NHL Central Scouting’s 2019 midterm report is out and players of color once again hold prominent spots on the list.
The list is a measuring stick for some of the top amateur talent in North America and Europe ahead of the 2019 National Hockey League Draft June 21-22 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
NHL Central Scouting lists Ryan Suzuki of the Barrie Colts as the 10th-best North American skater eligible for the 2019 NHL Draft (Photo/Terry Wilson/ OHL Images).
Ryan Suzuki of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts is listed as the 10th best North American skater eligible for the draft. The 6-foot center is second on the Colts in scoring with 15 goals and 29 assists in 41 games.
Suzuki, an Ontario native whose great-great grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan in the 1900s, is the younger brother of center Nick Suzuki, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who plays for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.
Tri-City Storm’s Isaiah Saville is the USHL’s top goaltender and the eighth-ranked netminder on NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings.
Isaiah Saville of the Tri-City Storm of theUSHL is NHL Central Scouting’s eighth-best North American goaltender. Saville, an Anchorage, Alaska, native, has a record of 16 wins, 4 loses, and one overtime loss in 26 games.
The 6-foot netminder’s 1.76 goals-against average and .934 save percentage tops all USHL goalies.
Alaska native Isaiah Saville will play for the University Nebraska-Omaha next season.
Saville has committed to play next season for the NCAA Division I University of Nebraska-OmahaMavericks of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
Nick Robertson, a left wing for the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, is the 30th-best North American skater on Central Scouting’s list. Robertson, who is of Filipino heritage, is the Petes’ second-leading scorer with 17 goals and 16 assists in 31 games.
NHL Central Scouting ranks Peterborough Petes forward Nick Robertson as the 30th-best North American skater eligible for the 2019 NHL Draft in June. (Photo/Kenneth Andersen).
The 5-foot-9 resident of Northville, Michigan, is the younger brother of left wing Jason Robertson, a Dallas Stars 2017 second-round draft pick who skates for the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL.
Defenseman Marshall Warren loves the New York Islanders, admires Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, and will play for Boston College next season (Photo/USA Hockey’s NTDP/Rena Laverty).
Marshall Warren, a defenseman for USA Hockey’sNational Team Development Program, is the 39th-best North American skater. The 5-foot-11 Long Island, New York native, has 5 goals and 12 assists in 29 games for the NTDP’s Under-18 team. He tallied 8 goals and 22 assists in 60 games last season.
Defenseman Marshall Warren of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program is NHL Central Scouting’s 39th-best North American skater (Photo/USA Hockey’s NTDP/Rena Laverty).
Warren, a life-long New York Islanders fan who lists Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban as his favorite player, has committed to play next season for the NCAA D-I BostonCollegeEagles of Hockey East.
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Left wing Jason Robertson and center Nick Suzuki have been big deals this hockey season – both on and off the ice.
Dallas Stars forward prospect Jason Robertson.
Robertson, a Dallas Stars 2017 second-round draft pick, was the centerpiece of a major trade in November that sent him from the Kingston Frontenacs to the Niagara IceDogs, both major junior teams in the Ontario Hockey League.
Suzuki, a Vegas Golden Knightsfirst-round draft pick in 2017, was a key piece in the shocking September deal that shipped Montreal Canadiens left wing and team captain Max Paciorettyto Las Vegas.
Both Robertsonand Suzuki are expected to be in the thick of things for Team U.S.A. and Team Canada at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Vancouver.
The 10-nation tournament begins Wednesday, December 26, and concludes January 5. The NHL Network will televise games in the United States and Canada’s TSN will carry every game on its media platforms.
Team USA – 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on December 25, 2019 in Victoria, BC Canada. (Photo/Images On Ice/IIHF).
Robertson and Suzuki are sure to catch the attention of viewers. Robertson, who is of Filipino heritage, is the OHL’ssecond-leading scorer with 60 points – 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 regular season games with the Frontenacs and IceDogs.
Left wing Jason Robertson was traded from the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs to the Niagara IceDogs (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
The 19-year-old Northville, Michigan, resident’s 31 goals are third-best in the OHL. His 13 power play goals are a league best.
Robertson responded to his trade from Kingston to Niagara Falls by tallying 3 goals and 7 assists in his first three games with the IceDogs.
Center Nick Suzuki was drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017 but traded to Montreal in September.
“The Dallas Stars pick has great puck protection abilities and an elite goal-scoring touch, which explains why he’s one of the top producers in the league this year,” The HockeyNews’ Ryan Kennedywroteof Robertson in November.
Suzuki, an Ontario native whose great-great grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan in the 1900s, is having a solid OHL season with the Owen Sound Attack.
The team captain is the Attack’s second-leading scorer with 20 goals and 23 assists in 28 regular season games. He’s the OHL’s 12th-leading scorer.
