The Athletic Hockey Show - Shane Wright of the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs joins the show, Arizona Rookie Faceoff notes, Traverse City Prospect Tournament wrap-up, and more

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

First, Max and Corey are joined by the potential No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, Shane Wright of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs to discuss how he feels getting back into real competition after the entire OHL season was cancelled last year due to COVID-19 concerns, which NHL player he compares his game to, dealing with the disappointment of getting cut from Team Canada’s 2021 WJC roster, growing up idolizing Sidney Crosby, the Toe Curve Club, and much more.After that, the guys give their final thoughts on the Traverse City Prospect Tournament, including standouts Scott Perunovich, Cole Sillinger, and Yegor Chinakhov, Corey talks about the impressive play of Alex Turcotte and others at the Arizona Rookie Faceoff tournament, as well as notes from some of the other prospect tournaments taking place over the last week.And, right now you can save 50% on an annual subscription to The Athletic when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, everybody. Max Boltman here alongside Corey Pranman, back with another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show's Prospect series. I am so excited for today's show. We're going to be joined by Shane Wright, top prospect of the 2022 NHL draft. And then Corey and I are going to run through what we saw at the Traverse City and Arizona Prospect tournaments, leading us right into the starts of training camps this week. We're going to start with Shane Wright. But just before we get to that, Corey, let's tell everyone a little bit about Shane Wright and not just the player, because I think people are familiar by now. with the kind of talent that Shane Wright is, but also kind of the person of Shane Wright and the perception of him in NHL circles. Yeah, like I kind of said, you know, the exceptional status guy in the Ontario League, 39 goals and 58 games in his 15-year-old season, the rare 15-year-old season.

You know, he was just incredible. When you look at what he did that year, and he goes to the U18 World Championships, in my opinion, he was the best player there, the media voter for Montfei Michkoff, but I think you could have easily gone with Shane Wright being the best player there as an underage. He's just a really impressive overall player.

It's, you know, when I'm kind of, I think sometimes people view me as a guy who can pick apart any player and find some sort of criticism in your favorite player. But with him, it's almost like there's no, it's hard for me to find one, honestly. It doesn't mean, you know, he's amazing at every single one.

thing, but I think his game is extremely well-rounded. I think he's got almost all the components you want in a top NHL player. And when I was telling some people in the league that we're going to have him on, and, you know, they all told me, like, you know, this guy might be, you know, a teenager, but he's got the maturity of, you know, a seven, eight-year NHL veteran. And I think, you know, we saw that when we interviewed. viewed him. Yeah, you could really see the poise that he had in the way that he answered all those questions. And I'm sitting here thinking, not only was I not that poised and mature and kind of confident at 16, 17 years old, I'm not sure that I'm that poised or mature right now at

26. I won't argue with that last point. No, I'm sure you would not. All right, well, then we'll get right to that without further ado, Shane Wright. All right, we are very excited to welcome today's guest. You'll be hearing his name a lot this season as the top prospect in the 2022 NHL draft. from the Kingston front knacks Shane Wright. Shane, how's it going? Good. How are you guys doing? Doing really well. So it's preseason right now for you guys, right? You guys are a couple of preseason games in so far. Yeah, exactly. Just finished up our second preseason game on last Saturday. It's been really long preseason for the 02, right? It's like a month long. Yeah, a little bit longer. I think it's designed that way

because, you know, obviously no season last year. So given the teams, you know, extra time to prepare and a lot of new guys as well. a couple of new guys coming in, but it's nice having these couple extra weeks to prepare for the season. How has that been getting back into kind of real competition, real action now after such a long time away for you guys? I mean, it feels amazing. It feels great to finally be back in Kingston. Finally be back with my teammates, you know, going to the rink every day and seeing them and, you know, going to battle with them. And, you know, just the overall day-to-day experience in the room just talking to the guys, having fun. I think that's what I missed, missed the most about, you know, the OHL life, just

being around the guys, you know, all the time. And, yeah, so it just, you know, it feels great to be back and, you know, great to be back here in Kingston. How did you, I mean, how did you spend all that time last year? What was your practice and training set up and schedule? Like, what were you doing as you're waiting to first find out if they're going to play and then to still train and develop when once, even once you found out they weren't? Yeah, it was, stay pretty much the same through the whole process there all 18 months, just, you know, working out in the morning and then having some sort of skate in the afternoon or, or, or something like that. And then just, just having some, some downtime where I can, you know, hang out with

some buddies or, you know, do some other stuff, you know, work on off the ice or do some stretching or whatever that may be. So I stayed, stayed pretty structured throughout the whole thing. I like having a plan, having a structure. So I'm a big routine guy as well. So every day was pretty similar to the next. A lot of the older prospects in the OHL, especially, especially kind of the draft year guys. Some of them looked for other situations,

whether that be Europe, a couple guys went to the to the USHL even. Was that ever something you really explored, or were you kind of all the way wanting to just whatever happened with the OHL was what you were going to do? Yeah, I think definitely explored other options. Obviously, you don't intend to take a whole year off hockey. You don't really want to take a whole year off playing games. I think for me in the situation, I was in, you know, we were kind of told that the

