MCAVOY WONDERS WHAT’S NEXT AFTER WHIRLWIND SEASON
Meanwhile, Habs prospect Juulsen eyes spot on Montreal’s vastly different defence
Twenty-six NHL hopefuls congregated at Mattamy Athletic Centre Monday for the ninth annual NHLPA Rookie Showcase.
At the renovated Maple Leaf Gardens, the youngsters posed for the cameras as Upper Deck produced stills and video for trading cards and promotional material.
Here are four things we learned from Monday’s media availability:
MCAVOY SOMEHOW STILL STANDING
Charlie McAvoy is only 19 and has plenty of runway. Decades from now, though, the defenceman might look back on the 2016-17 season as the wildest of his career.
It was a whirlwind for the 2016 first-round pick. McAvoy played for five teams: the Boston University Terriers, Team USA at the world junior championship, the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins, the NHL’s Boston Bruins and Team USA at the senior world championship.
Over the winter holiday, the well-rounded ‘D’ helped lead the Americans to world junior gold. McAvoy’s college season ended in overtime heartbreak in March when the Terriers lost in the NCAA West Regional final. Then, in April, he signed an entry level contract with the Bruins, suiting up in both the AHL and NHL playoffs before flying to Europe in May for the senior worlds.
“Oh, man. It was a lot of up and down,” McAvoy told Postmedia. “Our BU season was great. Would have loved to make the Frozen Four, but fate kind of (intervened) there in a bad way. What a season we had as a group, a really close group that I was thrilled to be a part of at BU. And then the world juniors, winning that — so quick, just a two-week tournament — that was a whirlwind within itself.
“Those two teams would have been enough, but then Providence and Boston ... I mean, just a crazy year. All of it came full circle and the people who I was surrounded with, they made it comfortable everywhere I went.”
In total, McAvoy played 63 games. He bagged 38 points despite facing off against tough competition at all levels.
BRACCO CHAMPING AT THE BIT
Speaking of promising Americans climbing the pro-hockey ladder, Jeremy Bracco is a talent worth monitoring this fall.
While McAvoy, Clayton Keller (Coyotes) and Brock Boeser (Canucks) all have NHL experience and are garnering Calder Trophy buzz. Bracco, who helped the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires win the Memorial Cup, is getting started within the Maple Leafs organization.
“Making the jump now, it’s a little nerve-racking, exciting,” said Bracco, who is most likely bound for the AHL in October.
“You don’t really know what to think, obviously, going into your first year (of pro). It’s an exciting time to be in the city of Toronto with the young team and myself being a young guy (too). It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Bracco, a shifty winger who dazzled for the U.S. at the 2017 world juniors, says he has fully recovered from a midsummer bout with mononucleosis. The 20-year-old is set to attend the Leafs’ rookie tournament, which starts Sept. 8.
BOESER KNOWS HIS ROLE
Meanwhile, Boeser insists a nine-game audition with the Canucks this spring has helped him “tremendously,” smoothening the NCAA-NHL transition.
Playing mainly alongside Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi, the six-foot-one, 192-pound winger scored his first pro goal against the Wild in March during his NHL debut.
“Right off the bat, they really welcomed me, took me under their wing,” Boeser said, no pun intended. “They always talked to me a lot, just always communicated if I was doing something wrong or had to do something differently.”
Boeser, 20, earned some time on Vancouver’s power play, too. Two of the University of North Dakota product’s four goals came on the man advantage, including a nice finish to a classic Daniel-Sedinto-Henrik-Sedin-to-whomeverelse tic-tac-toe.
“They do their thing,” he smiled, “and I’ll sit on the back door.”
The toughest defenceman Boeser faced over the late-season callup? The Kings’ Drew Doughty.
JUULSEN DOESN’T FOLLOW PACK
Doughty. Erik Karlsson. Brent Burns. Shea Weber. Duncan Keith. P.K. Subban.
Those six NHL defencemen probably are the most common role models for today’s aspiring blue-liners.
For Canadiens prospect Noah Juulsen, however, Kevin Bieksa provides inspiration. Juulsen, who grew up in the Vancouver area, says he tries to model his game after the scrappy veteran, a former Canuck and current Duck.
Juulsen is moving on from junior hockey after four years in the WHL and eyeing a spot on the Habs’ blue-line. The team added (Karl Alzner, Mark Streit and David Schlemko) and subtracted (Andrei Markov, Mikhail Sergachev and Nathan Beaulieu) this summer.
“There’s also seven or eight other ‘D’ who I’m competing with, trying to get a spot,” he said, noting a year with AHL Laval would not be a horrible consolation.