That became the situation this week with the Nashville Predators’ recent re-assignment of Bonavista defenceman Adam Pardy to the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Kings waived St. John’s forward Teddy Purcell and assigned him to the Ontario Reign of the AHL.
In the fall of 2011, The Telegram published a full page, Page 1 photo of six of the seven Newfoundlanders in the NHL (Colin Greening was not available for the photo).
Since then, Daniel Cleary of Riverhead, Harbour Grace and Greening are joining Pardy and Purcell in the AHL, Luke Adam of St. John’s is playing in Germany, and Bonavista’s Michael Ryder and Ryane Clowe of Fermeuse have retired.
Clowe is an assistant coach (with the New Jersey Devils) in the NHL, along with Mount Pearl’s Darryl Williams (New York Rangers) and John Slaney of St. John’s (Arizona Coyotes).
Provincial hockey president Jack Lee is as surprised as anyone not to see a Newfoundlander in the NHL, but says it’s not because his group isn’t running quality development programs.
Rather, he sees it as the age-old problem that has always faced hockey players from this province — not getting seen by scouts.
“I was only thinking about this the other day,” Lee said. “It’s a combination of a few factors, not the least of which is where we live and the exposure — or lack of — our kids get.”
Major midget, along with AAA bantam and peewee hockey teams, are travelling off island more than ever before, but for the most part, it’s only for a tournament or two.
Unlike the athletes in Nova Scotia and all points west, who could be playing in front of scouts every night, that’s not the case in Newfoundland.
“You go back to the days when myself and Rick (Babstock) and Ed (O’Brien) and Scott (Gordon) were doing some scouting for Quebec major junior teams,” Lee said. “We pushed hard for Newfoundland kids. I’m not sure if we’re getting that anymore.
“Chris Parsley (of St. John’s) is doing some great work for Rimouski, but after him, I’m not sure. When the Fog Devils (of the QMJHL) were here, we were getting kids drafted (into major junior).”
Make no mistake, the province continues to produce players. There are 14 in the QMJHL, 32 in the Maritime junior A league and a scattering others in junior A circuits across the country.
Alex Newhook of St. John’s, who is playing in Ontario, recently signed a letter of intent to attend Boston College, and Adam Dawe of Gander, now skating in Saskatchewan, will head off to the University of Maine next season.
On the female side, Abby Newhook and Maggie Connors of St. John’s, and Shailynn Snow of Clarke’s Beach are said to be outstanding young female prospects.
But Newfoundland has not produced a player on the national junior team since Adam played in the 2010 world juniors. And only five Newfoundlanders — Adam, Nathan Noel, Evan Fitzpatrick, Clark Bishop and James Melindy of St. John’s — have gone in the NHL draft in the past 10 years.
Lee says one big reason that shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of exposure, or lack of, for the Newfoundland hockey players is the realignment of the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
There were once five Canadian teams in the event — Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec, Western and Pacific, and the Atlantic squad always had a scattered Newfoundlander or three on the roster.
Now, there are only three Canadian teams and 100-plus kids from across the country are invited to camps to try for one of 60 spots available.
“Where would Clark Bishop be without Team Atlantic?” asked Lee. “I’m not saying he wouldn’t be drafted. But he had a great under-17 tournament and that led to a spot on the under-18 team.
“It didn’t hurt that he was exposed to some high-level hockey in the world U17.”
Bottom line is, Lee said, Newfoundland hockey players aren’t seen enough. If an athlete has a poor showing at the Monctonian tournament in New Brunswick, or at the Atlantics — that’s if his team wins the all-Newfoundland championship — the chances of him impressing scouts in that narrow three- or four-day window is slim.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it — it all comes in cycles, too — but I do know we are turning out some very, very good hockey players,” Lee said. “Actually, I think we’re developing more now that we ever have.”
rshort@thetelegram.com
