TheColorOfHockey

~ Hockey for Fans and Players of Color

TheColorOfHockey

Monthly Archives: September 2013

Hispanic players thriving in pro hockey

30 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Al Montoya, Hispanic hockey players, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Raffi Torres, Raphael Diaz, San Jose Sharks, Scott Gomez, St. Louis Blues

Editor’s note: This story was initially posted in September 2013 and continues to receive hundreds of views per month. So I’ve updated information on the whereabouts of some of the players in the 2015-16 season.

I recently realized that I haven’t fully done my job here at the Color of Hockey when a colleague of mine complimented me about the blog, marveled at the number of black players in professional hockey and the impact they’re having, and wondered if there are any Hispanic players in the National Hockey League.

Not only are there Hispanic players in the NHL, several are thriving. Some have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup; some have played for their respective countries in the Winter Olympics; some have had uneven careers.

And similar to the growing group of black NHL players, more Hispanic players are heading to the league – a testament to hockey’s popularity and a legacy to minority-oriented youth hockey programs across the United States and Canada.

And hockey isn’t strange to Spanish-speaking nations. Spain is ranked 31st in the world in men’s hockey and 26th in women’s hockey by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The European nation has 521 junior players, 197 male players, 205 female players and 18 indoor ice skating rinks, according to the IIHF.

Mexico’s men’s team is 32nd in IIHF’s rankings and its women’s squad is ranked 35th in the world. The United States’ southern neighbor boasts nearly 2,020 players – 243 men, 1,427 juniors, and 350 women and girls. The country has 20 indoor ice skating rinks – more than some cities and states in the U.S.

Veteran Scott Gomez began the 2015-16 season in St. Louis and will end it with the Ottawa Senators.

Veteran Scott Gomez began the 2015-16 season in St. Louis and will end it with the Ottawa Senators.

So to answer my friend Franco’s question, let’s give some love to the NHL’s Hispanic players.

Ottawa Senators center Scott Gomez carries a double dose of pride. He’s proud of his Mexican-Colombian heritage and equally proud of being a native Alaskan.

“You know, growing up in Anchorage, it wasn’t like ‘There’s Scott Gomez, the Mexican hockey player,'” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer  in 2000. “It was, you know, Scott Gomez, the hockey player. People started making a big deal about it as I got older.”

He played with the ECHL’s Alaska Aces during last year’s NHL labor lockout. Through his Scotty Gomez Hockey Association, Gomez gave back to his community recently by having the association take over operating the Anchorage high school girls hockey program, which suffered from poor participation.

“Girls hockey is back,” Carlos Gomez, Scott’s father, told The Anchorage Daily News recently. “Whether it survives is up to the girls and the community.”

Scott Gomez was selected with the 27th pick of the 1998 NHL Draft by the New Jersey Devils. He joined the Devils in the 1999-2000 season and scored 19 goals and 51 assists, good enough to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie player. He helped power the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 2000 by scoring 10 points during the playoffs and Cup final.

He won another Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2003, scoring three goals and nine assists in 24 games during the playoffs.

Gomez played for the U.S. hockey team in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. The team failed to medal, but Gomez scored one goal and four assists in six games.

In 2007, he signed a seven-year, $51.5 million free agent deal with the neighboring New York Rangers. He didn’t have a successful run on Broadway and the Rangers traded him to the Montreal Canadiens in January 2009. Lengthy scoring droughts dogged Gomez in Montreal and the Canadiens bought out his contract.

He signed a one-year deal with the San Jose Sharks once the NHL resumed play in the

L.A. Kings defenseman Alec Martinez has his name on the Stanley Cup.

L.A. Kings defenseman Alec Martinez has his name on the Stanley Cup.

2012-2013 season. There, he scored two goals and 13 assists in 39 games. Gomez began the 2015-16 NHL season with the St. Louis Blues but signed on with the Senators in March after the Blues released him.

The 36-year-old has 1 goal and 8 assists in 34 games this season.

Like Gomez, defenseman Alec Martinez of the Los Angeles Kings has his name on the Stanley Cup. He earned the honor when the Kings won the Cup in the 2011-12 season. Of Spanish roots, Martinez was born in hockey-mad Michigan but spent most of his youth playing hockey in Northern California before playing for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio from 2005 to 2008. He was selected by the Kings with the 95th pick in the 2007 NHL Draft.