OHL was going to start at some point. And, you know, the time where I was at, I was, you know, maybe a month out from what we were told the start date for the OHL season was. So, you know, I was thinking, no, it's probably not worth to go maybe over to Europe or the USHL for, you know, maybe a month and have to come back and do a quarantine. Because at that time, you know, we had to quarantine for the two weeks. So I think for me at that time, it just wasn't really worth it. Obviously, you know, they kept pushing back start date and then, you know, eventually ended up

canceling it entirely, which kind of sucks. But that's kind of how my thought process went with that whole situation. So like what your mentality was when you went to like the Canada under 20, camp, which I believe was in December, where you kind of almost like hoping that was going to be kind of a ramp up for you going into a potential OHL start? Yeah, yeah, I think at that time we were told that we had a February 4th start date. And we were going back in, you know, mid-January or early January for training camp. So that camp ended around like just before Christmas time.

So I was I was thinking, this is going to be a, you know, a good ramp up for the season and good, you know, preparation for my season. So I ended up obviously not going through, but it was, that was still a great experience for me overall. What do you think like that year, how do you think it impacted your development? I mean, it's, I think that's, that was the question everybody had about so many guys your age and, and years above and below you of what that would, what would mean for you. I mean, how did you feel personally how it affected your development? I think, I think just personally, it was tough at times. It was tough to, to wake up every day. And, and, and, you, go to the gym and then, you know, grind in the gym and then grind on the ice as well every single day

and then, you know, go to bed and do the same thing the next day. No, you miss the overall grind of, you know, playing hockey and playing games and being on a team. Obviously, I think it really, I got a few opportunities to taste, you know, the team practice aspect with obviously the World Junior Camp and U-8 teams and stuff like that. But other than that, it was, you know, mainly individual skills. and didn't really have many opportunities to work on, you know, the team environment, team structure and stuff like that. So it was just largely individually focused with a few, you know,

team practice and stuff sprinkled in. Was there any way that kind of Kingston, the Kingston guys kind of stayed together, not stay together, like it's communicate with each other, stayed in touch? Yeah, yeah, through, you know, a lot of the lockdown, We're not a little more later on, like around August in 2020. And then on from there, we had a bunch of Zoom calls with our team and our coaches just trying to kind of going over our structure and our systems, making sure everyone was up to date with all that and making sure we all, you know, knew what our structure was going to be. If and when we would come back to Kingston for camp and begin a season again.

So I think that was great for us. It was great to, you know, interact as a team and kind of go over those hockey and, you know, those team mindset stuff that, you know, we really didn't get a taste of for a long time before that. So someone told me to ask you about something called the toe curve club. What is the toe curve club, Shane? Yeah, it's one of my skills coaches I work with. His name is Josh Roble. He used to work with Adam Oates. He worked under him for a number of years and he learned lots from him eventually left to start his own business.

It's kind of like a little group of us. We just a bunch of skills, a lot of shooting and puck handling drills and just finding different ways to score from different areas. And the toe curve club comes from the type of blade that he likes us to use. It's a pretty good, pretty big toe curve, obviously, as the name says. there. Just kind of like a little trademark from the group and from his business there. What's the toe curve do? Like if I had a steeper curve on the toe of my blade, what would I be able to do better? Yeah, just the way he kind of teaches us to shoot. It's kind of like you load the puck and the toe and then you can release it from there. You can make passes or you can protect the puck

or however you want. So that's kind of the benefits from using one of those. pivoting to a little bit more of the hockey side for you. You know, there's going to be a question you're going to get from a lot of teams. So almost like a preparation for you is, you know, what is a player or two in the NHL that you think your game compares to, whether either, you know, identically or stylistically? Yeah, a guy that I really like comparing myself to is Patrice Bergeron. Obviously, he's been one of the top players in the league for a number of years now. he's, you know, such a great leader and, you know, he makes his teammates better. Obviously, his line goes by the name Perfection line, and that's not for just no reason.

