I can’t imagine the amount of pressure a number one ranked prospect faces before their eventual selection at the NHL Entry Draft, and particularly those who get labelled as “franchise players” or “generational talents” by the clickbait-obsessed sports media. As a 17 or 18-year old kid (granted an unnaturally gifted one) who is just starting to approach adulthood, these top prospects are now indebted with the obligation of being “the next great NHL superstar” and the chosen saviour of a down-on-its-luck organization. The weight of at least an entire city of hockey fans must feel squarely on their shoulders.
Sidney Crosby’s draft year (2004-05) was a well-documented media feeding frenzy with swarms of journalists from all over the world showing up at every single Rimouski Oceanic game he played, and that was before social media had exploded as a news format and source of instant information. Nowadays there are multiple articles a day coming out about some of these players, some positive and full of praise and others not so much. It comes with the territory, I suppose, but it’s something we don’t often take into consideration enough when it comes to our judgements of these players.
That brings me to the purpose of this article: the widely projected number one overall pick in next summer’s 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Kingston Frontenacs center Shane Wright. He has had all sorts of labels placed on him since early on in his minor hockey days, including “generational”, and there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding his ultimate projection as an NHL player. It’s easy to see why opinions are so varied, but we’ll have to take a look back at his history to get an idea for what kind of a player Shane Wright truly is.
For the majority of the gifted minor hockey athletes who live in the Canadian province of Ontario, the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) is the top program of its kind in regards to being able to develop your skills in top training facilities and simultaneously catch the eyes of a few Ontario Hockey League (OHL) scouts in the process. Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid both got their starts with the GTHL’s Toronto Marlboros before eventually gaining exceptional player status and entering the OHL draft a year early.
Shane Wright came up through the GTHL as well, but with the Don Mills Flyers hockey club. Brandt Clarke (the 8th overall pick of the 2021 NHL draft) and Brennan Othmann (the 16th pick in 2021) were on that same team, and though the three of them terrorized the league together during the 2018-19 season, it was clear who the team’s best player was. Wright led all players in scoring with 150 points (66g84a) in 72 games and would be named the GTHL’s Player of the Year as a result. He then led his powerhouse Flyers squad to an OHL Cup championship with tournament bests of 8 goals and 18 points in 7 games. He was the recipient of Most Valuable Player honours, a common theme in his backstory.
That phenomenal display of minor hockey dominance ultimately led to Wright and his family’s decision to apply for exceptional player status and early entry into major junior hockey. They felt he had proven himself to be advanced beyond his current level and that, for the best of his development, he needed new challenges to face. A strong skater with a physically mature, sturdy frame, the then-6’0” center would not look out of place size-wise either.
The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) board of governors agreed with the Wrights and granted his application, and in 2019 he became the fifth player from the OHL (and the sixth from the CHL as a whole) to enlist in a major junior draft as a 15-year old. He joined a select group that included John Tavares (OHL), Aaron Ekblad (OHL), Connor McDavid (OHL), Sean Day (OHL), and Joe Veleno (QMJHL) and now includes Connor Bedard (WHL).
The Kingston Frontenacs selected him with the first overall pick of the 2019 OHL Priority Selection, meaning he would officially become a rookie in major junior for the 2019-20 season. With the eyes of the hockey world firmly fixed upon him, picking apart every minute aspect of his game, he succeeded with flying colours.
Shane Wright’s OHL debut cannot be accurately categorized as anything less than a resounding success. At the age of 15 he was given an “A” to serve as one of the alternate captains of his new Kingston Frontenacs team, making him the youngest player in the CHL’s history to do so. As an underaged player (still 15) he was not only named to Canada Black’s roster, but named the captain of that team for the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge. He would finish in a tie for the team lead in scoring with 7 points (4g3a) in 5 games played.
By the end of his 2019-20 OHL rookie campaign, Wright had notched 39 goals (a new Kingston franchise rookie record) and 66 points in 58 games. In a season he began as a 15-year old. Both totals led all first year players in the CHL by a wide margin, and garnered OHL and CHL Rookie of the Year honours for the talented pivot. They also placed him amongst some elite company as an “exceptional status” rookie. Wright’s 66 points tied Connor McDavid’s 66 total points produced during his 15-year old season, but in 58 games for Wright compared to the 63 games it took McDavid to reach that mark. His 1.14 points-per-game average trailed only John Tavares’ 1.18 points-per-game average as the highest recorded among underaged first-years.
With Wright now drawing comparisons to some of the best players in the game at the same age, the media and fan attention around him only grew more intense. The anticipation for his Year Two in the OHL had already reached a fever pitch long before the conclusion of his rookie season had even taken place.
Unfortunately, junior hockey fans would be denied the chance to see a sophomore follow-up in 2020-21 as the OHL cancelled their season altogether, leaving Wright with no competitive hockey games under his belt for an entire calendar year. The cancellation hit even harder for the OHLers who were eligible for the 2021 NHL draft, as this was easily the single most important season of their lives. Plans for an OHL-specific showcase event were eventually put into motion, but the quality of competition wouldn’t be great.
Finally, some good news arrived in the spring of 2021 as Hockey Canada announced its roster for their confirmed participation in the Under-18 World Hockey Championships. Shane Wright was named team captain despite the lineup being mostly filled by eventual 2021 NHL first round draft picks like Mason McTavish, Dylan Guenther, Corson Ceulemans, and his old Don Mills teammates Brandt Clarke and Brennan Othmann.
