Evan Neugold will never be mentioned in the same breath or confused with the great Red Kelly, but the Newfoundland Growlers’ third-year pro has done a fine job so far switching from centre to defence.
The product of Goshen, Conn., is plus-nine, with a trio of goals and 13 points to boot, through 48 games with the Growlers, not bad for someone who really only started playing defence full-time this season.
Kelly, of course, forged a Hall of Fame career through the 1950s and ’60s, first as a defenceman with the Detroit Red Wings — who recently retired his No. 4 — and later as a forward with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Neugold went the other way, playing up front coming up through Connecticut’s minor ranks, through college and his first year of minor pro before being asked to move back to the blueline.
Today, he and Adam Pardy are a solid Growers’ pairing, which doesn’t hurt if you’re Neugold, partnered with a veteran of 350 National Hockey League games.
“As a new defenceman, you can’t ask for a better role model,” Neugold said of Pardy.
After playing four years of Division III hockey at Vermont’s Middlebury College, Neugold turned pro with the Southern Pro league’s Columbus Cottonmouths in 2016.
Traded mid-season to the Knoxville Ice Bears, Neugold had just arrived in Tennessee when Ice Bears defenceman and captain, Jason Price, was suspended for the remainder of the season after deliberately firing the puck into the opposing team’s bench.
“The coach was like, ‘Do you wanna play D?’’ said Neugold. “Of course, I just wanted to play, and if that helped get me into the lineup, why not. I said ‘Sure. Love to.’”
Neugold appeared in 10 games on the blueline, and even last year, when he was called up to the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder, he remained on ‘D’, though he was still taking some shifts at centre in Knoxville.
This past summer, Newfoundland coach John Snowden reached out to Knoxville coach Mike Craigen, looking for players to fill out a training camp roster with a chance of earning a contract.
Neugold impressed, was inked to an ECHL deal and has been a mainstay — on defence — since the start of the season.
Most hockey guys will tell you it takes a defenceman a little longer to adjust after turning pro. For Neugold, it’s been an adjustment, and then some, since switching from centre ice.
It’s one thing to be aware in the defensive zone, to be aggressive in the corners and make that quick, first pass out of the zone. It’s quite another to stare down a darty, little forward coming through the middle of the ice a million miles per hour with the puck on his stick.
“That was my biggest worry … well, not a worry, but man on man coverage is something I’ve focused on. Just getting use to closing the gaps with opposing forwards.
“Honestly, being a two-way centre pretty much my whole life helped me in that I’m pretty aware in the defensive zone. Now it’s learning all the little details that make a defenceman a defenceman.
“My mindset is, ‘You’re a defenceman now, keep the puck out of your net.’ I suppose because I wasn’t so offensively instinctual, I’ve actually had to teach myself how to jump into plays more and more.”
Neugold describes his year in Newfoundland as “awesome”. The Growlers (38-16-4-0) are first in the North Division , and Friday night played the Orlando Solar Bears in the first of three straight games at Mile One Centre this weekend.
Newfoundland is certainly a stark contrast to where he played the past two seasons, in South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.
And we’re not just talking about the weather.
“You can definitely notice a difference in knowledge of the game,” he said. “Surprisingly enough, it’s fun to play down south in those smaller communities. They may not know hockey the greatest, because it’s all football, but the fans there care a lot about the team.
“Here, it’s the best of both worlds. People care about the game, and they know the game. You can’t fool them. It’s kind of like the next step up.”
Still only 26, Neugold has a lot of hockey left in him, but is already planning for his post-playing days. There is little hockey in Goshen, a small farming area in western Connecticut, about 45 minutes from Hartford.
As a result, Neugold would have to travel or hour or two as a youngster just to skate.
“After I’m done,” he said, “that’s one thing I’d like to do, to try and help grow hockey in the area.”
Just like he’d been growing his game.