I mean, he's almost, you know, a complete player, obviously, Tuna Foot Game. He's won, you know, Selky trophies. He's won different awards like that. And he's just a guy that I like watching. I feel like playing the Tunders Foot game as well. I feel like I can be trust in my own end as well as, you know, create offense and score some goals as well. So he's a guy that I love watching and I really, you know, compare myself to.

It's fair to say from watching, you know, a lot of you over the last few years that your shot is a, is a big aspect of your game. Would you think that be fair to say? Yeah, I would. I feel like over the last couple summers, I've really, really, you know, focused on, you know, my shot and, you know, scoring from different areas and my release, making it quicker, making it stronger and really figuring out how to pick my spots from different areas. So I'm definitely really, really happy with where that's it.

Obviously, not perfect and can still get better, but it's definitely one of the strengths in my game. I think, you know, you don't see, I guess, a lot of like these premium centers in the NHL who are goal-driven players. I mean, you can't make plays, but, you know, just looking at your numbers, you know, going back, you know, the most of your career, you tend to score more than you get assist. Your shots needs to be a big aspect of your game. seems like I guess the one guy that kind of comes to mind not like a similar comp for you would be like kind of like a guy basically like you see that guys like Matthews doing that right now in the national hockey league that they tend to be like you know goal driven centers like I know may

not be the way you describe yourself more of a burson type but I guess you know like how do you see any aspect of your games in the way a guy like Matthews plays you see some distinct differences yeah yeah no I definitely see some similarities with the way I play I love watching watching him play obviously living where I do in Burlington. I get to get to see every Toronto Maple Leaf game. So I got to watch him a ton last year and in the years before that. And I love watching him obviously as a special player. And it was releases, in my opinion, the best in the league.

The way he can shoot puck from any spot is something I really like to watch. And like to try to, you know, put it emulate into my game and try to, you know, add that to my repertoire. I guess overall, how would you kind of describe the way you create your offense, not just through your shot, but in general, how would you say, you know, Shane Wright creates his offense? Yeah, I think I think I'm a pretty smart player. I think I understand the game.

Well, I think I can make good reads off the defenders and off my teammates as well. I think I'm competitive as well. I can win battles. I can go into corners and, you know, take out those big D and use my body to win those pocket battles and create space for my teammates and, um, and just make smart plays. Um, I always try to make, you know, make those smart plays, not try to, try to force everything, make, uh, you know, simple smart plays and, um, just trying to create as much as possible.

And that's kind of one thing I want to follow up with you on is the, is the way you can, you battle in the things you might do, you know, through contact because I think the highlights will show like your shot. Like say we go watch the U18 worlds as you for sure recall, you know, you scored a lot of goals from range from the circles. But do you think you're an exterior-driven player, you know, generating offense from the perimeter, or do you think you're more of an interior guy in terms of where your offense comes from? I think right now maybe a little bit of both, obviously.

Like you said, I scored quite a few from the perimeter U-8 teams, and I think it's an area I can improve on. I can get to the dirty areas a little more those space in front of the net and score more those interior goals like you were talking about. That's definitely an area of my game that I'm looking to improve on. I think that's a place I can really take my game to the next level. It wasn't hit as a criticism, actually. I think actually if you, yeah, when I've seen like teams,

like show me like where your heat charts are, like where your chances come from, it seems like a good chunk of them still come from around the net. I was just kind of curious from your perspective, how you kind of, you see your game, like, in terms of how you play. Oh, that's fine. I was honestly wasn't taking as criticism. I was just, that's kind of something that I've been, been thinking about and trying to focus on a little here in camp. Just get into those, those, those, I guess, dirty areas more in those high scoring areas, you know, right in the slot, right in the crease there.

And learning how to, you know, find space and to fish out pucks and, you know, when it makes place from those tight areas is something that is super valuable. And obviously, is, you know, how a lot of them. goals or score the next level as well. Yep, no, for sure. Shane, you know, to this point in your hockey career, you know, you've obviously had a lot of success, you know, being an exceptional status player in the Ontario League, the huge year you had in your first Ontario season as a 15-year-old, you go to Canada's U-20 campus 16, same thing to the U-18s as underage, where you played very well.