Martinez notched 10 goals and 21 assists in 78 games for the Kings this season.

Forward Raffi Torres broke into the NHL in the 2000-2001 season with the New York Islanders and he’s been scoring goals and breaking bones – including his own – with thundering hits ever since.

Raffi Torres was dealt from the Sharks to the Maple Leafs. Between a 41-game suspension and injury, he hasn't played in an NHL game this season.

Raffi Torres was dealt from the Sharks to the Maple Leafs. Between a 41-game suspension and injury, he hasn’t played in an NHL game this season.

Torres went without a goal in his 14-game debut with the Islanders, something that has rarely happened since in his NHL career. Since entering the NHL, the well-traveled Torres has scored 134 goals, 121 assists, and a whopping 490 penalty minutes for the Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Arizona Coyotes, and San Jose Sharks.

The 2015-16 season has been has been a difficult one for Torres. It began with a 41-game suspension for an illegal pre-season hit on Anaheim Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg.

He was also rehabilitating from a knee injury. The Sharks sent him to its American Hockey League farm team, the San Jose Barracuda, in January for conditioning then traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 34-year-old forward hasn’t appeared in an NHL game this season.

“I just want to play,” Torres, whose contract expires this summer, told The Toronto Sun. “I want to get healthy and play. I don’t mind riding buses. I would do that. It’s a pretty good life, making a living playing hockey. I’m not ready to give it up.”

Forward Raffi Torres, right, didn't appear in an NHL game in 2015-16, but he did play a few games with the AHL San Jose Barracuda.

Forward Raffi Torres, right, didn’t appear in an NHL game in 2015-16, but he did play a few games with the AHL San Jose Barracuda.

The son of Mexican and Peruvian parents, Torres grew up in Canada. Torres’ father wanted him to be a soccer player, but young Raffi gravitated towards hockey, Canada’s national pastime.

“My parents came to Canada for a better opportunity,” said Torres. “I grew up with my parents always speaking Spanish to us. We were always eating Mexican food.”

Al Montoya seemed destined to be “The One” – a Hispanic hockey superstar. After all he had the pedigree: the Cuban-American kid from Chicago was a star goaltender at the University of Michigan, where he posted a record of 30 wins, only seven losses, and three ties during the 2004-05 season.

He twice played twice for the U.S. in the International Ice Hockey Federation

Goalie Al Montoya's solid play has helped return the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Goalie Al Montoya’s solid play has helped return the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

World Junior Championship and backstopped the U.S. squad to a Gold Medal at the 2004 tournament in Finland.

The New York Rangers took Montoya with the sixth pick in the first round of the 2004 NHL Draft.  Montoya post good numbers with the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers’ AHL farm team. He was 64-34-4 with Hartford in three AHL seasons.

But his path to Madison Square Garden was blocked by the rise of all-world Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who the Rangers took with the 205th pick in the 2000 draft.

In 2008, the Rangers traded Montoya to the Arizona Coyotes, where he posted a 3-1 record in five games. After a stint with the San Antonio Rampage, Arizona’s AHL team, Montoya was traded to the New York Islanders in the 2010-11 season. He won nine games for the lackluster Isles that year. More important, he posted a sparkling .921 save percentage.

In the 2012-13 season, Montoya signed with the Winnipeg Jets where he want 3-1-1 in seven games and settled in nicely as the backup goaltender to Ondrej Pavelec. Feeling like he’s finally found a home, Montoya happily re-upped with team for the 2013-14 season.

“I really enjoyed my time last year,” Montoya said after re-signing in April. “This is a good group, it’s a good team and we came so close last year. The city is great, my family likes it and I think this team is moving in the right direction.”

But then South Florida came calling and Montoya signed with the Florida Panthers in the 2014-15 season. So far this season, Montoya has posted a 12-6 record with a 2.13 goals-against average serving as Roberto Luongo’s backup.

When you hear the name Raphael Diaz, the last things that you probably think of are the Alps and fondue. But Diaz, a defenseman with the Canadiens, hails from Switzerland. His mother is Swiss, his father a Spaniard.

