Youngsters relish ‘rare opportunity’ to show they belong
Prospects get chance to shine, but there are no guarantees for next season
During the disastrous John Tortorella season for the Vancouver Canucks, which will be about 10 points better than this one, several veterans were injured and the team became a land of opportunity for young, untried players as it plummeted from the playoff race.
Jordan Schroeder, 23, and Zac Dalpe, 24, combined for 70 games for the Canucks in the 2013-14 season and both were gone before the next one began. Tortorella gave Nicklas Jensen, then 21, second-line minutes down the stretch and the first-round draft pick finished the season with 17 games played. He has 12 in the National Hockey League since then.
College free agent Mike Zalewski, 21, auditioned in the final two games of the season and did not play again in the NHL for nearly two years. And a 24-year-old named Kellan Lain played the only nine games of his NHL career during an injury call-up.
So, which young players seized their opportunity under Tortorella?
Goalie Eddie Lack. And he was traded a year later by general manager Jim Benning, who had replaced Mike Gillis, who had hired Torts.
Granted, none of the skaters was an A-level prospect to begin with. But nearly all of them failed to seize the opportunities they were given.
They can gripe, as Schroeder was entitled to, that the opportunity was limited or otherwise far from ideal. Still, the chance was theirs. And a few months later, the chance it was someone else’s.
So when current Canuck coach Willie Desjardins declared to reporters in the press room before Thursday’s game against the Dallas Stars that these remaining games for Vancouver represent the best chance some players will ever have to solidify NHL employment, it was a powerful enough message to be heard down the hallway in the dressing room.
“You see a lot of guys in the past where they’re in the NHL one year and the next year they don’t have a job,” waiver pickup Joseph Cramarossa, 24, said 56 games into his first NHL season.
“So to be on a team that’s playing its young guys on this last stretch to see who’s got it, it is a rare opportunity. I think the young guys are in a good spot.”
“Obviously, there’s pressure to perform for a job for next year, but that’s a good pressure. Not too many people get this chance.”
And not all of them will get another. Just because the Canucks are staging what amount to auditions over their final dozen games, doesn’t mean the winners will be guaranteed anything for next fall.
It’s difficult for an unproven prospect to make next year’s team now, but he can largely play himself out of the picture if things go badly in the next three week.
Winger Reid Boucher, who is 23 and another waiver refugee, logged his 100th NHL game on Thursday. If he stays healthy, he’ll be at 112 when the season ends. There’s no guarantee of No. 113.
“I think everybody is kind of battling for a spot for next year, and you have to go out and compete every night and show them that you’ve earned a spot,” Boucher said.
After being banished to the fourth line for much of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins, he started Thursday alongside Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi on a scoring line.
“Yeah, it’s a good opportunity for me,” he said. “It puts me in position to go out and play the style of game I’m comfortable with. So it’s a good opportunity and I’d like to take advantage of it.”
Winger Joe LaBate, 23, is also desperate to get noticed and move up the depth chart but had averaged only 5:18 of ice time his previous two games.
“That’s not frustrating at all,” LaBate said. “Some guys would kill for those five minutes in the NHL. Whatever amount of time it is, I’m going to give it my best and do my all. I’m just trying to make whatever I can with the chance I get.
“Being in this league is a privilege. It’s the best league in the world. And anytime you get a chance to play in it, you have to do everything you can with the chance.”
It would be wise for all Canucks to adopt that attitude.
“I don’t know the depth (charts) and the thoughts in every organization, but obviously with all the young guys here and the opportunity to join the so-called rebuild, this is a unique opportunity and it’s exciting,” Cramarossa said.
“A fourth-liner is not going to take a first-liner’s spot and a first-liner is not going to take a fourth-liner’s spot. It’s all relevant to where you play. But at the same time, there are people in every position. There is competition.” We may not learn until next fall who has really won. “There are guys who will never get a better opportunity to prove that they’re NHL players than now,” Desjardins said.
Because there will be a line of guys waiting for the next opportunity.