It seems like, you know, things seem to go very well for you very often. So I think, you know, something I think maybe some of our listeners want to know, know or, you know, when have been some times, whether in hockey or off the ice, that maybe you've faced some adversity, things, maybe didn't go your way. And what was the way you responded to that? Yeah, well, one that really jumps out to me, obviously, is U-20 camp in December there. Obviously, I was a 16-year-old, not many 16-year-olds in history have ever made that team, obviously some of the best players in the world and best players in history have. So I knew going in, it was, I'd have to really fight for my spot. And I feel like I left a lot out there.

I feel like I didn't compete my best. I felt like it was little timid. So, and, you know, I deserve to be cut. I didn't, I didn't deserve to make that team. And I think I really kind of took that and, you know, really wanted to, you know, focus more on my game and how I can respond in those big situations and make sure that didn't happen again. And I feel like I respond really well at 18s. I feel like I had a really solid tournament there. And I think that's, yeah, just getting cut from that team. Not making that team is definitely, you know,

something that really hit me pretty hard. And it's something that has definitely fielded me in the future as well. Obviously, your cut around there was in very unique circumstances because of the fact you didn't get to finish your previous OHL season and your future one was not yet started. you know, what was your mentality when you got cut and had to go home after that? I think my mentality was just get back to work, get back to get back in the gym right away, get back on the ice, and just get back to work and, you know, work hard and work on your games to make sure that, you know, that doesn't happen again, make sure you never get cut from one of those teams ever again.

I think that, you know, really fueled me to push myself even harder and prepare even more for this season. Shane, entering this next season, you know, you just among my discussions with NHL Scouts, you seem like the early favorite to be the first pick in the next year's NHL entry draft. Does it, you know, still a full year ahead? You know, we'll see what happens between now and July, but right now you are, you know, the odds-on favorite. And when you kind of look at some of the guys who've gone first overall in recent years, Jack Hughes, Nico Heeshier, Alexei Lafranier, as specific examples, you know,

they've had success in the NHL, but they've, they haven't had the immediate star success right away as like say Nathan McKinnon or Carmen David, Austin Matthews did. You know, have you watched any of those guys closely, whether as juniors or in the pros? And what have you taken away from the paths that they've kind of forged so far and the early lessons they've had in the National Hockey League? Yeah. I feel like it's hard to think of myself as a potential first overall pick right now because

the season hasn't started yet. There's still so much time between now and then. So it's hard for me to picture that happening right now. There's just so much time. There's so much that can happen. So I really try not to focus on that too much. Obviously, it's cool hearing your name said in that way. It really doesn't matter right now.

Only time that matters is July 7th when the draft takes place. So obviously I like watching those guys. I like watching Hughes and he, sure, and Lafranier. They're obviously talented players, and, you know, they're going to be fine. A couple not so great years is nothing to be ashamed about. It's the NHL's toughest league in the world. I think they're going to be fine in the future. Yeah, I would say their lack of instant success has been an interesting discussion point.

And I kind of was curious if you see that and you puts in context with the next level is pretty much. Yeah, I think that definitely shows just how tough the NHL is, obviously. Those guys are first overall picks, you know, the best players in their age group. And they're still not having that much success at the NHL level. I think that just goes to show the level of talent and just how hard it is to make it at that level and to be successful in that league and how much you have to push to get to that spot and to be able to make it that far. I just wanted to have a couple more, but we'll let you go here in a second here.

But I noticed the poster of Sidney Crosby or the photo of Sidney Crosby over your shoulder. Is there a story to that? Are you a big Cid guy? Yeah, growing up, Sid, Sid was my guy. He was my favorite player. I absolutely loved him. Yeah, this picture, it's signed by him and it says, it says, too, Shane, keep working hard, good luck. So I was able to get, you know, that personally signed.

towards me by Sid. And it's something that I look at every day. It's something that, you know, inspires me and really feels me, because obviously he's one of the best players in history and, and, you know, one of my favorite players as well. So he's a guy that is just a huge role model for millions of kids and myself included. And it's, it's pretty cool to have, you know, him,

him write that message to me. So, yeah. How old were you when you got that? I got that during my first year here in here in Kingston. Yeah, so it was just 15. So I've heard that your parents had a big impact on you as a hockey player. I'm just curious kind of in your mind, what does that look like? Your parents, Simon and Tanya, I believe are their names. What's the impact that they've made on you as an athlete and as a person? I think, I mean, obviously it's the same for a lot of kids, but just the sacrifices they made,

you know, the time and money and effort spent to take me everywhere in hockey to, you know, driving me to all my training, all my practices and, um, and, you know, all the, all the, all the, uh, all the tough words sometimes after a bad game or, um, you know, just, just, especially my dad, you know, driving home from games and, in, uh, in minor hockey. They're just, um, talking to him about, you know, how I play it and what I can do better, I think, um, and, and just so inspiring for, you know, the way they work and, um, you know, how much they sacrifice and really, uh, just raise me to, to try to earn everything and, and don't take any, anything for granted.

