Hockey Confidential (18 page)

Figure it out, indeed.

Crisp, who played with McDavid in Erie, was rallying to a teammate's defence on what he perceived as a slight. That prompted the following exchange between the Insider and Crisp:

Bob McKenzie
@TSNBobMcKenzie

@connorcrisp23 That wasn't implication at all. Connor is a special player but I'm not into burdening 15 year olds with absurd expectations. 10:39 a.m.• 9 Nov 2012

Connor Crisp
@Connorcrispp

@TSNBobMcKenzie I see his skills at practice, and the humility he has on and off the ice, I'm implying that he is only getting better.

12:45 p.m • 9 Nov 2012

Fair enough, not much doubt about that. But it's also a given that others will burst onto the scene to mount challenges and make their cases. It was only 14 months after that Twitter exchange, at the 2014 WJC, that the performance of American-born centre Jack Eichel was so impressive that NHL scouts suggested
he
should be in the conversation as a potential No. 1 in the 2015 draft, that he could be a legitimate challenger to McDavid.

That didn't take long.

•   •   •

Two questions have arisen regarding Hockey Canada's
exceptional-player process.

One, if players are granted exceptional status year after year after year, can it still be considered a truly exceptional process?

Two, is Ontario the only place to find an exceptional player?

If the “exceptional player” floodgates were supposed to open up after Tavares in 2005, they must have been on a time-release formula, because it wasn't until 2011 that Hockey Canada next granted exceptional status. And again in 2012. And then in 2013, too.

Defenceman Aaron Ekblad of Belle River, Ontario, was the first of the three, and by any objective measure, he met or exceeded expectations. He was the first player taken, by Barrie, in the OHL draft, and he excelled as an under-ager with the under-17, under-18 and World Junior Championship programs. Ekblad was chosen first overall by the Florida Panthers in the 2014 NHL draft.

McDavid was the second of the three in 2012. He, too, quickly demonstrated “exceptional ability,” following the same path as Ekblad—going first overall (to Erie) in the OHL draft, playing and excelling as an under-ager with the under-17, under-18 and World Junior Championship teams and being forecast as the No. 1 prospect in his NHL draft year (2015).

Defenceman Sean Day, a dual Canadian-American citizen who was living and playing minor hockey in Detroit, was the third exceptional player in three years. Unlike Ekblad and McDavid, Day did not go first overall in the OHL draft. He went fourth, to Mississauga, and while he was only just beginning his “exceptional” journey, some were questioning whether he was as blatantly exceptional as Tavares, Ekblad or McDavid.

Time will tell, but Day was subjected to the same rigorous screening process as Ekblad and McDavid and was unanimously approved by Hockey Canada's National Evaluation Panel.

The entire process is supposed to be conducted with the utmost secrecy and confidentiality, especially as it pertains to identifying or naming which players have applied for exceptional status.

Sheldon Lanchbery, a longtime member of the Hockey Canada board who was appointed a judge of Her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench for Manitoba in the summer of 2007, was, as of 2014, the chairman of Hockey Canada's National Evaluation Panel, though it's all kept under such tight wraps that Lanchbery not only wouldn't talk about the process, but wouldn't even acknowledge he chaired the panel.

Kevin Prendergast, who was Hockey Canada's chief scout until 2013, was also on the panel that granted exceptional-player status to Ekblad, McDavid and Day. Ryan Jankowski was named Hockey Canada's chief scout in 2013, so for any future exceptional player applications, he would be on the panel with Lanchbery and one more Hockey Canada member-at-large appointee. And Paul Dennis, the sports psychologist who worked up the profile on Tavares for the OHL in 2005, is the regional life skills interviewer for Hockey Canada's Ontario branch who vetted Ekblad, McDavid and Day, too.

It's often said there are no secrets in hockey, and if that's true, it's even more pronounced in minor hockey in Canada, where everyone, it seems, knows everyone else's business.

For example, as confidential as the exceptional-player process tries to be, it's a well-known fact within the Canadian minor/junior hockey community that, as of 2014, only Tavares, Ekblad, McDavid, Day and one other player even applied for exceptional status, with the unnamed player being the sole applicant who didn't get the panel's approval. That happened in the time period after Tavares in 2005, but before Ekblad in 2011.

It's no secret, not really, who the sole unsuccessful applicant was. Anyone with a computer can figure it in two minutes, but the process is not supposed to be about highlighting failure, so that player's name and identity won't appear here. Suffice it to say the Hockey Canada evaluation panel got it right. While the player appeared to be at the elite level in minor hockey, he did not go on to dominate junior hockey. He was not a first-round pick in the NHL, he did not represent Canada at the World Junior Championship, and while he's playing professionally in what is a still relatively young career and still working towards being an NHL player, there were by no means any guarantees that would happen for him. In fact, he's already perceived as a long shot to be an NHL regular.

What's curious is that every applicant for exceptional status, from Tavares to Day, has been in the OHL. It's almost as if the exceptional-player process doesn't exist in the rest of Canada. Some, especially in western Canada, mock it as just another bit of evidence that people in Ontario or Toronto believe they're in the centre of the universe, in a rush to display a superiority complex. Is it actually possible that the only exceptional players in Canada in a nine-year stretch are from Ontario? That there are no exceptional players in western Canada, Quebec or the Maritimes?

