The Next Ones

Michael Traikos

Description

The NHL is a young man’s league. How young? Connor McDavid was twenty years old when he won the scoring title and MVP in 2017. Auston Matthews was still a nineteen-year-old rookie when he tied for second in the Rocket Richard Trophy race with forty goals. By the end of the NHL’s hundredth season, eight of the top thirty scorers—including four of the top ten—were twenty-three years old or younger.

Who are these fresh players? How did they get their starts? What did their journeys look like? This new generation of hockey superstars grew up differently than their predecessors and they weren’t all skating on frozen ponds like Bobby Orr. Connor McDavid strapped on rollerblades and deked around paint cans in his parents’ two-car garage. Auston Matthews learned to play hockey on a tiny three-on-three rink in the desert. Patrik Laine shot pucks at pop cans, William Nylander’s dad’s NHL buddies dropped him off at hockey camp, and Johnny Gaudreau chased Skittles candies around the ice while still in diapers. Each story is different. While Aaron Ekblad was always the biggest and strongest kid even while playing two years above his age group, a late bloomer like Mark Scheifele was continuously knocked around as he fought through obstacle after obstacle on his longer and more arduous path to the NHL. What the players share is passion and perseverance—almost to the point of obsession.

Hockey expert Michael Traikos travelled around the world from Helsinki to Thunder Bay interviewing rising NHL stars, their families, and more than two hundred teammates, coaches, scouts and friends. The result is a first-hand look at how each young star became the player he is today—and what they might become in the future.

Informations

• Publié par: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
• Date de parution: 08 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781771621991
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Next Ones
The Next Ones
How McDavid, Matthews and a Group of Young Guns Took Over the NHL
Michael Traikos
Copyright © 2018 Michael Traikos

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca , 1-800-893-5777 , info @ accesscopyright.ca .

Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC , V 0 N 2 H 0
www.douglas-mcintyre.com

Edited by Silas White
Indexed by Allie Turner
Text design by Shed Simas / Onça Design
Cover design by Setareh Ashrafologhalai
Printed and bound in Canada

Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $ 153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Traikos, Michael, author
The next ones : how McDavid, Matthews and a group of young guns
took over the NHL / Michael Traikos.

Includes index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77162-198-4 (softcover).-- ISBN 978-1-77162-199-1 ( HTML )