Never get complacent as well. That's something my dad has always preached to me. Never get complacent and comfortable with where you're at and what your game's at. And always strive to be the best that you can be. Yeah. Last thing for me then, we'll close on this. I mean, you're finally now in your draft year and you're back on the ice. You're playing real games.

What are you most looking forward to about the next 12 months or so that's going to come? I'll only be able to play hockey. I think it's pretty simple finally be able to play games, finally be able to compete, compete against guys and play the game I love. Obviously, it's been a long off season, but it's good to be back and I just can't wait to play. Fantastic. Well, Shane, we really appreciate you joining us today and looking forward to watch you play this year and for a long time after that.

So thanks so much for coming on. Yeah, thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you once again to Shane Wright for joining us on the Athletic Hockey. show, certainly going to be seeing a lot of him, both this year and in the years to come. But we're going to move now into some of the players who have already been drafted in the NHL, the prospects that Corey and I have been seeing at NHL prospect tournaments over the past

week. Corey was in Traverse City for the first part of that tournament. He went to Arizona. I stuck around Traverse City. That's where the Red Wings are, obviously. And so we're going to go right there and to wrap the Traverse City tournament. And for me, I think the two guys, three guys that I left the most impressed by from the whole tournament, two of them from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Cole Cylinder and Igor Chinikov, and then Scott Perinovich from the St. Louis Blues. Perinovich in particular seems like of everyone that was at that tournament, the one that I would say looked the most, a cut above, the most ready to go to the

NHL. And I think we saw that in these St. Louis's early games, Corey, just a player that when you look at the combination of the skating and the skill, he just looked like he could do a little more than the rest of the players there. Yeah, I think that's fair. Just from what I saw, the one game that I saw him in, you know, his skating and his hockey sense were differentiators for him at that level. I think with Purnovich is, I believe he is 23 years old.

So when you're watching that kind of event, you have to make that kind of adjustment in your brain, you know, like Riley Tufti, I thought stood out for Dallas, but he's a little bit of an older prospect, and he's kind of a 50-50 on, you know, whether he's actually ever going to make the NHL or not right now. So there is that balance there. And I think for Purnovich now it's, you know, now it's time for the main camp. Let's see what he does at that level. our colleague Jeremy Rutherford put out his

was kind of a season preview for the blues and he has Prunovich kind of on the bubble right now to make that team I think that kind of shows the context need to put that term in is whereas where a guy like Cylinger comes in who is an 18 year old and right out of the USHL and it can excel at that level I think is extremely impressive not to say Prunovich's play wasn't impressive but I think when you see what a guy like Cilinger does there

that is, I think, a little bit more intriguing. Yeah, we'll get to Cilinger in just one second here, but just to kind of wrap on Pernovich, we were talking about the night that we watched him together at that tournament, him standing out and talking about whether he's going to be in the NHL. One of the questions I asked you is, did you think he was redundant to Tori Krug? I want to say your answer from that night was, you can have multiple of those guys. You just can't have your whole team, your whole defense corps, be those guys. Is that, I mean, a fair way to put it?

Yeah, that's kind of what I would say. I think you can have, whether, you know, my opinion, reflect the entire industry's opinion. I think you can talk to my NHL teams that get a little queasy if you had three of those guys on your blue line. But I think you could definitely have at least two in terms of guys who, and I think Prunivis will defend okay in the NHL. Just because of his size, it's going to be a limitation.

But I think he's an excellent skater. I think he's a better skater than Krug is. So I think that can help him a little bit more on the defensive side. But practically speaking, he's there for his offense in the National Hockey League. I think you can have two of those guys. I think you could have three. I once had someone tell me you can't have like six of those guys on your team. And I understand why someone needs to kill penalty.

Someone needs to take the tough defensive minutes, tough D-Zone draws, et cetera. But I think Tori Krugan, Scott Perunovich can definitely coexist on the same team. Yeah, one of the things I look for when I watch these games is there a player on the ice who, no matter what the score is of the game, when I watch the game, I go, yeah, the difference between these two teams is team A doesn't have that guy and Team B does. And that's what Pernavich was. And I do think there was a degree to which that was also true with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Cole Cilinger. And I think what impressed me is every time I looked, whether he had the puck or didn't have the puck, Cole Cillinger was in position to get the puck, whether he was going to take it away from someone or get a feed.