“Sidney Crosby applied for exceptional status with us,” Gilles Courteau, commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League said, “but that was before 2005, when there was no program in place. We turned him down. Since 2005, we haven't had a player who has applied. I have no problem with the exceptional-player program. It's a good one, but we just have not had that player yet. One day we will, and if he's ruled as exceptional by Hockey Canada, we'll welcome him to our league. We would definitely embrace that.”

Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison espouses the same view as Courteau: “We are fully in support of it, we just haven't had that player come along yet.” Despite Robison's words, many are skeptical the WHL truly wants any part of it.

“Don't kid yourself,” one player agent said, “the WHL owners and GMs don't want anything to do with the exceptional-player status. They discourage kids from going that route.”

Robison did concede that two factors—the WHL bantam draft and the expansive geography of a league that stretches from Manitoba in the east to the U.S. Pacific Northwest in the west—may play a part in the practicality of not having had an exceptional player and why some players and/or parents maybe aren't as eager to apply as in Ontario.

In the WHL, players are drafted, or have their rights assigned, at age 15, after their major bantam year. In the OHL and QMJHL, players aren't drafted until they're 16, after their minor midget season. A 15-year-old drafted into the WHL is entitled to play only five games as a 15-year-old, but he knows where in the WHL he will play when he eventually gets there as a 16-year-old.

“There could be an issue related to schooling, where a 15-year-old would have to travel great distances to play, which is different than Ontario,” Robison said. “And for many 15-year-olds in our league, they're satisfied to play the five games for the team that has drafted them—that's enough for them.”

Even the skeptics who believe the WHL has anti-exceptional sentiment concede there hasn't been an obvious slam dunk exceptional superstar like Tavares, Ekblad or McDavid in the west.

Some believe Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mathew Barzal, two British Columbia kids, were the best bet for exceptional status, but as highly skilled and talented both were as 15-year-olds, they were also quite physically immature at that age. There have been highly touted prospects since then—Tyler Benson of Edmonton (first overall to Vancouver Giants in the 2013 bantam draft) is one who comes to mind, but he opted to go to the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy in Kelowna, British Columbia, for his 15-year-old season rather than push the exceptional envelope.

“We've had some special kids, especially those taken in the 2013 draft, but I'm not sure you could say we have one who is as clearly exceptional as McDavid,” Kelowna Rockets owner and general manager Bruce Hamilton said.

On the flip side, the exceptional player concept didn't exist in 2002, when Crosby was attending Shattuck-St. Mary's prep school in Minnesota, awaiting his chance to play in the QMJHL. As Courteau said, Crosby inquired and was denied by the Quebec league. Not getting exceptional status certainly didn't hurt his development.

“I think our results thus far speak for themselves,” Branch said, citing the accomplishments of Tavares, Ekblad and McDavid. “I believe it's been a good process for the players involved and our league. It's working as it was intended to work when we introduced it. There hasn't been a rash of them. There haven't been abuses of it. It's a good process.”

•   •   •

The old African proverb says “It takes a village to raise a
child,” and that most definitely rings true when the goal is to shepherd an exceptional and gifted young Canadian through the meat grinder that is elite-level hockey.

Connor McDavid's first line of defence will always be his dad, Brian, mom, Kelly, and older brother Cameron. There's no substitute for family. But if a phenom like McDavid is going to fulfil his potential and get to where he wants to be—the summit, if you will—he's going to need an extended family of sorts to help him climb that mountain. And like any talented young player in today's game—even those not deemed “exceptional” per se—McDavid's support team is in place.

There's Bobby Orr, of course, and the advisors and consultants who work with Orr. It was Darren Ferris who originally recruited McDavid to Orr Hockey, but Ferris left the company to start his own business. Former NHLer Jeff Jackson, a lawyer now, replaced Ferris and works closely with Connor and the McDavid clan to ensure the sailing is as smooth as it can be. Jackson's good friend, former NHLer Dave Gagner (father of Arizona Coyotes centre Sam Gagner) is the agency's director of player development. Gary Roberts, the former NHL player turned strength, conditioning and nutrition guru, oversees McDavid's training and conditioning program.

Collectively, between Connor's actual family and his extended family/support group, the mandate is twofold: one, give him the tools necessary to be successful; two, put up walls around him to protect him from any pitfalls or distractions that may prevent him from being successful.

“Kelly and I, we both spend a lot of time making sure he's good,” Brian said. “We can't imagine the pressure he feels sometimes. Those pressures come from the outside and we try to insulate him. We just want him to be a kid and play. Connor has very high standards—no one is going to be harder on Connor than Connor. He sometimes gets down on himself; it's how he motivates himself. It's a fine line.”

In a sense, the process is almost counterintuitive. Connor has an insatiable desire to be special, to be noticed, to do things most kids his age couldn't even dream about. To be exceptional on the biggest stage possible. But doing so creates attention and a wave of pressure on so many levels, with all those around him doing everything they can to diffuse that pressure. If there's anyone who can identify with that, it's Orr. He knows what it is to be phenomenal, though phenomenal today is a far cry from what it was in the 1960s.