Towards the repechage | The exceptional status dissected

(Buffalo, New York) As is always the case at the evaluation camp, the NHL invited Friday six of the best hopes of the next draft to a press briefing Friday, on the eve of the day of the physical tests.

Guillaume Lefrancois
The Press

Among the six guests, we obviously found Shane Wright, the favorite to be claimed at 1^er rank, as well as Matthew Savoie, Winnipeg Ice forward whom Dan Marr, director of the NHL’s Central Scouting, called “the most natural scorer of this vintage”.

Barring a huge surprise, the two will be claimed a maximum of seven or eight places apart on July 7 at the Bell Centre. Wright may start with a head start, but nothing prevents Savoie from styling him once in the NHL, like Cale Makar (4^e) established himself as the ace of the 2017 draft, ahead of the 1^er choice, Nico Hischier.

Wright and Savoie could very well have had a similar path to get there. It’s that the two have applied for exceptional player status in Canadian junior hockey, in order to play there at 15 rather than 16.

Wright’s request had been granted; that of Savoy, rejected.

Full file

Wright remembers a relatively heavy gait. “We had to submit an explanatory text, I met a sports psychologist, they spoke to my teachers and teammates”, he lists.

“They asked for his grades at school. And scouts assess it. They also interview the parents,” adds Cam Stewart, Wright’s agent.

Hockey Canada charges $1,000 to file an application, and pays the player $500 if the application is accepted. The federation keeps the $1000 in case of refusal.

In the short term and from a strictly sporting point of view, Hockey Canada was right. In 2019-20, Wright landed in the Ontario Junior League (OHL) with 66 points in 58 games. Savoie arrived in the Western Junior League (WHL) at the end of the season, once he turned 16 (he was born on 1^er January) and was limited to 7 points in 22 games.

Academically, too, Wright has proven he can stick to his game, being twice named OHL student-player of the month since joining the circuit.

“It was the right decision,” Stewart said. He could no longer play midget after his 150-point season and a championship! But it was important that the rest was also correct. »

Pressure

It was the right decision for Wright, the fifth OHL player to receive this status. The others: Connor McDavid, John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Sean Day. In the QMJHL, Joe Veleno was the only case. The WHL meanwhile welcomed Connor Bedard as its first-ever Outstanding Player, a year after Savoie’s request was denied.

“These players are under incredible pressure from the start,” notes Dan Marr. “The request generated a lot of outside pressure, a lot of noise,” admits Savoie.

McDavid, Tavares and Ekblad probably did not regret their approach. The stories of Bedard and Veleno are still being written. But Day’s case was not a success. He was eventually drafted at 81^e rank in 2016, he has only two games in the NHL at 24, and Benoît Groulx tried to save him this season at the Syracuse Crunch, where he has just had his best season with the pros (40 points in 69 games ).

Moreover, the status of exceptional player is to be approached with caution, remind our speakers. Gerry Johannson, Savoie’s agent, recognizes this. “I always say to our clients, ‘No rush. Be patient.” There are only a few guys who can handle that. Matthew could, it seems, and Bedard too. But you won’t see it every year. »

“I would tell the kids to be careful and not just look at it from a hockey point of view,” adds Cam Stewart. You have to think about what it will be like to go to boarding school at 15. You also have to ask yourself if this is the best decision, not just for this year, but for the future. Shane, you talk to him and you see he’s more mature than some NHL guys making 8 million a season! »

With Wright, Bedard, and now Michael Misa earning that status in the OHL last month, the next few years will provide an interesting laboratory in the benefits and risks of that status.