“He’s got offensive flair where he can be a No.1 power play guy for you,” Owen Sound Head Coach Todd Gill told The Toronto Sun earlier this month. “He’s got every tool in the box, and he has the ability to just make everyone around him better because of his talent.”
Center Nick Suzuki, a Montreal Canadiens prospect, represents Canada at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship in Vancouver (Photo/Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).
Suzuki, 19, and Team Canada begin their quest for a second consecutive IIHF world juniors gold medal Wednesday against Denmark. Robertson’s Team U.S.A. looks to improve upon the bronze medal won in 2018 when it opensthe 2019 tournamentagainst Slovakia Wednesday.
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Jermaine Loewen became a first on Saturday. Now he’s looking for seconds.
Loewen, a towering left wing for the Kamloops Blazers, became the first Jamaican-born player chosen in a National Hockey League Draft when the Dallas Stars selected him in the seventh round with the 199th overall pick Saturday.
Jermaine Loewen, drafted by Dallas Stars (Photo/Kamloops Blazers).
“I cried when I got the call,” Loewen told Jon Keen, the play-by-play voice for the WesternHockey League Blazers.
If the 20-year-old from Mandeville, Jamaica, defies the odds and cracks the Stars’ roster, he’d become the NHL’s second Jamaican-born player. Graeme Townshend – a forward who played for the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, and Ottawa Senators – was the first.
“I think about that a lot , it’s like, ‘aw, man, I want to be the second guy,’” Loewen told Canada’s Sportsnet of joining Townshend in hockey history books “I just really want to make that happen.”
Loewen was ranked as the 160th-best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting. At 6-foot-4, 221-pounds, he was the Blazers’ leading scorerlast season with 36 goals and 28 assists in 66 regular season games.
He notched 50 goals and 46 assists in 236 regular season games over four seasons with Kamloops.
Loewen was one of the more remarkable stories of the two-day draft at Dallas’ American Airlines Center.
Adopted from an orphanage in Mandeville, Jamaica, by a white family and relocated to rural Arborg, Manitoba, when he was five, Loewen didn’t lace on a pair of skates until he was six – late by Canadian standards.
He didn’t play his first organized hockey game until he was 10. But that didn’t stop him from getting drafted by the Blazers, a Canadian major junior team, six years later.
“Obviously when you start playing organize hockey at 10 when other kids start at six or seven, you’re way behind,” Townshend told me in 2016. “He’s made up a lot of ground in a very short period of time. That says a lot about his character.”
ISS Hockey, in its 2018 NHL draft scouting report, called Loewen “a raw player” with pro potential.
“Plays a very impressive game with good on ice smarts, He can be heavy on his feet, but there is no denying his ability to get the job done,” ISS Hockey wrote. “Loewen could turn into a Wayne Simmonds-type player.”
Loewen should be among the players attending the Stars development camp June 25-29 at StarCenter Frisco, the team’s practice facility.
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Kailer Yamamoto and Jason Robertson have barely had time to take their skates off.
It’s been an endless hockey summer for the two high-scoring major junior forwards and other players chosen in the 2017 National Hockey League Draft in June.
Yamamoto, a right wing for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, headed to Alberta, Canada, for the Edmonton Oilersdevelopment camp days after the team selected him in the first round with the 22nd overall pickin the draft.
A long hockey season for Edmonton Oilers 2017 first-round draft pick Kailer Yamamoto included playing in a prospects game last September (Photo/Len Redkoles/USA Hockey).
The 18-year-old Spokane native stayed in Oil Country afterwards for additional training on and off the ice on his own time.
“No days off,” Yamamoto told me recently.
Ditto for Roberston, a left wing for the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs. The Michigan resident shipped off to Texas for the Dallas Stars’ development camp after the teamtookhim in the draft’s second round with the39th overall pick.
“It’s been a pretty busy summer,” he said.
And it’s about to get busier beginning Friday, and both players couldn’t be happier. They will be among 42 American players invited to participate in the 2017 World Junior Summer Showcaseat USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.
This edition of the World Juniors will have an exciting wrinkle – an outdoor game between the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 29 at 71,608-seat New Era Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills.
“It would mean so much to me” to make the U.S. squad, Yamamoto told me. “Any time you can put on the crest of your country, it means the world.”
Yamamoto has represented the United States four times, playing in Under-17 tournaments in 2014-15, the Under-18 World Junior Championship in 2015-16, and the Ivan Hlinka Under-18 Memorial Cup tournament in 2015-16.
Kingston Frontenacs forward Jason Robertson, a 2017 Dallas Stars second-round draft pick, hopes to play for the U.S. at 2018 IIHF World Juniors (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
Robertson, 18, has never played for the U.S. in an international tournament. He’s hoping that he does well enough at the showcase in Plymouth to punch his ticket to Buffalo.