Defenseman Raphael Diaz patrols the blue line for the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack (Photo/Chirs Rutsch/Hartford Wolf Pack).

Defenseman Raphael Diaz patrols the blue line for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack (Photo/Chirs Rutsch/Hartford Wolf Pack).

“I visited my family in Corunna, which is in the northwest region near Portugal,” Diaz told Canadiens.com last year. “The food there was amazing: tapas, paella, tortillas. I love to visit my dad’s family at least once a year.”

Diaz netted a goal and 13 assists for Montreal in a lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. The third-year defenseman represented Switzerland in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and he’s a strong candidate to wear the Swiss red cross crest again at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

He has spent most of this season in the AHL playing for Hartford, where he’s notched 6 goals and 14 assists in 35 games for the Wolf Pack.

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Darnell Nurse sent back to the Soo

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers, NHL draft, Seth Jones

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

He had a good run and turned a lot of heads, but defenseman Darnell Nurse was cut from the Edmonton Oilers training camp Tuesday night and returned to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, his junior team.

Nurse, the seventh pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft, was reassigned shortly after the Oilers’ 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Edmonton Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old nephew of retired Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn’t expected to make the Oilers when training camp started. But he turned heads with his sometimes strong and aggressive play, particularly in a preseason game against the Vancouver Canucks last week.

Asked about how he felt when learning he was cut, a downcast Nurse told reporters “it sucks.”

“If anyone tells you it feels good to get cut, they’re lying to you,” he told reporters. “It sucks, there’s nothing fun about it, but they have the best plan for me in my development. I’m going to go back and dominate my league and hope I have an opportunity to play in the World Juniors.”

“I gave everything I had,” Nurse continued. “I came in as prepared as I could be. I was really fueled by the fact that so many people said I wasn’t good enough to keep up at this level. I think I proved a few people wrong over the course of this camp, but I still have a lot of room to grow as a player.”

Of the eight players of color taken in the 2013 draft, only defenseman Seth Jones remains in the training camp of the team that selected him. Jones, the fourth player picked in the draft, looks likely to make the Nashville Predators roster.

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Thomas, Wade take long and winding road to Notre Dame University

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Amherst College, Buffalo Sabres, Des Moines Buccaneers, Fargo Force, Fighting Irish, Harvard University, Julie Chu, Mike Grier, Tarasai Karega, University of Notre Dame, University of Toronto, USHL

It’s fascinating to discover where hockey can take a player both geographically and academically.

For Ali Thomas the love of the game has taken him from the bustling Bronx, N.Y., to the corn fields of Iowa to the shadow of the “Touchdown Jesus” mural in South Bend, Indiana. Justin Wade’s hockey sojourn began in scenic Aurora, Illinois, with stops in Fargo, North Dakota and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before reaching the place known for Knute Rockne, winning one for “The Gipper,” and the football movie “Rudy.”

Ali Thomas goes from NYC to Des Moines to Notre Dame in hopes of NHL career.

Ali Thomas goes from NYC to Des Moines to Notre Dame in hopes of NHL career.

Thomas and Wade are freshmen on the University of Notre Dame’s hockey team, the first black players to skate for the Fighting Irish. Both hope their journey to South Bend leads them to another destination – the National Hockey League.

“My dream is to play in the NHL,” Thomas told me recently. “Here, right now, I’m at Notre Dame, I want to get a degree here and be able to play college hockey and hopefully fulfill my dream of playing in the National Hockey League.”

Wade seconded Thomas’ thought. “I definitely have NHL aspirations, but I look at it as taking it one step at a time,” he told me. “I’m looking at college right now, making the stepping stones to being as successful as possible in the hockey and in college.”

Notre Dame Hockey Coach Jeff Jackson believes that Thomas, a 6-foot-2, 211-pound left wing, and Wade, a 6-foot-2, 203-pound defenseman, have the tools to succeed in NCAA Division I hockey.

Thomas arrived in South Bend from The United States Hockey League’s Des Moines Buccaneers where he scored 6 goals and 9 assists in 43 games last season. The rugged winger also collected 118 penalty minutes.

Justin Wade played in Fargo, N.D., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before landing at Notre Dame. Is NHL next?

Justin Wade played in Fargo, N.D., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before landing at Notre Dame. Is NHL next?

