National Post (National Edition)
Unheralded Raddysh, Steel on Hockey Canada’s radar
Earned surprise invitations to junior camp
BOISBRIAND, QUE. • Didn’t receive an invitation to Canada’s summer development camp? Don’t despair. There’s a chance the party won’t go on without you.
Neither Taylor Raddysh nor Sam Steel were at the summer camp, when Hockey Canada gets its first concentrated look at potential players for that winter’s world junior championship roster.
At the selection camp this week at the Centre d’Excellence Sports Rousseau, the two are part of a group of seven players who did not participate in the camp in August.
Certainly, Raddysh and Steel weren’t thrilled to be left out, but both turned the negative around and were leading their respective leagues in scoring when this camp got underway.
Raddysh has 23 goals and 38 assists for 61 points in 28 games for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League, Steel has 21 goals and 27 assists for 48 points in 23 games for the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.
“I believe in my ability, so I’m not going to say I’m shocked at what’s going on or that I’m here,” said Steel, who was a first-round pick, 30th overall, by the Anaheim Ducks in June.
“I was a little disappointed (not to be at the summer camp), and though I didn’t think about it too much, I used it as motivation.”
The 6-foot-2, 209-pound Raddysh averaged just over a point a game last season with Erie. He was drafted in the second round, 58th overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and set out during the summer to become an improved skater under the guidance of skating coach Barb Underhill. That’s what unfolded, and Raddysh then was given greater responsibility by Otters coach Kris Knoblauch, who wasn’t sure whether Dylan Strome would be back from the Arizona Coyotes (which did occur three weeks ago).
Raddysh happily grasped the new role.
“Last year, he played on a line with Alex DeBrincat and Dylan most of the time, and he was a benefactor of playing with good players,” Knoblauch, an assistant coach with Canada, said.
“This year, in leading the OHL in scoring, he’s not just a benefactor, he is a good player. He has got better. Taylor is a big guy, and those bigger guys tend to get the biggest improvement in skating through junior and we have seen that with him.”
As much as Strome and Mathew Barzal are expected to be offensive catalysts, the opportunity for others such as Raddysh and Steel to be influential is on the table.
Hockey Canada director of player personnel Ryan Jankowski had Raddysh and Steel in mind when the summer camp roster was composed. Jankowski has, if you will, an auxiliary list of players who didn’t get invited, but who have the talent possibly to become part of the picture.
Others at the selection camp who were not summer participants include goalie Michael McNiven, defencemen Kale Clague and Victor Mete and forwards Blake Speers and Austin Wagner.
Neither Steel nor Raddysh intends to let this chance slip through his fingers.
“It’s not an easy team to make,” Steel said. “I definitely have to earn this spot.”