Hard work has paid off for Chisholm
Petes defenceman has impressed the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets with the development of his skating, transition and shooting skills
Declan Chisholm shows a commitment to getting better that impressed the Winnipeg Jets.
The National Hockey League club announced Monday it has signed the Peterborough Petes defenceman to a three-year entry-level contract.
Chisholm, 20, a Bowmanville native, is coming off a career season in which he ranked third in scoring among OHL defencemen with 13 goals and 56 assists in 59 games with a plus-17 rating and 33 penalty minutes.
“Declan has a good opportunity in front of him,” said Jets director of player development Jimmy Roy.
“He works out with Gary Roberts each summer and has a shooting station set up at home. He knows what he needs to do and is very driven.
“The second part is his game,” Roy added. “There are a lot of positives there: his skating ability, he has good vision and can find shooting lanes and moves the puck very well.
“There is some work to be done on the defensive side of his game we all know and have talked to him about. Defending at the next level gets a lot tougher when you are playing against grown men and not 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids anymore,” Roy said.
Chisholm is excited to get a chance to pursue pro hockey.
“It means all the hard work to date has paid off,” Chisholm said.
“Now the real work starts to make another step into the next chapter of my hockey career and, hopefully, one day play for the Jets.”
Chisholm said he thinks he has developed a lot the past two years under the guidance of the Petes and Winnipeg’s development staff.
“I came out with a great year this year and put up good numbers and helped our team have a lot of success,” he said.
Roy said the Jets like the growth they have seen since selecting him in the fifth round of the 2018 NHL draft.
“His skating ability is one thing that really separates him right now,” Roy said. “His ability to transition forward to backward and laterally across the line. He always has his head up looking for shooting lanes.”
“I’ve grown a lot, but I think I always had it in me,” Chisholm said. “I got drafted in the fifth round but I never considered myself a fifth-rounder. I always looked at myself as higher. I think that’s the mentality you have to have in order to succeed.
“I worked really hard in the summers and it translated into this season. I continued to grow into the player I want to be and I continue to grow into the player I want to be. There is a lot of work ahead of me still.”
Chisholm said the biggest coaching influence on his development has been Petes head coach Rob Wilson.
“Rob is so far the best coach I have been coached by,” Chisholm said. “He’s had a huge impact on me these last couple of years. He changed the way I look at the game and the way our whole team looked at the game. He put his own game plan into place and it really worked for our team and especially for me as an individual because I loved the way we play. It was just move the puck fast and have a high-tempo.”
He said his parents have been his biggest supporters.
“My entire family has been such a huge anchor and support for me through my entire career,” he said. “Financially doing what they can and driving me all over the map to wherever I could get ice or wherever my practice was.”
He has followed a similar path as his childhood friend and Guelph Storm captain Cam Hillis who recently signed with the Montreal Canadiens.
“It’s nice to see us coming from the same small town playing for Clarington, then going our separate ways and both signing NHL contracts. It’s pretty cool. We’ve always trained and skated together throughout the summer,” said Chisholm.
“Declan has been a real cornerstone on the back-end for us,” said Petes GM Mike Oke.
“This past year in particular we saw him take his offensive game to another level. It’s an exciting time for him to be able to take the next step toward a professional career,” Oke said. “Off the ice, we have seen a maturation. Declan has evolved to being one of the leaders among our group.”
This leaves Liam Kirk as the only drafted Pete yet to sign an NHL contract. Oke said the Arizona Coyotes have until 2022 to sign Kirk.
It’s premature to say where Chisholm will play next season, but Roy sees the Jets’ AHL affiliate Manitoba Moose as a logical next step.
“There’s some work to be done in the American Hockey League to understand what pro hockey is like,” Roy said.
“The speed and defending and playing against men.”