Every time I go to an NCAA hockey game and note the players on both rosters that already are claimed in the NHL draft, I wonder why other leagues don’t adopt a similar system.
On Friday night, I watched the Denver Pioneers open their National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoff series against Nebraska Omaha with five NHL draft choices — center Quentin Shore (Ottawa), right wings Danton Heinen (Boston) and Troy Terry (Anaheim), defenseman Will Butcher (Colorado) and goaltender Evan Cowley (Florida) — in uniform.
That’s a lower number than usual for the DU program in recent years, but third-year coach Jim Montgomery said it probably will go back up in the next few seasons as highly touted players who already say they plan to attend DU arrive on campus.
“We want to get the right player and the right person for the way I coach and our university,” said Montgomery, who was raised in Montreal, played at the University of Maine and had a journeyman’s NHL career. “We’ve lost out on some big-name recruits, and in the year after next, we expect to have five NHL draft choices coming in, in that class. We see them all as three-year players.”
In continuing the explanation, Montgomery brought up freshman center Dylan Gambrell, who came in this season at age 19 after playing junior for the Dubuque Fighting Saints and retaining his NCAA eligibility because, unlike major junior, the United States Hockey League doesn’t pay the players stipends. He wasn’t drafted in his first year of draft eligibility but went back in the pool and is almost certain to be taken this year after his strong freshman season for the Pioneers.
“There might not be a first-round pick in that class. We’ve missed out on a couple of those, and you want to have one or two of them in your class mixed in with players like Gambrell,” Montgomery said. “We knew he was going to be a really good college hockey player. Did we expect this? No. We probably expected this from Terry, and Terry’s going to be this next year.”
Prospects first are eligible to be drafted at age 17 or 18 (depending on where their birthdays fall in a year), and all but the absolute elite — usually at the top of the first round — remain in the feeder system as NHL teams watch, evaluate and eventually decide when to or even whether to try to sign them, whether that means to step right into the NHL or go to an AHL affiliate.
Avalanche top-of-the-draft picks Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene and Gabe Landeskog each came straight to Colorado in their draft year, and second-round pick Ryan O’Reilly pulled off the unusual, also joining the Avs right away, in 2009.
But in general — whether the choices have come from major junior under the three-league Canadian Hockey League umbrella, from Europe, or from NCAA hockey or the path leading to it — it’s draft and watch.
In NCAA hockey, the politics can be complicated, since players can leave at any time, even if that means one-and-done.
Players are allowed to have “advisers” who — and this is an amazing coincidence that also is the norm in NCAA baseball — also happen to be player agents. So part of the challenge for college coaches is knowing that parents might be hearing from agents or even NHL front offices, saying their sons aren’t getting enough ice time, and that it could hasten their departures or cause them to defect to the pseudo-pro conditions in major junior, still the preferred route of at least the Canadian wing of NHL management.
The biggest morale issue in NCAA hockey can be when upperclassmen believe underclassmen draft choices are getting more ice time than they’ve earned because a coach is trying to keep them — and their parents and advisers — happy.
“I don’t mind dealing with draft picks who come from families where parents hold them accountable, because then they’re not entitled,” Montgomery said. “When they’re entitled and come into programs and their parents expect them to be given power-play and penalty-kill and pulled-goalie situations, that’s when it doesn’t work. That’s why it’s so important in the recruiting process to get to know the family.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
Spotlight on …
Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta
When: Sunday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.
What’s up: The Avalanche will close a crucial stretch in Canada (four games in a nine-day span) against the Oilers.
Background: Barring unforeseen construction delays on Rogers Place, Edmonton’s downtown arena, this will be the Avalanche’s final appearance at Rexall Place — now the second-oldest arena in the NHL, behind only … “Final Jeopardy” theme … Madison Square Garden in New York. As the Northlands Coliseum, the Oilers’ current arena debuted in 1974. It also was known as the Edmonton Coliseum and the Skyreach Centre before it became Rexall Place in 2003. It’s on the grounds of the nonprofit Northlands complex, which includes an expo center and a horse track.
Frei’s take: Think of what it would be like if the Avs still played at McNichols Sports Arena, which opened in 1975, with piecemeal renovation and improvements. McNichols and other arenas of its generation, including Reunion Arena in Dallas and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, became outdated stunningly fast. Rexall’s seating capacity has fluctuated, and it’s now 16,839 for hockey. A new arena for the Oilers was a necessity, and Rogers Place is a public-private partnership between the city and Oilers owner Daryl Katz and his Katz Group. All that said, the old place has its charms and always will have a place in hockey lore as the home of the WHA-NHL Oilers during Wayne Gretzky’s stay (1978-1988) and Edmonton’s five Stanley Cup championships from 1984-90.
