Makar, Mitchell pick NCAA route
By Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
In working on a University of Denver hockey story recently, I was reminded about the situation with 2017 Avalanche first-round draft pick Cale Makar, the puck-savvy defenseman from Calgary, Alberta. Makar went against the blue-chip Canadian grain and chose the NCAA development route, and now is a freshman at the University of Massachusetts.
Makar, being the kid with the can’t-miss NHL career, is on a possible one-and-done college career — primarily because he was selected so high in the NHL draft, at No. 4 overall, and the second defenseman. Fifty-three picks and 19 defensemen later, the Chicago Blackhawks selected Ian Mitchell from Calahoo, Alberta. Mitchell is a freshman for the top-ranked and defending national champion Denver Pioneers.
Makar and Mitchell — rival defensemen in the Alberta Junior Hockey League last season — are generally the same player. They’re both 5-foot-11, 180pound right-shooting playmakers loosely compared to NHL stars Erik Karlsson and Drew Doughty. Maker is roughly 10 months older than Mitchell and put up better offensive numbers for the Brooks Bandits (24 goals and 75 points in 54 games) than Mitchell had for the Spruce Grove Saints (eight goals and 37 points in 53 games).
Makar deserved to hear his name called early in the first round of the draft. But with that comes pressure to sign his NHL entrylevel contract before he’s halfway through a college degree. Makar, 19, almost certainly won’t be at Umass longer than two years.
And Mitchell? The 18-year-old could be on the four-year plan. He wouldn’t mind becoming the player he is replacing at DU — Will Butcher, the Hobey Baker Awardwinning defenseman who is a recent college graduate and a rookie with the New Jersey Devils.
“I’ll leave when I’m ready to go,” Mitchell told me. “If I’m a good enough player to make an impact at the next level, I’ll go. If that takes me four years, then that’s OK — look at Will Butcher. He played four years and is playing great right now at the highest level. I’m definitely in no hurry to leave this place. I love it here. However long it takes me, I’ll still get a chance to play in the NHL.”
DU has an excellent chance to maintain a long-term relationship with Mitchell because the player is property of the Blackhawks, who believe that Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery and his staff offer as good of a development model than any prospect could get while traveling on a bus in the minor leagues. Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, the former Avalanche coach, and Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dineen have strong ties with Montgomery. Dineen played at DU for two seasons in the 1980s.
I’m not insinuating that the relationship with Umass and the Avs isn’t a a good one. It’s just different, because of the lotterypick pressure for a Canadian kid who chooses college over the Canadian Hockey League’s major-junior system. It’s the same situation Alberta-native Tyson Jost — the Avs’ 2016 first-round draft pick (No. 10 overall) — was in a year ago during his freshman year at North Dakota. Jost was a one-and-done college player.
In some ways, Mitchell seems better off being a second-round draft pick.
“Gives me more time to develop coming to a program like Denver, with Monty as (head) coach and Matt Shaw as strength coach,” Mitchell said. “Those were two big things for me that ultimately made me choose college over the CHL.”
Mike Chambers: mchambers@ denverpost.com or @mikechambers