“Ali is a big left winger with the size to be an excellent power forward,” Jackson said shortly after Thomas and Wade signed early letters of intent last November to attend Notre Dame. “When he plays within himself, playing physical and going to the net he’s a very effective player. He will be a power guy, a net drive player and a physical force for us in the future.”

Wade collected 2 goals, 6 assists, and 87 penalty minutes in 43 games for the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders after being traded from the Fargo Force. He scored 1 goal, 1 assist and registered 34 penalty minutes in 17 games for Fargo.

Wade “is a good stay-at-home defenseman with excellent leadership skills,” Jackson said. “I expect him to give us more of an edge physically in our zone and in front of the net.”

Notre Dame plays in the tough Hockey East conference with Boston College, Boston University, University of Maine, University of Massachusetts, UMass Lowell, Merrimack College, University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire, Northeastern University, and Providence College.

The Fighting Irish are ranked seventh in the nation in a recent USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine preseason poll. Hockey East’s UMass Lowell was ranked first, Boston College fourth, New Hampshire, 13th and Providence 15th.

Thomas and Wade chose to hone their skills in the USHL, a high-level junior league comprised of 16 teams located throughout the Midwest. That meant leaving home as teenagers to head to unfamiliar surroundings.

“Hockey in New York City is very scarce,” Thomas,  now 21, told me. “In my youth, I played in Connecticut and New Jersey. When I was a senior in high school I moved to Chicago and lived with a billet family. Then I played in Chicago my senior year, then I got drafted by the USHL the following year by the Chicago Steel. I played a season and a little bit in Chicago, then get traded to Des Moines about a month and a half into the season.”

He admitted to suffering “a huge culture shock” from being a big-city kid living in Iowa.

Notre Dame expects Ali Thomas to blossom into a power forward.

Notre Dame expects Ali Thomas to blossom into a power forward.

“Going from seeing building, after building, after building in New York City to seeing farmland and open spaces everywhere was quite a change,” he told me. “I actually liked Iowa because there’s less traffic there. A mile takes three minutes compared to 45 (minutes) in New York City.”

Wade left home at 16 for Fargo, about a 632-mile, 10-hour drive from Aurora.

“Obviously, it was a big move for me,” said Wade, 19. “It was really exciting but at the same time I was nervous about it. But I enjoyed the experience, I got to be in a different environment, and I feel I matured.”

Wade found Fargo to “be really nice. The town was really accepting, I really liked the town.” But he only stayed two-and-a-half seasons there before being traded to Cedar Rapids.

“Going to Fargo…I had a family I lived with, I felt like I had another family there in a way, people I got to know really well,” Wade said. “It was over less than 24 hours I had to leave and go start with a new family. That was a really different experience for me. But in hockey, it’s something that you know happens and happens often. So you just have to accept it, go forward and continue moving on.”

The decision by both players to take the college hockey route rather chasing their NHL dreams by joining major junior hockey teams in the United States or Canada was the right way to go, according to Brett Peterson, a former Boston College hockey player who’s one of two black sports agents in the world with hockey clients.

All eight of players of color chosen in the 2013 NHL Draft came from the Ontario Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League or other major junior conferences. Of the eight, only defenseman Seth Jones, the fourth overall pick by the Nashville Predators, remains in an NHL training camp.

“The way the NHL is structured today, you don’t want to get there too fast,” Peterson told me. “If you go major junior, that means that you have to be ready to play professional hockey at 20 because that’s when you age out (of juniors). If you go college, you’re adding another three years to your shelf life before you have to be ready to play NHL hockey because you don’t enter college until you’re 18 or 19.”

Peterson said college also gives players “time to grow both physically and mentally.”

“College allows kids to have, in my opinion, just more life experiences than the major junior route because there’s more time,” he added. “Major juniors, they play 70 games, they travel, they have bus trips. In college, you don’t play the first month-and-a-half that you’re on campus and you don’t play the last month-and-a-half to two months on campus. You’re allowed to be a young man and grow.”

Justin Wade is expected to bring size and leadership on Notre Dame's defense.

Justin Wade is expected to bring size and leadership on Notre Dame’s defense.

Wade and Thomas are among a growing number of players of color who are playing college hockey at all levels – from NCAA Division I to American Collegiate Association club hockey teams.