Just looked, stood out as a really smart hockey player to me. Yeah, he's smart and he has some offensive skills, you know, in terms of the hands and shot, but he's also a really physical player. And I think that the physicality aspect of him, I think, is what makes him so interesting. You know, he's average size, but the compete level is really good with Cillinger to go with the hockey sense, to go with the skill and the goal scoring ability. The feat are always going to be the question with him. But I think other than the feat, he kind of has every other thing you want in a top. prospect. I think it's why, you know, you can, whether you thought he should have gone top eight, top 10, whatever, I think you can, you can, you can't away from that event saying,

oh yeah, that's, you know, he was, that's why he was top 15 pick. It was kind of clear his day. It was. And his line, really, um, leaving the tournament, I don't know that I had any doubt in my mind that his line with Igor Chinikov was the most impressive line at that tournament. And Chinikov, I don't know what number of, what his final goal tally was. I think it might have been six. It was six, yeah. And, and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, third game, which was the last of his games I would have been at, he was outstanding. He closed it with a big shot from the point. I don't know if he had a hat trick or two goals in that game, but he was, you know, he was a force to be reckoned with. And, you know, he's in a year older

as well, two years older than Cillinger, I believe. This would be his age 20 season. And so, you know, you want to make an adjustment for that mentally too, but I think you can see that this kid looks like a first-round pick. Yeah, you know, he, I think the shot looked not just good. it looked like really good. I think that's kind of always the degrees when you're valuing guys you rest with. Is this, you know, is the skill this level or is it a notch higher, you know, whether you know it's my rating system or someone else's rating system that you might use. You're always kind of talling my things.

And I had a shot as, you know, a potentially NHL above average before and now I'm watching like, oh, no, this might actually be like a real high-end caliber NHL shot. You don't want to make those conclusions based on a couple of prospect showcase gains, but it definitely gets you thinking at the minimum from the way I saw him. You'll finish plays from range at that event. It was definitely impressive. And because even though I don't think he is the fastest player ever, because he has skill, he has hockey sense.

And if the shot is that good, you can envision a world where he can play and Eli Tolvin-type game and have success in the National Hockey League. Yeah. So those are the three players that I left the weekend, the most impressed by. I mean, there's plenty more happened.

And for fans of Dallas, Toronto, Detroit, Scott Wheeler's got a whole list of observations and standouts from that camp. For Detroit specifically, I've got my Red Wings observations. You can read all of that on the athletic,

but to me, those were the three guys. I don't know if I glossed over anybody that you felt like it from when you were there that really merits kind of special mention here. No, I mean, I just like Dallas's team in general.

Yeah. They just had a lot of guys there, whether it was Delandria or Bork or Stankovin, Wyatt Johnston. You know, Johnston, right? I thought Damiani had some good moments. You know, they just seem like I have a really nice team there. It doesn't mean they have the best farm system ever,

but it means I think they've got players there that are going to help their team. That will help supplement the core that's already there, whether it's a second line forward or a second pair defenseman. You know, there are guys coming that can be important players for this team. Yeah, absolutely. So you ducked out on Saturday to get to the Arizona tournament, and that might have been the most, we talked about star-studded of the, the prospect tournaments there.

You look at some of the teams that were there. That's no surprise. Anaheim, L.A., San Jose, these are teams that have been picking really high. Colorado also has a couple of high picks because of they had the Ottawa pick the one year, and Alex Newhook falls to them in the middle of the draft. What did you see at that Arizona tournament? Who popped out there? Well, we'll start with the teams that you kind of mentioned that have a lot of the draft

capital. We'll start with the Kings. I thought Turcotte was the best player and the one in a bit games that I saw of the Kings play. I thought just, you know, his effort level really stood out. It's always been kind of the thing Alex Turcott's been known for is how hard he works, and he was really good in terms of how he won battles, really good on the back pressure to kind of create some havoc and create turnovers. And he has good speed.

He has good skill. He has good playmaking ability. But I just like seeing that from him because I found his play's been really kind of up and down over the last two years. And it was good to see that. On the other hand, when I watched Quentin Byfield in the one game, one of the big games I saw the Kings play, I didn't think he stood out in the same manner,

but the scouts who were there who watched the Kings games that I wasn't at, said he was very good. So just kind of a little bit of a wash there on that front. Brand Clark was sick, so he couldn't play at that, so it was disappointed not to see him. I thought Callia and there was like, you know, I thought Calia, Fajamo, they were pretty solid. Fajamo particularly stood out there in that event.

