ROOKIE KERFOOT IN ELITE COMPANY
Alex Kerfoot is known as a playmaker more than a goal scorer, but he has become just the fifth Avalanche rookie to score 10 goals before Jan. 1, joining Nathan MacKinnon (10) in 2013, Matt Duchene (11) in 2009, Wojtek Wolski (12) in 2006 and Marek Svatos (20) in 2005.
MacKinnon, Duchene and Wolski were teenage rookies. The late Svatos was a 23-year-old rookie, and Kerfoot is 23.
“Obviously, 10 goals is quite a few so far, and it helps the team,” Kerfoot said Monday during office workouts at the team’s practice facility. “But I wouldn’t compare myself to those players. I think they’re some pretty elite offensive guys who have proven themselves in the league and they did that at 18, 19 years old (except for Svatos) and I’m a little older. I’m just being put in a position to succeed.”
Kerfoot is eighth among NHL rookies in goals and points (25). As a senior captain at Harvard last season, he had 16 goals in 36 games. Kerfoot had just four goals in 33 games as a junior in 2015-16, when he was the setup guy for Hobey Baker Award-winning linemate Jimmy Vesey, who now plays for the New York Rangers. Kerfoot had a team-high 30 assists as a junior, and Vesey led the team with 24 goals.
Kerfoot and Vesey still talk and text regularly. Vesey is in his second NHL season after playing in 80-of-82 games as a rookie. Harvard and the other Ivy League schools don’t begin their seasons until the last week of October or first week of November, so Kerfoot is unaccustomed to the NHL grind.
“That’s one of the big changes coming from college, especially Harvard, where you’re only playing 29 regular-season games and here you’re playing 82. It’s a big difference,” Kerfoot said. “You just have to take care of yourself, day in and day out, at the rink and away from the rink, and just put in the preparation. I’m comfortable going through it now for the first time.”
Kerfoot, from Vancouver, British Columbia, played junior hockey with the Coquitlam Express of the B.C. Hockey League and has an economics degree from Harvard. But he still leans on a financial adviser. Kerfoot signed a two-year, entry-level contract worth $2,275,000 ($925,000 annual salary cap hit) after becoming a free agent Aug. 15.
“I wouldn’t trust myself dealing with it entirely, but I do like to have conversations with my financial adviser and learn more about it, and I do a little research myself,” Kerfoot said.