1. Hockey players--Biography. 2. National Hockey League. I. Title.

GV 848.5. A 1 T 73 2018 796.962092’2 C 2018-903087-9
C 2018-903088-7
Contents
ix Foreword
1 Introduction
4 Mark Scheifele
24 Johnny Gaudreau
46 Matt Murray
68 Aaron Ekblad
90 William Nylander
108 Jack Eichel
128 Connor McDavid
150 Mitch Marner
172 Auston Matthews
196 Patrik Laine
215 Conclusion
217 Acknowledgements
218 Credits
219 Index
227 About the Author
For Danielle, my density—I mean, destiny
In memory of Fanny (Baba) Misketis, who passed away while this book was being written and who was so heavily involved in my own origin story.
Foreword
The first time I saw Connor M c David play live was in the 2015 World Junior Championships in Toronto, where Canada won gold.
I’ll never forget it.
It was the championship final and Canada was leading 2–1 against Russia in the second period when McDavid scored a goal that caused my jaw to drop. Taking a pass in the middle of the ice, he rocketed past two defenders for a breakaway and then snuck a shot through the Russian goalie’s five-hole.
Everything about the goal was amazing.
Some players have two or three gears. McDavid seemed to have five or six with a nitro boost to spare. It was spectacular. I had seen his highlights on TV and YouTube. But watching him live was completely different. You got a real sense of his speed and skill and everything else that makes him so special.
All the players in this book share that same ability.
This is an amazing time for hockey. I don’t think the game has ever been this good. The skill on display is really something else. The players are not only faster and stronger, but they’re doing things that I didn’t think were possible when I was playing.
You see smaller players like Mitch Marner or Johnny Gau dreau deke circles around defencemen and you can’t help but marvel at what they are able to accomplish at their size. Back in the day, those guys simply weren’t getting opportunities. Now, they’re some of the NHL ’s brightest stars—and rightfully so.
What’s really stood out from watching these players emerge—a nd reading about their origin stories—is how different each of them is. They play the game differently. And they’ve all followed a different path. In Auston Matthews’s case, he had to carve out a path on his own. And that’s what makes this next generation of next ones so impressive.
Like Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe before me, I may have had an impact on the next generation of superstars through my on- and off-ice actions. But this isn’t a cookie-cutter league. What works for one player doesn’t always work for another.
Sure, it takes talent and a ton of hard work to even get to the NHL . But to become a star takes something else. Each of these players is so special, not just in his ability but in his drive. Whether it’s McDavid taking hundreds of shots every day or Jack Eichel failing and then persevering against much older competition, nothing came easy to any of these players.
No one was an overnight success. No one got handed anything without putting in a ton of effort.
For most of them, they’ve always been in the spotlight. They’ve always had a target on their backs. But each one of them persevered to become one of the best in his generation. And they did it their own way. That’s what’s so interesting about this book.
Both McDavid and Aaron Ekblad entered the Ontario Hockey League ( OHL ) a year earlier than normal. I went in at age sixteen. Matthews grew up in Arizona and decided to play in Switzerland rather than in college. Matthews is a strong kid. He knew he could handle himself against men. You look at his neck and he’s just going to get bigger and stronger.
That isn’t the case with Marner and Gaudreau. You look at them and you wonder, how is it that they got here? And when you find out, you appreciate their journey even more.
All my life, everyone has given me the benefit of the doubt because of my physical appearance. I was always one of the biggest. With Marner and Gaudreau, it’s the opposite. They’ve been doubted and disregarded almost every step of the way. In some ways, it’s probably helped them get this far.
Even William Nylander had it hard. Don’t think he was drafted just because his dad played in the NHL . In some ways, it was probably more difficult playing in his father’s shadow. I can tell you this much: as good as Michael Nylander was, his son might be even more talented. And that’s saying something.
And then there’s Mark Scheifele. You look at him today and he’s such a dominating centre. You figure he’s always been this way. But then you realize it took him a long time to even get to the NHL . To me, that’s even more impressive. He’s like John LeClair. He was one of the best wingers I ever played with, but it took him a while to figure out just how good he was. When he eventually did, he and Mikael Renberg and I did great things together.
It’s another way of saying that not every player’s journey is a straight line. There are bumps and detours along the way. That goes for first-line stars as much as it does for the fourth-line grinders.
From McDavid to Matthews, I think it’s great for hockey that there are so many young players already taking over the league. I wish them all the best. I really do.
And I can’t wait to see the next generation of next ones who will follow in their path.
— Eric Lindros
Eric Lindros, who was a No. 1 overall pick in the 1991 draft, scored 372 goals and 865 points in 760 games over a Hall of Fame career that spanned thirteen years. A former Philadelphia Flyers captain, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy in 1994–95 and had his famed No. 88 jersey retired by the franchise in 2017.
Introduction
It was supposed to be a gimmick. It ended up becoming a game-changer.
When the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association decided to stage another World Cup of Hockey in the fall of 2016, the usual six powerhouses (Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic) participated. But in the name of inclusion, the leftover European nations were lumped together on Team Euro, while Team North America collected the best Canadian- and American-born players who were age twenty-three or younger.
Whereas Team Euro surprised everyone and made the final against Canada, the young Team North America stars didn’t even advance past the round robin. But with its black-and-bright-orange colour scheme and live-fast-die-young playing style, Team North America was the highlight of the tournament.
The kids were lightning quick, supremely skilled and full of spunk. They were also very, very fun. When the 5-foot-9, 157-pound Johnny Gaudreau was asked if he was worried about other teams trying to intimidate the younger players with bodychecks and physical play, he replied, “It’s tough to hit someone you can’t catch.”
The idea for this book came from covering Team North America from the start of training camp to their final thrilling game of that two-week tournament. But really, the World Cup of Hockey was just the beginning.
A few weeks after Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews were teammates for the first—and last—time at an international event, the one hundredth year of the NHL began. It truly was a year for the ages. In celebrating the past, the league also looked forward to the future in a season where the kids took over.
McDavid, who was twenty years old and playing in his first full season, led all scorers with 100 points and won both the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award as MVP . A teenaged Matthews won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, while also tying for second among all players with 40 goals. Matt Murray, who was twenty-two when he won a