“That would be super-exciting,” he told me. “It’s a great tournament. It would be a huge honor to play for the U.S.A., I hope I do. It’s up to me to perform the best I can in camp.”
That’s the mantra Robertson and Yamamoto followed during their development camps earlier this month.
After getting a long look at his game at camp, the Stars’ coaching staff acknowledged that Robertson is the skilled goal-scorer they thought he was when they drafted him, the player said.
Of course, his team-leading 42 goals and 39 assists in 68 OHL regular season games and 5 goals and 13 assists in 11 playoff games were pretty good clues before the Stars made the pick.
But the 6-foot-2, 194-pound Robertson did leave Texas with a message from the Stars: Get stronger.
Forward Jason Robertson will be wearing another prospects jersey as he participates in USA Hockey’s 2017 World Junior Summer Showcase (Photo/Len Redkoles/USA Hockey).
“The Number One thing I can improve on is my strength overall,” said Robertson, whose mother was born in the Philippines. “They even expressed that the skating is not a really big issue. They believe that developing more as a man off the ice and in the gym – and putting that time off ice into my strength – will really help my career.”
The Oilers also would like to see the 5-foot-8, 140-pound Yamamoto add some more muscle to his frame.
Yamamoto’s height and weight haven’t hurt in the WHL, where he was sixth in the league and tops on the Chiefs in scoring last season with 42 goals and 57 assists in 65 games.
But if he’s going to someday survive the rigors of an 82-game NHL season and the physical abuse from bigger defenders, it’s going to require a bit more meat on the bones.
“Get bigger, stronger, definitely put on the extra pounds,” said Yamamoto, whose grandfather lived in a U.S. Japanese internment camp during World War II. “They (Oilers) said ‘Keep working, we’re really looking forward to seeing you up in camp. Make sure you’re prepared and ready to go.'”
“Ready to go” means in September, just a few weeks after the World Junior showcase. Yamamoto will head back to Western Canada to report to Oilers training camp. Robertson will go to Traverse City, Michigan, for the 2017 NHL Prospect Tournament.
That event will feature up-and-coming young players from the Stars, Detroit Red Wings, CarolinaHurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild, Columbus BlueJackets and St. Louis Blues.
“Most people would be tired and need rest,” Robertson said of his hectic summer of hockey. “But I love it. I love having something to do, especially if it’s related to hockey.”
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It takes a village to raise a hockey player, and it looked like Givani Smith brought the entirety of his to the 2016 National Hockey League Draft.
Smith, a forward for the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, sat patiently through the first night of the draft soaking in the atmosphere with his parents, siblings, cousins, current and former coaches, and families that he lived with as he climbed the hockey ladder away from his Toronto home.
Saturday, they all 15-20 of them erupted in joy inside Buffalo’s First Niagara Center when the DetroitRed Wings took Smith in the second round with the 46th overall pick in the draft.
Guelph Storm forward Givani Smith is all smiles after the Detroit Red Wings chose him in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft.
“It’s so surreal right now. I’m excited and I think I’ll be a good fit here,” Smith said. “I play a mean game, play in guys face, play hard. I like to use my body and wear defensemen down.”
Smith, a right wing, was ranked as the 54th-best North American skater by Central Scouting. He’s following in the skates of his older brother, center Gemel Smith, who was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2012 in the fourth round with the 104th overall pick.
Givani tallied 23 goals, 19 assists, and 146 penalty minutes in 65 games for Guelph in 2015-16.
Givani Smth’s physical game and soft scoring hands made him attractive to the Detroit Red Wings(Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
“I like to model myself after Wayne Simmonds,” Givani Smth said. “He’s a force on the ice, he scores goals in front of the net, and that’s where I score goals.”
Gemel had 13 goals, 13 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 65 games for the Texas Stars, Dallas’ American Hockey League farm team.
Big brother Gemel has offered some sage advice to Givani ahead of June’s draft: “Don’t believe the hype – good or bad.”
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley didn’t play a minute in the StanleyCup Final series against the San Jose Sharks.
Traded to Pittsburgh by Chicago, Trevor Daley wins the Stanley Cup.
But after National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman gave Penguins captain Sidney Crosby the Cup for vanquishing the Sharks Sunday, Crosby handed the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America to Daley for a short skate.
Why? Because he earned it.
Crosby’s classy pass was a testament to Daley’s 2015-16 season and a career of perseverance and performance. He endured a season in which he was traded twice, skated with a heavy heart from his mother’s battle with cancer, and suffered a broken left ankle against the Tampa Bay Lightning that knocked him out of the playoffs.
But the moment that he hoisted that 34.5-pound Cup, all of Daley’s physical pain and personal heartache seemed to evaporate, knowing that his ailing mother, Trudy, would see him hold the trophy that they both desperately wanted to win.