Kupari, I liked quite a bit. Tyler Madden really wasn't so good in the one game I saw, but people told me he was better in other games. And that's kind of one of the things when you have, like these kind of farm systems is you just want to make sure you have a lot of these type of guys and hope some of them hit. And I think there's going to be a really interesting training camp and overall season for Kings fans when it comes to these youngsters.

I think they're at kind of a point now when they're rebuilt where you are hoping that some dividends start to pay through, whether it's byfield or Turcote or Calia or Kaparia, Akeel Thomas, Fajamo, etc. I think it's reasonable to hope that some of these guys start to push through and start to help the big club. Maybe not be top players right away, but I think you're hoping that this season

you're starting to see some help come from their farm system. Anaheim, McTazch got hard during the first game. I saw Ziegress had to be helped off the ice in the second game, although it looks like Eric Stevens said he will be fine. I thought Drysdale was rather good. I thought Olen-Zell-Wager, the most recent second round pick was quite good. I think Zell-Wagers just continued to impress it

and just honestly just looked like a really overall solid defense every time I've watched him in the last year and a bit. So that was good to see. I thought Jacob Perrault actually was quite solid too. I didn't really love his American League games last season, but he was 18 in the American League, maybe I'm being a little harsh. But I thought he was, you know, he was, you know, good enough to, you know,

maybe counterbalance that a little bit in my brain. But we'll see how the rest of his training camera and his next season goes. So that would be the stands from me from Anaheim, particularly Drysdale and Zelweger. I'm not surprised from Drysdale, being that he played in the National Hockey League last season, and I think he's just one of the best young defensemen in the game right now, that he would look good at a prospect showcase level. And you mentioned Colorado. I actually didn't really love Byron in the one game I saw.

I thought he wasn't bad. He just was okay. New Hook, I would say, was better. Just a little bit more engaged, more pace, more energy in his game to go with some of the offense. And then everyone always told me that Jean-Luc Fuddy was really good in the American League last year. Didn't put up huge numbers. But everyone talked to Huscat, that level, told me he was good. And I thought he was quite good at this camp.

dynamic skater, both him and his brother, Liam, always been really good skaters, always found to be a little bit primitive and consistent with his effort. I thought he was more consistent in this camp, created offense through his playmaking, created offense through his speed. You know, we'll see, I think he'll need to have, you know, a good year to possibly make Canada's under 20 team.

But overall, I thought that was a strong performance from him. And, you know, he went down the list, you know, with San Jose, Vegas, in Arizona, the guys I thought stood out from those teams ahead. I'm in my right up at the athletic. But that was kind of a high-level observation for me from that event. I mean, just to zero in on one of the first ones you said, for Alex Turcott to kind of be the standout player there for L.A.

Seems pretty notable. I mean, obviously, he's been a really high-level prospect for a number of years now going back to when he was the fifth overall pick to L.A. But a guy that I think some people had kind of maybe started to raise a little bit of question about in the last year in particular. I mean, did he look like a player who you think could play in the NHL this year? And has he kind of, I guess, quelled? any of the kind of questions people might have raised over the last year or so.

Probably wouldn't want to be raising two years worth of performance with a couple of prospect showcased games. Based on what you saw, though, in terms of the little elements in his game. Yeah, like the games I saw, it looked like an open question for me, whether if there was one center position available out of the King's camp, whether it would be him or Byfield who takes that job. You know, my personal evaluation of these players over years, I thought it would be like five-gill would clearly take that job if they came down to the two of them,

but that wasn't what I saw off from what I watched them at the camp. All right. There's also a couple other tournaments going on throughout the weekend that neither of us were at, and that was in Buffalo and in Tampa or, yeah, in Florida. Any kind of buzz coming out of any of those? I know we weren't able to get our own eyes out of them, but anything you heard from either of those two tournaments that really stood out to you. Yeah, no, I mean, I talked to some scouts that were at these,

various events and I didn't want to write about them in my article. I'm not sure anyone read the comments of my article, but there's a lot of people asking me to comment on tournaments I wasn't at, and I apologize for not being at everything. That was all taking place on the same weekend. But from the showcase that was taking place in Tampa, I heard a lot of good things about Seth Jarvis, the Carolina prospect.

