Cal Foote expects to take on leadership role with Rockets if returned to WHL by NHL Tampa Bay
Top defenceman, 1st-round pick will attend Lightning camp, possibly play for Canada at world-junior tourney
Cal Foote is coming off an exhilarating summer. Electrifying, really.
It all started in Chicago, where he was selected in the first round of the NHL draft, 14th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 23.
From there, Foote was immediately bound for Florida to attend Tampa’s development camp for draft picks and top prospects — including fellow defenceman Mikhail Sergachev, a potential partner for Foote in the future, who was also making his organizational debut after being acquired in a blockbuster trade that sent Jonathan Drouin to Montreal on June 15.
That camp wrapped up on Canada Day, and Foote had a few weeks to recharge before heading to Plymouth, Mich., for the Summer Showcase tournament from July 28 to Aug. 5, where he represented Canada in an early audition for this winter’s world-junior team.
Alas, Foote arrived back in Kelowna for the start of Rockets’ training camp — beginning with Friday’s fitness testing ahead of his third WHL season.
“It was a busy summer,” understated Foote, a strong candidate to be named Kelowna’s captain this fall, along with world-junior returnee Dillon Dube.
“I had a lot of fun, a lot going on, but I’m most excited to get back here. This is my team and I’m excited to be back and to get it going here again.”
It was a summer of several firsts for Foote, despite growing up in a hockey family and around the NHL during his father Adam’s playing career.
He had never been to Tampa Bay before, nor experienced an NHL draft in person. It wasn’t his first time in Chicago — he had been to that city for youth tournaments while growing up in Denver, Colo. — but Foote hadn’t been to the United Center, home of the Blackhawks and affectionately known as the Madhouse on Madison.
Steve Yzerman, one of his dad’s biggest rivals from those Colorado-Detroit playoff clashes of the 1990s, welcomed Foote to the NHL by announcing the pick as Tampa’s general manager.
“To get my name called, it’s an indescribable feeling — just an amazing feeling,” Foote said. “It was pretty cool to go there and to experience such a great building. It was a great day and a great night to spend with my family and friends — a night you’ll always remember.”
At development camp, sharing the ice with new faces and future teammates, Foote got his first glimpse of the next level.
“It was a good measuring stick but, at the same time, I had a lot of fun meeting a whole new group of guys and playing with amazing players like Sergachev,” Foote said of the Russian import who shoots left but has been playing the right side for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires the past two seasons. “He’s going to be a great player.”
Foote will return to Tampa Bay next week to participate in the Lightning’s rookie camp and also compete in a prospect tournament being hosted in Florida.
Granted, he’s not expected to crack the NHL roster this fall, and he’s too young to play in the AHL — thus expected back in Kelowna for a final WHL campaign — but Foote plans to make Yzerman’s decision a difficult one when it comes to demoting him.
“Obviously you’re going to try to make it, you’re not going to go in there having a mindset that you’re not going to make it,” Foote said. “You’re going to want to push for a spot. For everyone there, we’re all trying to make the team and whatever happens, happens.
“You’re always trying to make that next big step,” he added.
Outside of the top two picks — forwards Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick — Foote could prove to be one of the more NHL-ready prospects in this year’s draft class. There aren’t many weaknesses in his game, already a strong defender with NHL size and smarts, and decent offensive upside as well.
Foote could emerge as a camp surprise for the Lightning, perhaps getting into some pre-season games or even sticking around for the start the regular season — though Sergachev would appear to be ahead of Foote on Tampa Bay’s depth chart, especially if he stays on the right side.
It has been done before, with former Rockets blueliner Luke Schenn being an example of an 18-year-old who made the leap from junior to the Toronto Maple Leafs immediately after getting drafted fifth overall in 2008.
Schenn did have three WHL seasons to his credit — Foote only has two — but many still feel Toronto stunted Schenn’s development by rushing him to the NHL.
Yzerman will get to make that call on Foote, but a return to Kelowna makes the most sense. Especially since the Rockets are coached by Jason Smith — a former NHL defenceman and fellow first-round pick from 1992 (18th overall by New Jersey).
Adam Foote, a second-rounder in 1989 (22nd by defunct Quebec), now lives here full-time too, having relocated from Denver to help oversee the development of his sons — including younger brother Nolan, a top prospect for the 2019 NHL draft.
“It would be a big step, but I just want to focus on what’s ahead of me and, as of right now, it’s this Rockets’ camp,” Foote said of making the NHL. “My focus is here until I leave for Tampa. One camp at a time and just taking it step by step.
“You just have to take it year by year and develop as much as you can,” he added. “It’s a long road.”
The road to the world juniors may be the next stepping stone for Foote, with an invite to December’s selection camp seeming likely as long as he’s healthy.
In fact, Scott Salmond, vice-president of hockey operations in charge of Canada’s national teams, made a point of mentioning Foote’s name on a conference call announcing last year’s world-junior team, noting Foote would have been a roster contender had he not been ruled ineligible due to his American roots.
That issue has since been resolved, paving a path for Foote to represent Canada at the prestigious under-20 tournament.
EXTRA POINTS: Foote’s busy off-season also included attending the 2017 NHL draft in Chicago in June, where his older brother and Kelowna teammate Cal — a defenceman like their dad — was selected in the first round (14th overall) by the Tampa Bay
Lightning. Born even later, in December, that didn’t hurt Cal’s draft stock, though he only had two seasons of exposure since Cal didn’t play in the WHL as a 15- turning 16year-old . . . . Nolan Foote made his WHL debut on Oct. 7, 2016, under the bright lights at Edmonton’s brand-new Rogers Place, and scored his first WHL goal in his fifth game, against Everett at Prospera Place in Kelowna on Oct. 19 — more than a month before his 16th birthday.