“Daley has played such a long time. Hadn’t really even had a chance,” Crosby said following the Penguins’ 3-1 Cup-clinching victory over the Sharks. “He had been through some different playoffs, but getting hurt at the time he did, knowing how important it was, he had told me that he went and seen his mom in between series and stuff, she wasn’t doing well, she wanted to see him with the Cup. That was important to her.”
“I think that kind of stuck with me after he told me that,” Crosby added. “We were motivated to get it for him, even though he had to watch.”
Daley, 32, appreciated the gesture. He told Sportsnet that Crosby is “a great hockey player, but he’s an even better person.”
“What much more can you say about that guy? ” Daley told Sportsnet’sElliotteFriedman. “He’s just as good of a person as he is a hockey player, probably even better. He’s a special guy.”
There are currently 2,476 names inscribed on the Stanley Cup. Five of them belong to black players: goaltenders Grant Fuhr and Eldon “Pokey” Reddick from the EdmontonOilers’ five championships in the 1980s and 90s; goalie Ray Emeryand defensemen Johnny Oduyaand Dustin Byfuglien from the Chicago Blackhawks‘ Cup-winning teams in 2013 and 2015.
Now comes Daley. He started the 2015-16 season with a Stanley Cup run in mind, though not with the Penguins. The Stars traded the veteran defenseman to the defending champion Blackhawks.
But Daley, for some inexplicable reason, wasn’t a good fit in Chicago and the Blackhawks shipped him to Pittsburgh after only 29 regular season games. He quickly meshed with a Penguins offensively talented roster that features Crosby, center Evgeni Malkin and right wing Phil Kessel.
Oh what a night. Trevor Daley (right) savors Stanley Cup victory with actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.(Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).
Daley tallied 6 goals and 16 assists in 53 regular season games for Pittsburgh and 1 goal and 5 assists in 15 post-season contests before injuring his ankle. He was second among the team’s defensive corps in regular season scoring with 22 points and second in time on ice, averaging 20:27 minutes per game.
Prior to 2015-16, Daley was a mainstay in Dallas, the team that chose him in the second round with the 43rd overall pick of the 2002 NHL Draft. He appeared in 756 games from 2003-04 to 2014-15, ranking him eighth all-time in games played for the franchise.
He played major junior hockey for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario HockeyLeague under head coach and general manager John Vanbiesbrouck, a former NHL All-Star goaltender.
Daley experienced hockey’s hurtful side when he learned that Vanbiesbrouck, a 2007 U.S.Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, had called him the N-word. Daley temporarily left the Greyhounds on the advice of his agent, hockey legend Bobby Orr, and met with OHL Commissioner Dave Branch.
Vanbiesbrouck resigned from the Greyhounds after he admitted using the word, saying “It’s a mistake and consequences have to be paid by me.”
“I told Trev this is an old wound with me,” Vanbiesbrouck told The Sault Star. “I grew up with it. I’m as sorry as anybody that it’s stuck with me.”
Trudy and Trevor Daley, Sr., had prepared their son for such unpleasantness.
“What his father and I stressed to him was that we know who your are,” Trudy told author Cecil Harris for his excellent book “Breaking The Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey.” “But when you go out on that street you’re just another black kid. That’s how you’ll be treated. They’ll stereotype you. But think less about what certain people think about you and think more about who you really are.”
Words that Daley has apparently lived by throughout his professional career. He has a reputation as a class act; a first-on-the-ice, last-off-the-ice, locker room character guy – long-hand hockey lingo for a leader.
When the Stars traded Daley last July, Mike Heika of Texas’ SportsDaycalled him “one of the best guys in the room and he is a very underrated leader.”
The Penguins agreed. When Daley went down with the ankle injury, Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan called him “an important player on our team.”
“He’s a hard guy to replace,” the coach said. “He plays a lot of minutes. He plays in key situations…when you lose someone like Trevor that plays important minutes for us, it makes it that much tougher.”
But like Daley, the Penguins persevered and performed. And Daley got to hoist the Stanley Cup for mom.
You don’t have to look very hard to gauge the depth of diversity in the 2016 National Hockey LeagueDraft.
Players of color populate NHL Central Scouting’s list of talented skaters eligible for the June 24-25 draft at the First Niagara Center, home of the BuffaloSabres, from top to bottom.
Let’s start at the top with forward Auston Matthews, the draft’s presumptive first overall pick – unless the Toronto Maple Leafs shock the hockey world.
Auston Matthews is poised to go from Arizona to Zurich to the NHL Number One draft pick.
Matthews embodies hockey’s growing diversity – both racially and geographically. His mother, Ema, is from Mexico, and his father, Brian, from California.
