Greenwich’s Kemp makes NHL debut
Played hockey at Brunswick, Yale
They called Phil Kemp down to the arena in Bakersfield, Calif., on a Sunday night, and everything about it felt ominous.
“You never usually go to the rink at that point, but they said ‘you’ve got to come in, we’ve got to ask you about a player,’” Kemp said, and all kinds of crazy scenarios were running through his head.
The AHL team’s coach and GM kept him in suspense just a little longer once he’d arrived before they sprang the news on him: He was going to the NHL for the first time.
A week later on Saturday, Jan. 13, in Montreal of all places on Hockey Night in Canada, Kemp made his NHL debut for the Edmonton Oilers.
“You never really know how close you are,” said Kemp, 24.
A defenseman from Greenwich who played at Brunswick and Yale, Kemp was the second of three players with ties to the state’s Division 1 colleges to debut in the NHL in the past two weeks.
Former UConn defenseman Yan Kuznetsov got a game with the Calgary Flames on Jan. 9, and Quinnipiac championship goalie Yaniv Perets debuted with the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.
Kemp didn’t know Saturday was going to be his day until mid-afternoon. He knew in the morning that forward Ryan McLeod was ill and a game-time decision. Around 3:30, he got a text saying he was probably in.
“I fired a couple of texts in, ‘I might play tonight,’” Kemp said. He felt fortunate that the call came in Montreal, so his father and some friends could catch the short flight and catch at least part of the game.
As has become traditional, he got the “rookie lap” at the start of warmup at Bell Centre: Players set to make their NHL debuts go out ahead of the team and take
“These guys are the best in the world. To compete against them, to compete with them, is pretty awesome.” Phil Kemp
the first circle or two alone around their end of the ice before the rest of the team joins them.
“It was unbelievable to do it in Montreal,” he said, “the cathedral. Two Canadian teams, Hockey Night in Canada. It was something I’ll keep within me the rest of my life.”
Filling in for McLeod, Kemp played forward for the first time, he thought, since he was 7 or 8. Representing the 203 area code, he was coincidentally on the ice for three shifts for a total 2:03 in the 2-1 overtime win at Montreal.
“The last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to enjoy every day,” Kemp said.
“It’s the pinnacle. It’s the top of the mountain for a reason. These guys are the best in the world. To compete against them, to compete with them, is pretty awesome.”
The win was Edmonton’s team-record 10th in a row. The streak went to 11 on Tuesday, though Kemp didn’t play, and the Oilers were looking for 12 on Thursday against Seattle. (Another Yale product from Greenwich, John Hayden, recently got a call back up to the Kraken. North Branford’s Adam Erne is an Oilers forward.)
Kemp would have been Yale’s captain in 2020-21, but the Ivy League canceled winter sport because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He signed with the Oilers, who’d drafted him in 2017, that fall. After a stint in Sweden waiting for the AHL to resume play in February 2021, he had been with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate in Bakersfield since.
“Professional hockey, you’ve got to try to be a pro’s pro,” Kemp said. “Like I told you, you never know how close you are. You try to put as much credit in your account as possible, and then when you’ve got enough, you try to put more in.”
Perets signed with the Hurricanes in April as an undrafted free agent after winning the national championship in the second of two record-setting years with Quinnipiac. He debuted in Monday’s home loss to the Los Angeles Kings, replacing starter Antti Raanta 5:20 into the third period as the Hurricanes trailed 4-1.
“It’s all kind of just a blur,” Perets told reporters after the game; the team posted the interview on social media. “Just a smile on my face, looking up into stands and seeing just a beautiful crowd, everyone, just a beautiful atmosphere. It’s the moment you dream as a kid, you know? For me, walking in there, it’s like, ‘OK,’ like, ‘let’s go.’
“I appreciate the opportunity, forever grateful and thankful for the Carolina organization,” he added. “For all the players in the room here — it just means the world to me. I’m so thankful just for that opportunity. Whatever it is, you take it. So grateful just to have been there. I can’t thank them enough. My family can’t thank them enough.”
Perets stopped the only shot he saw; a Kings empty-net goal with 1:16 left, with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, made the final 5-2.
He has played most of the year for the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals. The Hurricanes don’t have an AHL affiliate this season; their former affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, chose to be the AHL’s first independent team in almost 30 years, so Carolina’s prospects are scattered.
Kuznetsov was a secondround pick of the Flames in 2020 after his freshman year at UConn. He signed with Calgary after the 2020-21 Huskies season.
He played 16 shifts and just under 12 minutes in a 6-3 win over Ottawa, credited with one blocked shot.
“His game, he just had to mature,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said on a media conference call a day later. “I wish we could’ve kept him here a little bit longer. The two years we had him, he was an exemplary kid, excellent in school: He was like a 3.5 student.
“Coachable kid. I’m extremely happy for him that he got his opportunity.”
Kuznetsov returned to the AHL on Sunday; the Flames’ top affiliate also plays in Calgary.
There were no Sacred Heart debuts this month: The Pioneers were ahead of the game, with former captain Marc Johnstone getting the call to Pittsburgh for his first game last month, joining Columbus’ Justin Danforth as Sacred Heart products to reach the NHL.