Canucks wait patiently as Ivy League prospect ponders his next move
Hurry up and wait. That’s been the roller-coaster ride for highly touted prospect Jack Rathbone.
It has nothing to do with his emerging overall game at Harvard University for the prized Vancouver Canucks prospect, whose career is on fast forward toward the pro ranks.
It has everything to do with the novel coronavirus pandemic, suspension of the Ivy League hockey season on March 11, and confirmation on Wednesday that fall college sports — football, field hockey, soccer, cross country and volleyball — have been cancelled and will possibly resume in the spring.
As for winter sports such as hockey and basketball, they’re a moving target. They’re planning an abbreviated schedule beginning in January, but it depends on where COVID-19 numbers are at, or if there’s a second wave of the virus.
At best, the Ivy League would forgo post-season conference tournaments and allow seeding to be decided by regular-season results en route to crowning an NCAA champion. An update on practice schedules will be released by mid-July.
Harvard also announced earlier this week that only 40 per cent of undergrads will be on campus in Cambridge, Mass. next fall. For Rathbone, contemplating all this uncertainty is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
The fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft could benefit from a transition rule in the new NHL collective bargaining agreement extension that should be ratified this week. Three days after it’s official, there’s a two-day window to sign rookies, and the Canucks want to get Rathbone under contract.
“This is what agents are calling me about and I’ve got to see the (ratified) CBA before acting on it,” said Canucks general manager Jim Benning.
But what is the five-foot-11, 190-pound defenceman thinking?
If Rathbone signs next week, he burns the first year of a threeyear, entry-level deal and would push to make the roster next season. Even if he plays a shortened NCAA season, his rate of steady improvement — 31 points (7-24) in 28 games this season — and an unrestricted free agent option if he doesn’t commit to his senior year, are enticing.
“He would be a free agent, but we have a good relationship with all these kids,” said Benning. “Will Lockwood played his senior year out (Michigan) and we tried to sign him last summer. But he said that it was important for this parents and for him to finish his senior year because he had injuries.
“We supported him, and when it was time, we got the deal done. Rathbone is in that same situation, and we have to hope that we spent enough time and have sold him on our plan of where we’re going in the future. And when it’s time to sign, he looks at our organization as somewhere he wants to be.”
That’s just one part of the puzzle for the 21-year-old native of West Roxbury, Mass.
On March 10, the Ivy League cancelled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments scheduled for the following week. The World Health Organization was about to label the virus a pandemic the following day.
That’s when the Harvard men’s hockey team withdrew from the East Coast Athletic Association quarterfinal. The No. 5-ranked Red Crimson had advanced after sweeping the 12th-seeded St, Lawrence Saints of Canton, N.Y. with 5-3 and 7-1 wins. Rathbone scored a goal in the opener and Harvard finished its season with a 15-10-6 overall record.
Rathbone could stay at home this fall and take Harvard online courses as he works toward a psychology degree. If Harvard plays, great. If not, then he’s a player without a team. It could be the same in the AHL if he signs, and Europe may not be a viable option.
“That’s going to be up to him,” said Benning. “He and his family will talk it over and see what the next course of action is. I’m on an hour-to-hour timetable around here. Things change by the hour.”