Born and raised in Arizona, Matthews got hooked on hockey watching the NHL Arizona Coyotes play. He hails from a non-traditional market and will reach the NHL via an unconventionalroute for a North American teenager.
After playing two seasons for the USA HockeyNational Team DevelopmentProgram, Matthews skated for the ZSC Lions in Switzerland’s professional National League A in the 2015-16 season, reportedly earning $400,000.
He scored 24 goals and 22 assists in 46 regular season games for the Lions and tallied 3 assists for the Zurich-based team in four playoff games.
Matthews also suited up for United States at the International Ice Hockey Federation 2016 World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland in December and January. He tied for the tournament lead in goals with 7 and finished fourth overall in points with 11 in powering the U.S.to a Bronze Medal.
He’s currently playing for the U.S. at the IIHF World Championship in Russia and has 3 goals and 3 assists in seven games.
The 6-foot-2, 194-pound Matthews is a “trailblazer, in all forms of the word,” his agent, Pat Brisson, told USA Hockey Magazine. “He’s an 18-year-old who’s ready to play in the NHL.”
California-born and Arizona-raised, Auston Matthews represented the U.S. twice this season in international tournaments.
Givani Smith, a right wing for the Ontario Hockey League’sGuelph Storm, is ranked as the 54th-best North American skater by Central Scouting. He’s hoping to follow in the skates of his older brother, center Gemel Smith, who was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2012 in the fourth round with the 104th overall pick.
Givani tallied 23 goals, 19 assists, and 146 penalty minutes in 65 games for Guelph in 2015-16. Gemel had 13 goals, 13 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 65 games for the Texas Stars, Dallas’ American Hockey League farm team.
Big brother Gemel has offered some sage advice to Givani ahead of June’s draft: “Don’t believe the hype – good or bad.”
Guelph Storm forward Givani Smith looks to join older brother Gemel Smith in the pros (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
“Most of his advice has been ‘Don’t go on social media and read what people are writing about you,'” Givani told the website Hockey’s Future. “Play your game; and if you play a good game, you’ll be rewarded in the end…I have a Twitter account and I know what’s going on, but I try not to pay too much attention to it.”
Fans at OHL London Knights home playoff games weren’t showering a player with boos. They were chanting of “Puuu,” paying homage to Knights forward Cliff Pu, ranked the 75th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.
“At first, I didn’t know they were doing it,” Pu said of the special cheer to The Hockey News. “It’s pretty funny – and it’s better than them booing, so it’s all fun and games.”
The 6-foot-1, 188-pound Pu notched 12 goals, 19 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 63 regular season games for the Knights. He became a beast in the OHL playoffs, tallying 8 goals and 5 assists in 18 games.
Size, speed, and desire are keys to London Knights’ Cliff Pu’s game – and path to the NHL (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
“I like to use my speed and find my teammates,” Pu told The Hockey News. “But it’s all about the team and whatever I need to do, I’m down for it.”
Pu , whose parents came to Canada from China, gained a lot of attention in January by celebrating a goal in an unusual fashion in today’s game – with a handshake.
Peterborough Petes center Jonathan Angis North America’s 95th-best skater, according to Central Scouting, up from 137 in the mid-term rankings. A Canadian of Malaysian descent, he finished fourth on the Petes in scoring in 2015-16 with 21 goals and 28 assists in 68 games.
Jonathan Ang of the Peterborough Petes (Photo/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
Ang led the Petes in playoff scoring, tallying 3 goals and 6 assists in seven games with one playoff game-winning goal. In an OHL coach’s poll in March, Ang tied for second as the league’s best skater.
Like Ang, defenseman James “J.D.” Greenway has moved up in the draft rankings – from 128 at mid-term to 121 in Central Scouting’s final report.
J.D. Greenway wants to play in the NHL – after college.
The Potsdam, N.Y., native is hoping to continue the family draft tradition. His brother, Boston University left wing Jordan Greenway, was chosen by the Minnesota Wild last year in the second round with the 50th overall pick.
Like his brother, J.D. is going the NCAA Division I route before turning pro. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound D-man recently committed to play for the University of Wisconsin.
It looks like Yushiro Hirano’s decision last year to pay his own way to travel from hometown Sapporo, Japan to Youngstown, Ohio, is paying off. Hirano, a 20-year-old right wing for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms is ranked as the 184th-best draft-eligible player in North America.
Hirano – whose first name is sometimes spelled Yushiroh – came to the U.S.to catch the eyes of professional scouts. The 6-foot, 200-pound winger scored 24 goals and 22 assists 54 regular season games in 2015-16.
“I hope to grow the game in Japan and make everybody proud,” Hirano told me last year in an email exchange. “I also want to play well enough to get to the professional ranks here in the United States.”
Yushiro Hirano’s decision to relocate from Japan to Ohio to play hockey might pay off at June’s NHL Draft (Photo/Bill Paterson).
