Whynot top-ranked Nova Scotian
Cam Whynot did just about everything possible this season to show NHL scouts what he could do.
The 18-year-old defenceman from Kentville had a terrific year for the Halifax Mooseheads, posting 23 points in 34 games and leading the team at plus-13. He shouldered a ton of responsibility in every situation so he enters the weekend hoping it was enough for a team to take a chance on him in the twoday NHL draft.
"Now that it's almost here, you get a little nervous," Whynot said. "It's been a goal of mine to play in the NHL and this is one of the steps to be able to play at that level. Growing up it was my dream so I've been getting a little more nervous about it the last few weeks but I'm also really excited."
Coming up the ranks in the Annapolis Valley, Whynot was always a precocious talent. He played as an underager in both major bantam and midget, putting up nearly a point per game for the Valley Wildcats as a 14-year-old before leading his team in scoring and all defencemen in the league with 40 points as a 15-year-old.
It was all enough to make Whynot the ninth overall pick by the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the 2019 QMJHL draft. He was traded to the Mooseheads a short time later for top forward Xavier Parent.
"Growing up in hockey, everyone dreams of making it to the NHL and by the time you get to bantam and midget it's maybe in your mind a little bit more but I'd say when you start playing junior hockey is when you might really start thinking about it because you go through the Q draft and you start playing against so many great players," Whynot said. "So in minor hockey it feels like it's something that's still sort of unreal but once you're in junior and you start hearing you might get drafted, that's probably when you think maybe you actually have a shot."
Whynot's arrival in Halifax coincided with the start of a deep Mooseheads rebuild. A major benefit of that was getting top minutes as a 16-yearold but the flip side was having to learn on the fly in a league where no one shows any mercy.
"My rookie season was interesting," Whynot said. "Before Christmas I was a little lower in the lineup because they went to the Memorial Cup final the previous year so we had a lot of veteran d-men — two 20-year-olds, a 19-year-old and Justin (Barron) — so for that first half it was more like a learning experience for me. I got to watch a lot of older players do their thing and observed how they handled everything. That was really good for me learning how the league worked.
"Then at Christmastime we dealt a lot of our talented players away to start the rebuild so I was put into a situation where I was a lot higher in the lineup and I was playing a lot of minutes, on the power play and PK and all over the ice. We were a young team so sometimes we struggled out there because we played Moncton and Cape Breton a lot and those teams were going for it. I was a 16-year-old kid playing against some pretty talented teams and playing a lot so it was tough but I thought it was really good for my development as well.
"I got put into situations I might not have been comfortable with but just getting that chance really helped me be more confident this year and it'll be the same for the coming years. So you can look at it in a negative way or in a positive way but I think it was really good for my learning and my development so I see it a lot of positives for me."
The overall improvement in his game and continued faith from the coaches translated into a top-pairing role alongside Barron this past year that yielded tons more growth for Whynot.
"Being paired with Justin obviously had its perks," Whynot said. "He's a great defenceman and a first-round pick in the NHL and he knows where to be at all times so it makes it really easy on you. A lot of times he'd call for the puck and you don't even really have to look, you just throw it to that area, because you know he's going to be open and in the right position to get the puck. So playing with him helped boost my confidence again because I got to play a lot of minutes in every situation and I got to keep working on a lot of things I might not have been able to before.
"And I also think we clicked right away and both felt like we were playing good hockey together because of that chemistry. I was thankful for that because he's a guy I looked up to growing up and still looked up to as a teammate so all of that was really good for my development as well."
Whynot's steady improvement was enough for some scouts to rank the six-foot-one, 180-pound defender as high as the second-round for this weekend's NHL draft. The first round is on Friday night and the remaining six rounds follow on Saturday morning.
"My parents and some close family and probably a few close friends will be with me at home watching," Whynot said. "It's going to be really exciting. Having those people there with me means a lot to me. It's a big day for me but it's nice that other people are also excited for me and they want to be there to support me. I've been lucky to have that my whole life where people supported me all the way through. This is one more step on the road so I can't wait to share that with them."