They’re following in the skates of players like retired Buffalo Sabres forward Mike Grier, who starred at Boston University; New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo, a University of Minnesota alum; Darren Lowe, a University of Toronto forward who in 1984 became the first black player on a Canadian Winter Olympics team. He’s now the head hockey coach of his alma mater;  Chris Nelson, defenseman for the University of Wisconsin in the late 1980s; Robbie Earl, a University of Wisconsin forward who helped the Badgers win the NCAA hockey championship in 2006; Julie Chu, a former Harvard University forward who’ll play for the U.S. in her fourth Winter Olympics this February; and Tarasai Karega, an Amherst College graduate who’s the first black woman to win an NCAA hockey championship.

“There’s a big wave of us coming through and it makes me happy to see that,” Thomas told me. “Why not have the diversity in the sport? It’s not hurting the sport, if anything it’s being promoted on the NHL level more than it has ever been promoted before. Hockey is getting a new face, and I think it’s a good thing for the sport.”

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Malcolm Subban cut from Bruins camp

23 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Jordan Subban, P.K. Subban, Tuukka Rask, Vancouver Canucks

Malcolm Subban  moves from Bruins training camp to its AHL farm team's camp (Photo: Terry Wilson/OHL)

Malcolm Subban moves from Bruins training camp to its AHL farm team’s camp (Photo: Terry Wilson/OHL)

The Boston Bruins cut goaltender Malcolm Subban from its training camp Sunday after he gave up eight goals in a pre-season home loss against the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night and earned the mock cheers of the TD Bank Garden crowd.

Subban, chosen by Boston with 24th pick in the 2012 NHL Draft, and three other Bruins prospects were assigned to report to the training camp of the Providence Bruins, Boston’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rhode Island, when it begins next week.

The brother of Norris Trophy-winning defenseman P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks defensive prospect Jordan Subban, was a long shot to make the Bruins’ 2013-14 roster. With Tuukka Rask locked in as the Bruins’ starting goaltender, the only question facing Boston is who will be the Finnish star’s back-up.

Subban’s demotion was sealed after he looked shaky in Boston’s embarrassing 8-2 loss to Detroit in which he played the entire game.

“I thought the fourth goal was one he could have had,” Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien told The Boston Herald. “After that I think it was the fifth and the seventh (that were bad). Although he gave up a bad goal in the second period, we wanted him to battle through it.”

Subban, a former standout goalie for the Ontario Hockey League’s Bellville Bulls, told The Herald after that game that “it seemed like no matter what I did the puck found its way in.

“There were a couple of bad bounces, but I didn’t do my part tonight,” he said.

But Subban didn’t stay downcast for long after his subpar performance. After the game, he was seen running the steps of an empty TD Bank Garden. “I’m looking at it (in) a positive way,” he told The Herald. “It’s probably a good thing. Now I can be more focused and start the game better.”

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2013 NHL draftees get a taste of the big leagues – then it’s back to the juniors

21 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Bellville Bulls, Buffalo Sabres, Malcolm Subban, Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, P.K. Subban, Seth Jones, Washington Capitals

With the 2013-14 season set to begin Oct. 1, National Hockey League teams are busy whittling down their training camp rosters, assigning not-quite-ready for prime-time players to the minor leagues or back to their junior teams.

Many of the young players of color taken in the 2013 NHL Draft managed to get a brief taste of NHL life before returning to their junior squads to get more playing time and buy time to grow both physically and mentally.

Jordan Subban enjoyed his training camp time wearing the Vancouver Canucks blue, white and green. But first-year Head Coach John Tortorella felt the 5-foot-9, 177-pound defenseman, the 115th player picked in the draft, could use more seasoning with the Ontario Hockey League’s Bellville Bulls.

Jordan Subban - Back in Bellville. (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images)

Jordan Subban – Back in Bellville. (Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images)

“I’ve always said that if I don’t play in the NHL, it won’t be because I’m too small,” said the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban and Boston Bruins goaltending prospect Malcolm Subban told Metronews.ca earlier this month. “I think that I can definitely use my vision and smarts. I’m not the biggest guy, so I’m not going to be able to muscle a lot of guys off the puck, so just try to think the game maybe a little bit more and make smarter plays.”