Right wing Daniel Muzito-Bagenda is another import, from the land of Volvos and Saabs. The Swedish Muzito-Bagenda is a high-scoring forward for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads and the 205th-ranked player in North America available for the draft.
He had 20 goals and 17 assists in 63 regular season games for the Steelheads and 6 goals and 4 assists in seven OHL playoff games.
A product of Sweden’s storied Modo hockey program, Mississauga Steelheads’ Daniel Muzito-Bagenda hopes to hear his name called at the NHL Draft (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).
One player who didn’t make Central Scouting’s cut but still could draw interest in later rounds is defenseman Jalen Smereckof the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. Born in Detroit, Smereck was the 299th overall pick of the 2013 OHL draft.
He signed with Oshawa in summer 2015 and was pressed into heavy minutes on the Generals’ blue line throughout the 2015-16 season. He responded by scoring 5 goals and 20 assists in 63 regular season games and 1 goal and 4 assists in five playoff contests.
“For a team that was certainly rebuilding, he was a stalwart on defense,” hockey blogger and researcher Margann Laurissa told me recently. “Jalen played in all situations for the Gennies and there is no reason why the Detroit native should not get consideration.”
Oshawa’s Jalen Smereck isn’t ranked by Central Scouting but some hockey folks think he has the skills to crash the NHL draft party Photo/(Ian Goodall/Goodall Media Inc.)
The hockey blog OHL Prospects wrote that Smereck made a pretty seamless transition into Oshawa’s Top 4 defense rotation.
“With his average size, the development of his offensive game will be key to him becoming a serious NHL prospect,” according to the blog which concludes that “he could be worth a look.”
How much is hockey becoming a truly international sport?
I came across a YouTube video from 2012 – before this blog was created – on the AnaheimDucks hosting a clinic for a Mexican youth hockey team at the National Hockey League team’s California practice facility.
I don’t know if the Ducks have repeated this endeavor – I’m waiting to hear back from the team. Hello? But it wouldn’t surprise me if this one clinic helped spur more interest in hockey south of the border and benefit Mexico’s national hockey program.
In January, Mexico won the International Ice Hockey Federation’sUnder-20 Division IIIworld championship at a tournament in Mexico City.
Last July, the Dallas Stars invited three members of South Korea’s national hockey program to its development training camp in Texas. The Stars extended the invitation at the request of former NHLer Jim Paek, who’s looking to build a competitive South Korea hockey team for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which the country will host in Pyeongchang.
Four years later, it will be China’s turn. Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Games. And Andong Song, who became the first player born in China to be drafted by an NHL team when the New York Islanders took him in the 6th round with the 172nd overall pick of the 2015 draft, has become the young face of his country’s Winter Olympics effort.
Like South Korea, China is quickly trying to build a hockey team good enough to compete with Canada, the United States, Russia, and other major hockey powers at the Winter Games. Song, a defenseman who skated for Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy, this season, could be its captain.
India is trying to become more of a presence on the international hockey stage, too. Money is tight, equipment is scarce, and the talent pool is thin, but that’s not stopping a group of very determined women from dreaming of someday competing in the Olympics.
India’s women’s team played its first international match last month and got crushed by Singapore, 8-1 in the Challenge Cup of Asia. Still, India’s women’s team hopes to advance to next year’s Asian Winter Games. To do that, the team must leapfrog Singapore, Thailand and Chinese Taipaei.
Female or male, it’s not easy being a hockey player in India. For all our nostalgic talk of playing the game on frozen ponds and lakes in North America and Europe, it’s a way of life for most Indian players. Many of them come from Ladakh, near the Himalayas and can only play for two or three months when the ponds are frozen.
A country with more than 1.2 billion people has only 10 indoor ice rinks, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation. The cricket-mad nation has 1,104 hockey players – 315 men, 541 juniors and 248 women and girls.
Take some time and watch the excellent Al Jazeera English feature below on the fun and frustration of playing hockey in India.
The efforts by India, South Korea, China and Mexico prove that, when it comes to hockey, it’s truly a small world.
The country that gave us Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, Red Stripe beer, and the world’s funkiest bobsled team wants to add one more thing to its “famous-for” list: ice hockey.
The Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation is ramping up its efforts to build a national team that it hopes will follow in the legendary footsteps of the Jamaican Bobsled Team and compete in the Winter Olympics, as early as the 2018 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Jamaica took the first step in its seemingly improbable quest in May 2012 when it joined the International Ice
Former Bruins forward Graeme Townshend hopes to coach Jamaica in the Winter Olympics.
