) play, but he's an icon. I think his career got cut short. He had to rethink his career path. But with hockey, you've got to put a lot of time and effort into it, and the same goes with school."

ON MAY 1, 2008, in the Western Hockey League's bantam draft, Mort was drafted with the 87th overall pick, in the fourth round, by the Chiefs. He played with the Chiefs up until being sidelined by his injury in 2012.

"I played in the Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament and some of the scouts there said I was very good, a smart player, things like that," Mort said. "I played up a level in juniors. I first started playing with the Coeur d'Alene Lakers at 14 and during my 15-year-old season, halfway through I was called up to play for the Wenatchee Wild."

During his career with the Chiefs, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Mort scored four goals and had 28 assists. An idea of what Mort was capable of was when he played nearly a full season. In the 2010-11 season he played 63 games, the only time he played more than 36 in a season. He scored three goals and had 13 assists, plus a goal and two assists in the WHL playoffs.

"I was always a more defensive defenseman," Mort said. "My 19-year-old season I started to come around. I got more points and I was on the power play. It was a lot of fun."

Mort put on ice skates when he was only 3 and played competitive hockey a few years after that. A friend of Tom's, J.P. Roberge, whose son Aaron later played for the Portland Winterhawks from 2001-04, suggested Tanner get into hockey.

"Plus my dad watched the Chiefs, so that did it," Tanner said.

MORT WILL also play tonight against NHL Hall of Famer Brett Hull, as well as several other former NHL players. He will also get to play with one of his former Chiefs teammates, Tyler Johnson, who recently finished his rookie season playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The exhibition will be a part of Hockey Fest, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit ice arena and local youth hockey.

"Playing against some of these guys is grounding," Mort said. "Not too many players my age can say they've played against them. I'm sure it'll be no contact. Some of us compare the game with the Harlem Globetrotters. It should be really good, it sold out in about an hour. That shows you how much hockey means to people around here."

Gretzky retired on April 19, 1999, while playing with the New York Rangers. At the time, Mort was 10 days shy of his sixth birthday.

"When I was little, Wayne was my favorite player," Mort said. "Now that I've gotten older, you respect all these guys. They're one of a kind."

Another neat note is Tanner will be coached during the exhibition game by former Colorado Avalanche forward Adam Deadmarsh, who lives in Coeur d'Alene. Tanner's uncle, Cliff, built Deadmarsh's current house.

Mort said he's looking forward to helping the sport grow even more around the area.

"Spokane is great, but Coeur d'Alene is a totally different story," Mort said. "They haven't had an arena until now. I know the roof caved in (on the old ice arena) around 2009 and they finished it around 2012."

Even now, Mort is doing his part to score some awareness for local hockey.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at bbourquin@cdapress.com Follow him on Twitter @bourq25

Hockey Fest at a glance

What: Hockey Fest

Who: Former National Hockey League players against team of local hockey players playing as the Coeur d'Alene Lakers.

When: Tonight, 6 p.m.

Where: Frontier Ice Arena, 3525 Seltice Way, Coeur d'Alene

Why: To raise money for nonprofit ice arena, local youth hockey

Listed on the roster for "Team NHL" are Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, Russ Courtnall, Brenden Morrow, Keith Carney, Greg Adams, Garth Butcher, Kelly Chase, Jordie Benn, Cliff Ronning, Jeff Finley, Geoff Courtnall, Kevin Sawyer, Justin Courtnall, Adam Courtnall, Mark Dawkins, Lawton Courtnall, Barret Jackman, Ty Gretzky and Ty Ronning.

Listed on the roster for the Coeur d'Alene Lakers are Tyler Johnson, Tanner Mort, Tyler Mort, Cam Severson, Adam Power, Jason Greenwell, Jeff Smith, Derek Ryan, Keanu Yamamoto, Zach Frye, Tyler Alos, Nate Epkey, Chaunce Hughes, Shawn Pauly, Zach Maxwell, Erich Jaeger and Jon Cooper.

Adam Deadmarsh, former Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings forward, will coach the local players.

Johnson, a former Coeur d'Alene Laker and Spokane Chief, recently completed his rookie season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. NHL referee Dennis LaRue will be the official.

There will also be a public skate from 1 to 2:30 p.m., a hockey skills clinic from 2:45 to 3:45 for children ages 10 and under, then a 'stick and puck' clinic for youth ages 18 and under from 3:45 to 4:45. All pregame events are free and open to the public.