The Washington Capitals have high hopes for Madison Bowey – but not for the 2013-14 season. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound defenseman, the 53rd overall pick in the draft, was sent back to the Western Hockey Leagues Kelowna Rockets.

Defenseman Madison Bowey is back in Kelowna.  (photo: Washington Capitals/Getty Images)

Defenseman Madison Bowey is back in Kelowna.
(photo: Washington Capitals/Getty Images)

“Want to thank the @washcaps organization for giving me the opportunity to have an amazing experience at the main camp,” Bowey tweeted on Sept. 15. The next day he pronounced himself ready to go for a new season with the Rockets.

“Great to be back @Kelowna Rockets boys! Misses the fellas,” he tweeted.

When the Buffalo Sabres drafted Justin Bailey, he felt right at home. After all, the right wing from the OHL Kitchener Rangers grew up Williamsville, N.Y. – just a stone’s throw from Buffalo. After a stint in the Sabres camp, Bailey is a Ranger again.

Rght wing Nicholas Baptiste, chosen by the Sabres with the 69th overall pick in the third round of the draft, impressed the Buffalo brain trust at the NHL Prospects  Tournament in Traverse City, Mich., earlier this month, registering points in three consecutive games. Still, he’s back with his junior team, the OHL Sudbury Wolves.

Justin Bailey - a Kitchener Ranger for another season. (Photo: Jamie Squires/Getty Images)

Justin Bailey – a Kitchener Ranger for another season. (Photo: Jamie Squires/Getty Images)

After Sabres' camp, Nicholas Baptiste is back in Sudbury.(Photo by Bill Wippert via Getty Images)

After Sabres’ camp, Nicholas Baptiste is back in Sudbury.(Photo by Bill Wippert via Getty Images)

Anthony Duclair not Broadway-bound yet. (Photo: Quebec Hebdo).

Anthony Duclair not Broadway-bound yet. (Photo: Quebec Hebdo).

Left wing Anthony Duclair impressed the New York Rangers with his speed and skating ability. “REALLY like this kid’s game,” the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard wrote last July in his “Blueshirts Blog” following a Rangers development camp. “Very, very good skater who frequently arrives at the puck on the spot first…He needs to get stronger, but that’s normal for a young prospect who needs to grow and develop physically. He’s shifty, dips out of checks often, too.”

Duclair, taken with the 80th overall pick in the draft’s third round, is a few seasons away from his Broadway debut. The Rangers sent him back to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Quebec Remparts where he scored two goals in the first game of the season.

Jonathan-Ismael Diaby  may someday  join Seth Jones on Nashville's blue line. But not now. (Photo by Victoriaville Tigres)

Jonathan-Ismael Diaby may someday join Seth Jones on Nashville’s blue line. But not now.
(Photo by Victoriaville Tigres)

The Nashville Predators someday may boast a twin-towers defense pairing of 6-foot-4, 206-pound Seth Jones and 6-foot-5, 223-pound Jonathan-Ismael Diaby. Jones, drafted fourth overall, is likely to make the Predators and is a longshot to make the U.S. Olympic hockey team that will compete at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia in February. The Predators returned Diaby, the 64th pick in the draft’s third round, to the Victoriaville Tigres for another season in the QMJHL.

Meanwhile, defenseman Darnell Nurse is turning heads at the Edmonton Oilers’ training camp. The 18-year-old from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds had an impressive pre-season outing against the Vancouver Canucks recently, playing 23 minutes in a 4-1 Oilers victory. He blocked shots and broke up two-on-one rushes.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse - giving Edmonton something to consider. (James Egan Photography).

Defenseman Darnell Nurse – giving Edmonton something to consider. (James Egan Photography).

“I can’t believe he’s 18 years old,” Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk told the Edmonton Journal. “He has this maturity about him on the ice. I’ve been so impressed with him.”

Still, Nurse, picked 7th in the draft, seems destined to return to the Soo, though Oilers players and coaches can’t stop raving about the good in his game.

“He’s raw and he’s got some steps to take to get to the NHL level, but I have to tell you we’re really happy with what we’ve seen of him so far,” Oilers Assistant Coach Steve Smith told TSN.

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