Victoria’s Mount has taken flight with T-Birds
GAME DAY: SEATTLE AT VICTORIA 7 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre TV: None / Radio: The Zone 91.3 FM
Payton Mount vividly remembers being a kid in the stands at Saveon-Foods Memorial Centre, sitting with dad and season-ticket holder Angus Mount, and watching the Victoria Salmon Kings skate in the ECHL.
Time passes and the young fan has become the player in the same venue on Blanshard as the Mount clan and friends gather tonight and Wednesday to watch rookie Seattle Thunderbirds forward Payton Mount skate against the Victoria Royals in a Western Hockey League set.
The Thunderbirds make two appearances a season at the Memorial Centre, and so you just know these days were circled on the calendar long ago.
“I’m really excited and nervous because it’s the first time my family and friends will see me play in the WHL in my hometown,” said Mount, who turned 17 last month.
They won’t be the only ones watching. As a touted first-round WHL bantam draft pick, selected 19th overall by the Thunderbirds in 2017, Mount is likely to be projected for the 2020 NHL draft when Central Scouting gets around to seriously grading that class, a process which has already begun and is in the preliminary stages.
“You definitely think about it a bit,” said Mount.
“You know [pro] scouts are watching, no matter what age you are.”
Young players need to learn that these things take care of themselves, a lesson Mount has absorbed. He said he puts that sort of stuff out of mind and concentrates on playing his game “the best I can.”
The five-foot-eight winger has four goals, 11 assists and 15 points in 38 games for the Thunderbirds with much more expected as he matures in Kent, Washington, in the seasons ahead.
“Right now, I’m loving the challenge of playing against players who are 19 and 20,” he said.
In explaining his style, Mount answered: “I’m a fast playmaker with a scoring touch.”
Mount already has international experience with Team Canada Red at the 2018 World U-17 Hockey Challenge in November in New Brunswick. Facing the national teams of the U.S., Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden was revealing.
“It was an awesome experience to pull on the Maple Leaf for the first time and represent your country and compare yourself against the best players in the world who are in your age group,” he said.
That followed being selected for Team B.C. for the 2017 WHL Cup (formerly Western Canada U-16 Challenge Cup).
Mount grew up an all-rounder in View Royal, as comfortable in a lacrosse box or on a soccer field or baseball diamond as in a hockey rink. Although excelling in all four sports, his heart was in the rink, with success in the Juan de Fuca youth hockey system leading to the Delta Hockey Academy.
Mount is part of an impressive run of four Island players selected in the first round of the WHL bantam draft in six years. Defenceman and Racquet Club product Nolan Bentham was taken by the hometown Royals 13th overall last year. Defenceman Jacson Alexander of Esquimalt was selected 17th overall out of Shawnigan Lake School in 2016 by the Swift Current Broncos and is now with the Edmonton Oil Kings. Defenceman Josh Anderson of Duncan went third overall in the 2013 first round to the Prince George Cougars and became a thirdround 2016 NHL draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche and is now a pro in the ECHL with the Utah Grizzlies.
Throw in Kamloops Blazers rookie goaltender Dylan Garand, who Mount came up playing with at Juan de Fuca and Delta Academy, and who joined Mount in both the 2018 World U-17 Challenge with Canada Red and 2017 WHL Cup with Team B.C.
Anderson and Alexander won the WHL championship last season with Swift Current, which might be a stretch this season for fellow Island bantam-draft firstrounder Mount.
The Thunderbirds are currently sitting outside a playoff position at 19-24-6, one point behind Kelowna and Kamloops, who hold down the final wildcard berths in the Western Conference, although Seattle has a game in hand on each. Every point matters for the Thunderbirds, while the disciplined and structurally-sound Royals look comfortably ensconced into a playoff berth at 25-20-3.
“The pace is so much faster up here in the WHL than it was [in Midget at Delta Academy],” said Mount.
“There are not a lot of missed passes and those passes are much crisper.”
And crisp is what the Thunderbirds will need to be to the end of the season, including this week, in a rink Mount knows well.