Road to NHL bumpy for young players
The road to the NHL is sometimes paved with gold. See McDavid, Connor.
But it is not usually a freeway where a player is in the NHL the day he is drafted.
Three Edmonton youngsters — forward Mark McNeill, a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011; feisty winger Daniel Carr, signed as a free agent out of Union College by the Montreal Canadiens last summer; and Keegan Lowe, a defenceman who was a third-round selection by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2011 — are still feeling their way.
McNeill, who played four years with the Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Hockey League and was on Canada’s world junior team in 2013, is part of the best organization in hockey, but it’s also a curse.
It’s considerably harder to make the three-time Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks than most NHL teams, even as the 18th player selected.
Carr, the son of former University of Alberta Golden Bears forward Jim Carr, has the same never-say-die attitude as the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher and can score, too. Pro scouts say Carr, who has played one season with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the American Hockey League, will find his way to the Habs because he scores goals close to the net. He led all AHL rookies with 24 goals last season.
Lowe doesn’t have the same ability as his father, Kevin, who played with the Edmonton Oilers’ five Stanley Cup championship teams, but he plays hard. The former Edmonton Oil Kings captain is the only one of the three local players to have played in the NHL — two games late last season with the Hurricanes.
Here’s what all three player are looking at, with training camps opening in 2-1/2 weeks:
MARK MCNEILL
The Vimy Ridge Academy grad has spent two years with the Rockford IceHogs, scoring 44 points last season for the Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate.
The Blackhawks’ third and fourth lines are crowded with candidates. They traded Patrick Sharp to the Dallas Stars for antagonistic role player Ryan Garbutt as part of the four-player deal and sent second-line winger Brandon Saad to Columbus because they couldn’t afford him, getting young winger Marko Dano, who scored 21 points in 35 games for the Blue Jackets last season.
The Blackhawks also signed legendary Soviet national team coach Viktor Tikhonov’s grandson, Viktor, 27, who had a whirl with the Phoenix Coyotes seven years ago, and speedy Russian forward Artemi Panarin, who outscored Ilya Kovalchuk at St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League last season.
Chicago also signed former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bob Baun’s grandson Kyle, a right-winger from Colgate University last spring, and likes farmhand winger Ryan Hartman, who got into five NHL games with the team in 2014-15.
“It’s very tough, definitely a challenge, but there’s some opportunity there,” said the hard-skating McNeill, 22, a six-foot-two, 210-pound right-winger who is in the last year of his three-year entry-level contract.
“I’ve learned a ton (in Rockford) and my game’s come a long ways. I want to play with a bit more edge at training camp and fight for a spot. I won’t take it easy on anyone.”
DANIEL CARR
The six-foot, 193-pound winger was the assistant captain when Union College won the NCAA championship in 2014, missing only one game despite wrecking his shoulder during his senior year. The Canadiens outbid more than half a dozen NHL teams to sign the tenacious forward.
“He’s a very, very dedicated young man … relentless on the puck,” said his AHL coach and former NHLer Sylvain Lefebvre.
Carr, who received little interest from WHL teams as a teenager, scored 39 points for the Bulldogs last season. While he doesn’t rack up a lot of penalty minutes, he definitely gets his nose dirty.
“I’ve always liked going to the hard areas. That’s where all the action is,” said the 23-year-old, who damaged a tooth when he took a stick in the mouth at Perry Pearn’s 3 vs. 3 hockey camp last week.
KEEGAN LOWE
The 22-year-old has played 121 AHL games with the Charlotte Checkers over two years and may be in the mix for a third-pairing slot with the Hurricanes this season.
“There’s four or five guys looking for the same spot,” said Lowe, who knows fifthoverall pick Noah Hanifin stands a good chance of making the team right away.
Lowe, a stay-at-home defenceman with an edge (he had 192 penalty minutes his first two AHL seasons), broke his thumb and needed surgery when hit with a shot just before the Hurricanes were thinking of recalling him to play against the Oilers last March. He got called up later and fought veteran centre Vincent Lecavalier twice in his first NHL game at Philadelphia, with his parents, Kevin and Karen, in attendance.
“We were jockeying for position and I think (the first fight) was pretty mutual,” said Lowe. “First game, I was jumpy. I didn’t even realize it was him until afterwards.” jmatheson@ edmontonjournal.com Twitter.com/ NHLbyMatty