Hockey Federation as an associate member. Step Two occurred last May when JOIHF announced the program’s management and coaching staff. The staff includes Head Coach GraemeTownshend, who was the NHL’s first Jamaican-born player when he debuted with the Boston Bruins in 1989-90; Paul Jerrard, who briefly played for the Minnesota North Stars, served as an assistant coach for the Dallas Stars, and is currently an assistant coach for the Utica Comets, the Vancouver Canucks’ American Hockey League farm team; and Cosmo Clarke, a former college player and minor leaguer who now specializes in strength training.
“There are quite a few players of Jamaican descent,” Lester Griffin, the Jamaica program’s assistant general manager, told me. “You have them playing in the NHL, you have them playing in the ECHL, college and juniors. It’s just a matter of letting them know about this and getting the message out there.”
Which brings us to Step Three. JOIHF is scheduled to hold its first-ever player tryout for Jamaican expatriates and other players of Caribbean heritage on August 23 at the Westwood Arena in Etobicoke, Ontario. Players from this and later tryouts will be considered for a 2015 exhibition touring team. That team will serve as an audition, of sorts, for a Jamaican squad that would play in IIHF tournaments and eventually attempt to qualify for the Winter Olympics.
“When the word first got out about this a couple of years ago I got a lot of calls from all over Canada, the United States, and parts of Europe from kids that want to be involved,” Townshend told me. “Now that the word is out officially that we’re having a tryout, I can just imagine there should be quite a turnout.”
With the clock rapidly ticking towards 2018, Townshend, 48, already envisions the type of team that he’d command in Pyeongchang. When he thinks Jamaica, he sees Slovenia. That country’s plucky seventh-place Olympic team had only one NHL star on its roster, Los Angeles Kings forward AnzeKopitar. The rest of the squad was a mix of younger and older international players, most of whom were bypassed by NHL teams.
“So I think our team would look something similar to that one,” Townshend said. “We wouldn’t have a big superstar, most likely, but we’d have a collection of players that I think could definitely compete. “We’d be relying on some former NHLers. Guys like (Montreal Canadiens defenseman) P.K. Subban (dad Karl Subban is from Jamaica and mom, Maria, hails from Montserrat) and the like wouldn’t be available to us because they’ve played for Canada, but players of that background. Then a collection of high-end juniors/college players who could fill the rest of the roster.”
Jamaica hopes hockey-playing cool runners will accompany its bobsled team to the 2018 Winter Games.
Townshend, who runs youth hockey clinics and camps and served as a skills coach for the San Jose Sharks and Toronto Maple Leafs, was approached by JOIHF officials in late 2011 about becoming Jamaica’s bench boss. Coaching a team from a warm-weather country without an indoor ice rink and has potential players spread around the globe? Sign me up, Townshend said.
“I’m on the ground floor of something that I think could be special. We’ll see what happens,” he told me. “For me, I think it’s a celebration of the heritage of the island. I’m proud that I came from the island, that my parents came to Canada with nothing and built a good life for ourselves, and hockey was a huge part of it. Jamaicans are great athletes and they’re passionate, and that’s everything that hockey’s all about.”
Jamaica still has quite a few hurdles – pardon the track and field metaphor – to overcome before playing its first official international game. IIHF rules require full member nations to have ice hockey facilities and grassroots hockey programs in place to grow the sport in-country. JOIHF officials say they’re starting street and roller hockey programs. As for the ice hockey facility, that’s going to take more planning and much more fundraising by the non-profit group.
“We’re going down there next month with a delegation and taking a rink person with us,” said Griffin, a long-time youth hockey organizer and official in South Carolina and Michigan. “We’ve reviewed a few places where we could put ice in or maybe a couple of locations where we can build a rink.”
Like Townshend, former Penguins defenseman Jim Paek is tasked with quickly building an Olympic hockey team(Photo/Pittsburgh Penguins).
Jamaica may be at a standing start in its drive for the Winter Games, but its not the only country trying to build a competitive hockey team in a hurry. South Korea, the 2018 Winter Games’ host nation, recently tapped former defenseman Jim Paek, who won Stanley Cups with the PittsburghPenguins in 1991 and 1992, to coach its struggling national team.
Paek’s mission is to improve a team that was relegated to the IIHF’s Division I, Group B after it went 0-5 at the world championship which South Korea hosted last April. The nation is ranked 23rd in the world, wedged between Great Britain and Poland.
“Hockey’s a funny sport,” Paek, 48, told The Toronto Star recently. “Look at the 1980 U.S. team (when collegians won Olympic gold). Not saying we’ll do that, but you never want to set your goals low. You might as well shoot for the stars if you can.”
Townshend says never say never when it comes to South Korea and Jamaica chances on ice.
“I’d say 20 years ago, I was one of those ignorant people that laughed at the notion that Californians and Texans would play in the NHL,” he told me. “Now you’ve got Texans and Californians making the NHL. It’s not too far out of the realm of possibility that you’ll have a Jamaican born and trained player in 20 years.”
