Tension mounts for teen prospects
Teams nearing deadline to decide who is NHL-ready
Dylan Strome is living his NHL dream playing for the Arizona Coyotes, staying in a hotel and avoiding the harsh Pennsylvania winter he endured the past three years playing for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. He just doesn’t know how long it will last.
Strome was the No. 3 overall pick in 2015 and he is in hockey’s version of purgatory: At 19, he is eligible to be sent back to the juniors without burning a year of his contract as long as he doesn’t play 10 games.
In the NFL and NBA, when you’re drafted, you’re in, and Major League Baseball prospects almost always start in the minors. NHL teams, however, get the chance to test-run some of their top young prospects before committing to them for a full season.
“No one feels bad for you,” Strome said. “It’s not really up to me. Obviously I want to be in the NHL.”
In the same uncertain spot are Coyotes teammates Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse and others around the league, from the New York Islanders’ Anthony Beauvillier and Mathew Barzal to the Calgary Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk. Despite making their teams’ opening-night roster, the players face a nerve-racking nine-game tryout — and decision time is near for many of them.
“It’s normal to have that kind of tryout because you never know what can happen,” said Beauvillier, whose contract will count for this year if he plays his 10th game Thursday. “I just control what I do on the ice.”
The NHL’s transfer agreement with the Canadian Hockey League prevents major junior players under 20 from going to the American Hockey League for some professional seasoning. So even though Strome had 111points, Tkachuk107 points and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner 116 points in juniors last season, they must remain in the NHL or go back to juniors.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ approach was to take the nine games out of the equation entirely with 19-year-old defenceman Ivan Provorov and forward Travis Konecny, telling the 2015 first-round picks before opening night that they’d be around for the entire season. General manager Ron Hextall told them pointedly, “This is not a nine-game tryout,” so neither had to worry about that.
“It definitely gives me a little confidence, it allows me to play my game and be comfortable,” said Konecny, who has a goal and six assists in 10 games and is in the NHL to stay. He wasn’t “going to bed every night stressed out (about whether) I’m going to get that phone call.”
That phone call came Monday for 2016 No. 9 pick Mikhail Sergachev, as the Montreal Canadiens sent him back to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires after just three NHL games. Along with Provorov and Konecny, Marner and Pavel Zacha of the New Jersey Devils are up for good and Chychrun is all but assured to stick.