Junior program springboard to NHL
LONDON, ON T. , • Driving east along Highway 401 from this handsome old city of 366,000, tracing another Thames upriver, leads to Toronto in about two hours. Head west, through a landscape of flat, featureless farmland, and the Detroit skyline appears in even less time.
The remaining 28 NHL franchises, scattered in cities across North America, scarcely seem farther away for the teenagers playing here for the London Knights, a junior team in the Ontario Hockey League that is a leading incubator for pro prospects.
“It’s no secret what London does here,” said 18-yearold Max Jones, a rugged 6- foot- 3 forward from Rochester, Mich., and one of three Knights ranked among the top 15 North American skaters last week by NHL Central Scouting, a department that rates prospects for the draft.
“They’re putting players on to the next level like it’s nothing,” Jones said. “I needed to be a part of that.”
Since 2000, the Knights, who are playing the Erie Otters of Pennsylvania in the OHL’s Western Conference final series, have produced three No. 1 NHL picks, more than any other program. They were Rick Nash, the New York Rangers’ wing selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2002; Patrick Kane, taken by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007; and John Tavares, by the New York Islanders in 2009.
Other notable alumni include Max Domi of the Arizona Coyotes, Olli Maatta of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Nazem Kadri of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks, who was the NHL’s most valuable player in 2010-11.
“Hopefully, I can be one of those guys, one of those names that’s come through here,” said Matthew Tkachuk, 18, a wing from St. Louis who ranks second in goals ( 13) and points ( 26) in the OHL playoffs and is expected to be one of the first 10 players selected in the draft in June, along with his teammate Olli Juolevi, 17, a defenceman from Helsinki, Finland.
“London was interested in me, and I was like, OK, of course I was coming here,” said Juolevi, who had never visited before arriving this season. “I knew guys like Olli Maatta had come here, and now they are playing in the NHL. I knew these guys are doing something right here.”
Ask players, coaches, scouts and managers, and it becomes clear that what the brothers Dale and Mark Hunter, and their partner Basil McRae, former hardnosed NHL players who bought the Knights in 2000, have done is to foster an en- vironment that mimics the pros.
Dale Hunter, 55, whose son Dylan is an assistant, has an OHL- best career coaching winning percentage of .701. With him or his brother Mark behind the bench, London has won three OHL titles and the 2005 Memorial Cup.
“He treated me how he knew I would be treated at the next level,” the Maple Leafs’ Kadri said of Dale Hunter, who played 19 feisty seasons for Quebec, Washington and Colorado and is the only player in NHL history to amass 1,000 points and 3,000 penalty minutes. “As far as mentorship goes, he allowed me to be creative and have that offensive instinct, but he treated me like a man.” Hunter’s philosophy? “I really believe it’ s a 200- foot game,” he said, citing the length of a rink. “You’ve got to play both ends of the ice. They’ve got great skill, and everybody wants to score. But if you want to have a long career ...”
He did not finish the thought. But across the NHL, it is understood.
“They’re all about allowing players to express their offensive creativity,” said Don Maloney, who was the general manager of the Coyotes when the team drafted Domi and the current London captain, Christian Dvorak, “but they understand that at the pro level, there’s certain requirements you have to have defensively, or else you don’t play.”
Finding examples to show their players requires that Hunter and his staff watch hours of NHL game footage.
“Right now, we try to emulate Chicago a lot,” said Rob Simpson, assistant general manager and an assistant coach. “We have a puckmoving team and a possession team, and we have some skill players who can make plays with some similarities. A few years ago, we had a different team, where we more focused on Boston’s style of play and how they supported the puck, and overloading in different zones.”
Whichever style t he Knights are playing, scouting minor hockey talent to mold was a task overseen by Mark Hunter. Although still a Knights owner, Hunter left club operations in 2014 to work for the Maple Leafs as director of player personnel. The director of scouting, Ken Hornick, McRae and Simpson team with others to locate a new crop of Knights with the skills and sensibilities to succeed in the OHL, and possibly beyond.
Tkachuk, Domi and Jones were high- profile youth players whose fathers had played in the NHL. Keith Tkachuk scored 538 goals during an 18- year career, and Tie Domi was a feared enforcer who ranks third in career penalty minutes, behind only Tiger Williams and Dale Hunter.