Playing through an injury that kept him out of 2 of the 7 contests, Wright still racked up a mindboggling 9 goals (second-most among all players) and 14 points (tied for second) in just 5 games en route to a gold medal victory for Canada. He scored twice and had three points in the 5-3 finale against the silver medalist Russian squad, confirming his standing as the number one prospect for the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
Which brings us to the current OHL season. Prior to opening night of the Kingston Frontenacs’ 2021-22 home debut, team management made a special announcement regarding the club’s new leadership group. 17-year old Shane Wright, finally suiting up for a second year of major junior, had been (unsurprisingly) named the captain. The Frontenacs’ logo and jerseys had been redesigned especially for this monumental campaign, with the team being heavily mentioned by the sports media in conversations around the potential Memorial Cup contenders. And, let’s be honest here, likely partially to capitalize on the “Shane Wright Hype Train” a little as well.
His first game on October 8, 2021 went extremely well, an 8-1 victory achieved over the rival Ottawa 67s. Wright put up 3 points (1g2a) and showed off some of his top-notch skill, connecting a long-range breakaway pass to a streaking teammate for an assist and flicking one of his patented high-velocity wristers past the netminder on a late powerplay. The second game (which was his second in two nights during a 3-games-in-3-days stretch) ended in a brutal 7-2 loss to the less-favoured Mississauga Steelheads. Wright had no points in that contest, and looked slightly gassed by the time the third period rolled around. He seemed to be trying to simply shake off some early season rust, an understandable consequence of the OHL’s lost year. The third game was a 3-2 loss to the same Ottawa 67s they had hammered in the home opener. Wright scored one of his team’s two goals, falling down but refusing to be denied on the rebound, but overall he looked only slightly stronger than the previous night.
The following weekend, the Frontenacs were desperate to get back in the “win” column with a 1-2-0 record to start the campaign. On October 15, Kingston squeaked out a 5-4 decision over the Sudbury Wolves that was much closer than it probably should have been. Wright helped set up two goals as the Frontenacs built up an eventual 5-1 lead. On one play, he skated into the slot and attempted to fire a shot but missed the puck at first. In one motion he then spun around and tossed a perfect backhand pass cross-ice to an open teammate who beat the goaltender clean. The Wolves refused to go away though, and made it a one-goal contest by its conclusion. Their second game of the weekend, the very next night on the 16th, was a hard-fought, entertaining 3-1 Kingston win in a tight match against the Peterborough Petes. Wright had no points but maybe his strongest all-around performance of the season to date.
It is fairly obvious that most of the OHL players entering their first or second years in the league have lost some of that “feel for the game” they would usually have. Developing a talent is all about practice, and practice is all about repetition and muscle memory. Sitting out the entire 2020-21 hockey season was obviously going to have some negative side effects attached. Top NHL draft prospects entering their first year of eligibility are feeling the side effects of a lack of practice and repetition of their skills. As players like Wright get the feel for playing competitive hockey at a high level again through actual game action, I don’t think there should be any doubt that they will take that next step forward in their individual evolutions.
Wright currently sits with 6 points (2g4a) in 5 games played, perhaps not the massively bloated point totals one would expect to see of such a hyped NHL draft prospect right? The expectations of many for Shane Wright’s draft eligible campaign are astronomically high, for obvious reasons. The (somewhat dampened) aura around the “exceptional player status”, combined with his massive rookie year in the OHL and gold medal win at the U18 Worlds has set the bar extraordinarily high. 50 goals and 100-plus points are certainly attainable for a player of Wright’s caliber in major junior, especially with the return to a 68-game regular season schedule in 2021-22. One thing that has to be clearly understood about Shane Wright though, is that his game (and his greatness) is about so much more than simply the goals and points he accumulates during the course of a year.
Some have used Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron as a comparable for Wright, and while that doesn’t tell the whole story it isn’t exactly false either. The point that comparison is trying to make is that Wright has an elite understanding of the defensive side of the game and his responsibilities in his own end of the ice.
I see some similarities in the way Wright plays the game to the way that Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby plays the game now. Before you read too much into that statement, allow me to explain. He’s always the first forward back in the defensive zone to help recover pucks and maintain possession. He backchecks (and forechecks) with as much effort and attention as he attacks with. He is steadily improving his skill in the faceoff circle and has made consistent noticeable strides in that area. It would be fair to say, in my opinion, that his defensive game significantly cuts into the amount of offense he produces based on his actual scoring capabilities. Wright sacrifices offense to remain steadfast defensively.
That is the evolution that Sidney Crosby’s game underwent prior to his back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017. Learning to balance your defensive and offensive game leads to winning. This is the same lesson that Crosby’s hero Steve Yzerman learned prior to rattling off his Stanley Cup victories with the Detroit Red Wings. And it is what Shane Wright is already learning at the age of 17. He may not be perfect at achieving that balance just yet, but he is on the way to becoming a two-way force the likes of which we may have never seen before.
So is Shane Wright a “generational” talent then? Well, maybe not in the same way that a Connor McDavid is. However, with the innate leadership characteristics he possesses, he reminds a lot of the Chicago Blackhawks longtime captain and a three-time Cup winner in Jonathan Toews. With his elite goal scoring ability (39 goals in 58 OHL games as a 16-year is old is certifiably elite), he brings to mind Tampa Bay Lightning captain and two-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner Steven Stamkos. And with his incredibly well-honed shutdown game and penalty killing acumen, he does slightly appear Patrice Bergeron-like, doesn’t he? So really…if Shane Wright can bring the attributes of all these legends of the sport into his game in the future, then does it even matter if he’s “generational” or not?
The truth is, he’s not any of these players. He is a unique talent in the sport, bringing his own personal flair to the most important position on the ice. Shane Wright plays the game “the right way” as they say, never cheating for offense or shirking his responsibilities as a centerman. The game is changing right in front of our eyes, with an amazingly skilled new generation of prospects leading the charge. They will each have a part to play in hockey history, and it is the great ones like Shane Wright who will be remembered by future generations one day as they begin carving their own paths through the National Hockey League and beyond.
The Draft Report 