The Jamaican Olympic Ice Hockey Federation’s first player tryout is scheduled for August 23 at Westwood Arena, 90 Woodbine Downs Blvd., Etobicoke, Ont., Canada. For sign-up information, visit http://www.JOIHT.org.
It’s something that Reggie Leach can’t recall seeing during his 14-season NationalHockey League career.
With the Buffalo Sabres hiring of Ted Nolan as interim head coach, two Native/FirstNation people now pilot National Hockey League teams – Nolan and Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Craig Berube.
“This is probably the first time we’ve had two First Nation coaches ever in the National Hockey League coaching at the same time,” Leach, the former Conn Smythe Trophy-winning Flyers sniper told me. “I think it really helps First Nation people in general that Teddy Nolan is back in coaching. It’s really big in Ontario and it’s really great for the people. They give him a lot of respect, which is great because he earned it.”
Ted Nolan’s back for second stint with Sabres. (Bill Wippert, Buffalo Sabres)
But then the man known as the “Riverton Rifle” during his playing days quickly uttered the mantra that’s only too true in big-money sports today: “If he screws up, they’re going to fire him, it doesn’t matter if he’s First Nation. It doesn’t matter if he’s First Nation or what.”
Still, Leach couldn’t conceal his pleasure about Nolan and Berube gaining – in Nolan’s case, regaining – membership in the NHL coaching fraternity. Leach is First Nation, an Ojibwe, just like Nolan. While Leach knows of Nolan – they lived about 300 miles apart in Ontario – he knows Berube, who played for the Flyers just like he did.They both made their mark wearing the Orange, Black and White: Leach as a feared right wing with a lethal slap shot, and Berube as a fearsome left wing with a lethal right hook.
Craig Berube paid his dues to become the Flyers’ new head coach.
Leach, who played on the famous LCB line with center Bobby Clarke and left wing BillBarber scored 381 goals in his career. Berube netted 61 goals – what Leach scored in the 1975-61 season alone – in his 20-season NHL tenure and amassed 3,149 penalty minutes.
Berube paid his dues with his fists as a player then paid then again by slowly climbing the coaching ladder to earn the Flyers top spot after the team fired PeterLaviolette in October after a dismal start to the 2013-14 season.
“Craig Berube has spent time coaching in the minors and has been in the Flyer organization for a long team,” Leach said. “Coaching in the minors, being an assistant coach with the National Hockey League team, it’s great they gave a chance at this opportunity right now, which is wonderful for him.”
While Berube’s hiring is an opportunity, Buffalo’s nod to Nolan is a second chance. He coached Buffalo from 1995 to 1997 and amassed a record of 73-72-1. He was also the bench boss for the New York Islanders from 2006 to 2008.
Sniper Reggie Leach, Number 27, in his Flyers heyday.
Nolan was a popular figure in Buffalo; he even won the JackAdams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach 1996-97 season. But a poor relationship with then-General Manager John Muckler led to his ouster as coach.
Aside from his stint with the Islanders, Nolan barely got a whiff of interest from National Hockey League teams. Some in the hockey world speculated it was because of his heritage.
“I never said it was racism,” Nolan told The Toronto Star Wednesday, the day he introduced as the Sabres’ interim coach. But “when you’re not part of a group, it’s tough to fit into that group – whether it’s hockey or anything else.”
“If you don’t know someone from a different background, different race, it’s hard to get to know them,” he told the paper. “So it was very hard…You have to try to fit in.”
After years of getting the cold shoulder from NHL teams, Nolan now has two coaching
“Riverton Rifle” Leach firing for Flyers in alumni game.
gigs – with the Sabres and with the Latvian team that will play in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.
In irony of ironies, Nolan will be in Russia with Dallas Stars Head Coach Lindy Ruff, who replaced Nolan in Buffalo in 1997. Ruff is an associate coach for Team Canada. And Laviolette, the man Berube succeeded in Philadelphia, is an associate coach for the U.S. hockey team.
Nolan’s never been shy about his heritage. In June, he spoke to The Buffalo News’ Tim Graham about his objection to Washington’s National Football League team being called the Redskins.
“Sure, the Redskins name has been around for generations,” Nolan told Graham, “but when you’re a person of that race and someone calls you a redskin, they don’t know why they’re saying it, where the word comes from or what the word means.”
Leach thinks Nolan’s tenure in the NHL will be a long one this time. With age, Nolan is 55, comes experience.
“You learn by your mistakes and you comeback,” Leach told me. “It took him a long time – a period of over 15 years – to get back. And he’ll learn from it and stay longer this time. He’s qualified to coach, and they’ve got to give him a chance. I believe myself that if you give him a chance for 2-3-4 years in one position, he’ll do really well.”