There seems to be, you know, a lot of positivity around him and his play. And, you know, I don't know if he's going to make the teen as a teenager, but I thought, you know, everything I heard down there, they said, you know, he was, people said he was a standout guy there. I heard good things about Tomasino, the National Prospect, Logan Hutzco, the Florida Prospect, all forwards from the Buffalo tournament that had both New Jersey, Buffalo and the Devils. I heard a lot of good things about Dawson Mercer, the center prospect that they took out of the queue with their second of their three first round picks in the 2020 draft.

And I actually, you know, this has been an opinion, then a bit of a minority opinion that I heard from some scouts over the last year that they think, you know, Mercer might even be better than Alex Holtz. But that was kind of the consensus I was getting out of that is, you know, hey, you know, I think these two are closer than probably a lot of people are saying right now. And I don't know, because Mercer's had a really good year. And Holtz didn't have, you know, had a good year. It was an amazing year.

And I said, it's probably more of a compliment. to Mercer in that regard. It was like kind of like this, you know, always kind of hear like the comp, like a Mark Stone-ish type player. Doesn't mean he's going to be as good as Mark Stone. Because Mark Stone's one of the best players in National Hockey League. But this really competitive, skilled, smart, forward with good size who can score and his feet are just okay.

That's kind of always been the description of Mercer. So we'll see how he carries it over into his NHL camp. From what I heard out of that camp, you know, it kind of seems to indicate that he has a, maybe even have a shot to make the final team. And from the Chicago, Minnesota games, the scouts who had talked to there, really liked Matt Boldie. I was surprised. Had a great year in college.

Great World Junior was nearly something like a pointed game guy in the American League. No surprise to the scene at that level. They liked Kailen Addison a lot to the defendant for Minnesota, who was also very good in the American League. And from the Chicago side, definitely kept hearing a lot of good things about Lucas Reichel, who are on Scott Powers, as recently written. saying that he has a very good shot to make Chicago. Are we expecting Kailen Addison in the NHL this year?

Is there, I don't know what the buzz is around him? Yeah, Rousseau kind of seems to indicate he has a shot, but it's not locked by any means that they have some depth defensemen there too. It would shock me if he has to start the year in the American League be the first injury call-up, but he had a really good year in the American League. You know, obviously Bill Guerin values this guy. You know, he was there in Pittsburgh when they drafted him, and then he goes and acquires him via trade.

He's performed rather well. I could definitely see him making the wild. It would have to be definitely in a power play type role because he's not going to be there to be like a 670 who can PK. The identity of the wild for so long here seems to have been that core of defensemen that they had. And obviously, you subtract Ryan Suter from that. But if Killing Addison is able to, you know, I'm not saying he's going to be Ryan Souter, but if he's able to kind of step in and help bolster that top four and get them

back to where they were, especially on that ELC. That's a huge boost for them. Yeah, well, I think of Addison is he has to be used in a very specific way, I think, just because of his size and he's never really been known as the best defender. He's just a dynamic skater, dynamic puck mover. It has to be on your power play. I think he's on your team full-time. I still think he could be a top-four defense.

There are top-four defensemen who do not kill penalties. But he would have to kind of fit into that kind of dynamic, whereas a guy, like, like, six suitor or something, some of those lines was more of your typical two-way guy. Oh, absolutely. And I'm not saying he's going to be Ryan Suter. I just mean, like, now that he's out of the fold, it would be huge for them to have an inexpensive guy be able to slot in and play an important role on that team, just in terms of propelling them forward with their cap situation.

Yeah, just because realistically, guys like Carson Lambeus, Ryan O'Rourke, Damon Hunt, those guys are two to four years away, you know, particularly for Lambe's who was just drafted. All right. Anything else on kind of the recapping the past week or setting the stage for training camps this next week. Anything you're going to be paying particularly close attention to in those camps? Well, giving Columbus fans a lot of love here because I'll be out of one of their preseason games on next week. I'm currently about to go to the USHL Fall Classic and just north of Pittsburgh while we're kind of watching all the the USHL teams, getting my first look at the US

NTDP 18s. Very excited for that team. Pittsburgh native Logan Cooley will hopefully, I think he was He was sick last week. I hope he will be ready to go for this tournament. He's one of my favorite prospects for the upcoming NHL draft. And overall, just excited to see this NTP team with everybody healthy, hopefully, and ready to go to start the season. All right, well, that's going to do it for us. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show's prospect series.

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It'll be all kinds of good stuff coming from all over our network in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead. It's going to be a really fun season. We hope you'll join us for that. Take care.