Memorial Cup last chance to show off
With NHL draft month away, scouts will be on lookout to see who rises to occasion
QUEBEC CITY— The scouts will gather, sit in their corner and take their notes.
It’s the Memorial Cup — the championship for major junior hockey — and the last chance to see players suit up before the NHL draft, now just a month away.
“There’s always something you can get out of it,” said Dave Morrison, the chief amateur scout of the Maple Leafs. “You do want to be careful that you don’t lose sight of the kids that weren’t fortunate enough to be on winning teams. You certainly have to take into account the kids that are on winning teams, they’ve made that contribution to help get their teams to where they are.
“You keep watching them. It’s another opportunity for those kids to make an impression.”
This particular Memorial Cup — which got underway on Friday night when the host Quebec Remparts played the WHL champion Kelowna Rockets — is not particularly deep in high-end prospects.
There was an audible gasp when the Oshawa Generals beat Erie to win the OHL title, ending the season for two hot prospects: Connor McDavid and Dylan Strome.
The top-ranked undrafted player here is Nick Merkley, a five-foot-10, 187-pound centre with the Kelowna.
“Hopefully I show well this tournament and play hard the whole time,” Merkley said.
The NHL has Merkley as the 23rdrated North American skater, although some scouts have him in the top 15. The next highest rated skater is Oshawa defenceman Mitchell Vande Sompel, slated as an early second-round pick.
“There are only so many prospects left to watch,” Vande Sompel said. “You have to make the most of it. I’m looking forward to the tournament. Hopefully, I’ll have a good tournament.”
But the draft eligibles are not the only ones scouts are watching, especially this year.
All eyes will be on Leon Draisaitl, also of the Rockets and the Edmonton Oilers. Draisaitl is a six-foot-one, 210-pound centre and the third pick overall in last year’s draft.
He spent half the season with Edmonton before being returned to junior. He has the makings of a No. 1 centre, a job he may lose before he even gets to try out for it. The Oilers are expected to draft McDavid — a generational superstar in the making — with the first overall pick. Between McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, there may not be enough room for Draisaitl on the Oilers roster.
Given the holes in Edmonton on the blue line and in net, new GM Peter Chiarelli could look at moving Draisaitl to fill those voids.
“That’s business,” Draisaitl said. “Whatever happens. I’m not the GM or the coach, to me it comes down to camp and hopefully it will be with the Oilers, but if something happens you never know. I can’t really do anything against it and if something happens, that’s business right?
“It’s still early in the summer and I think there’s going to be lots of moves done, so we’ll see how the Oilers are going to look.”
And that’s why a tournament like this is an important one for scouts. The books remain open on all the players. You never know when one will be available in a trade.
“That’s just part of the business,” Morrison said. “You’re always evaluating, ranking, observing guys that have been drafted.
“There are things that will happen. You need to be aware of who’s improving, who’s not improving, who looks like the better NHL prospect. We never stop doing that. That’s all part of the process.”