He lit up the Tier II British Columbia Hockey League last season, finishing eighth in scoring (playing 10 to 13 games fewer than the other seven top scorers, by the way),winning rookie of the year honors in the league and in junior A hockey across Canada.
He’s already being touted as a Top 10 draft pick in next year’s NHL Draft (The Hockey News’ early line has him No. 2 behind only American Jack Hughes).
So why didn’t 17-year-old Alex Newhook of St. John’s, the most talked about prospect to come from these parts since Daniel Cleary, make the national under-18 team?
The suggestion was thrown out there on Twitter last year by yours truly, and the response and subsequent chatter was immediate: could it be Newhook was overlooked because he has elected to return to junior A in Victoria, B.C. this upcoming season to fulfill his promise of playing U.S. college hockey in Boston starting in 2019?
There was a lot of pressure on Newhook to join the Halifax Mooseheads this season. The Moose are playing host to the Memorial Cup, and, our spies tell us, laid out a very attractive package to their 2017 midget draft pick.
Undaunted, Newhook remains hell-bent on playing NCAA hockey.
Of the 22 players in the U18 team, 21 are playing in the Canadian Hockey League. In the interest of fairness, it should be noted the 22nd is Dylan Holloway of Okotoks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and Holloway is committed to the University of Wisconsin.
At the U18 evaluation camp, Newhook had four points in three games. Word among scouts is Newhook played very well in the first game, just OK in the next two.
That’s what we’re hearing. And unless one was there for camp, one can’t really make a judgment.
But we do know this: selecting all-star teams like the Olympic squad and before that Canada Cup teams, world junior or even U18 teams is more than about selecting the 22 most talented players in camp.
It’s about finding the right fit.
Here’s what I was told by one scout: “I know the Hockey Canada guys thought he was good enough and smart and skilled enough for top nine, but he would have had to likely play wing,” he said.
“And they didn’t feel he was suited for a fourth-line centre role.”
Architects of these teams are tasked with finding a lineup that will make for a very good team, very quickly, for a short tournament.
If it was simply about getting the best players, all you’d need, one would think, is a good hockey poolie.
“It’s just the way it goes sometimes,” said the scout. “I’ve seen teams sometimes take a lesser player in a trade because that guy might be a better fit in the puzzle.”
Newhook, who will be the Grizzlies’ captain this season, said he will attempt to use an obvious disappointment as a source of “motivation.”
“I was definitely hoping to make the team going into camp. It’s tough for me to take, but Hockey Canada had tough decisions to make,” Newhook told the Victoria Times-Colonist.
“I’m going to use this as motivation coming into the season. This is going to push me even harder.”
Nobody asked me, but …
In the meantime, Alex Newhook shouldn’t get too upset over getting cut from the U18s. Daniel Cleary came up short three straight years in his attempt to make Canada’s world junior squad. And Cleary did OK, appearing in more than 1,000 NHL games … Blair Bursey of Gander has finished his four years of NCAA DI golf at Utah Valley University and plans to turn pro. The Gander Golf Club is staging a fundraising tournament on Aug. 25, and Bursey is currently seeking sponsorship to assist him along the way (playing professional golf isn’t cheap). Bursey was a first-team all-Western Athletic Conference all-star, although he didn’t exactly light it up at the Canadian men’s amateur this week in Duncan, B.C., falling short of making the cut … Have to admire the rowers in the Royal St. John’s Regatta. Well, the elite ones, anyway. They train their guts out for seven or eight months, and for what, a shot at five championships – Discovery Day (which is a joke), the Time Trials (held in a hurricane this year), Placentia Regatta (which few elite crews attend), the Harbour Grace Regatta (that no one attends) and St. John’s. And if the wind is up at Quidi Vidi on the first Wednesday in August, well, c’est la vie. Which would drive me nuts … And speaking of Discovery Day, drive downtown and count the number of vacant buildings. Yet all some members of this City Council can be concerned about is renaming the Discovery Day holiday …
Great all-Newfoundland senior baseball final last weekend (St. John’s-Corner Brook series went the limit, won by the Caps). And I understand the last four games at St. Pat’s drew healthy crowds. The St. John’s Capitals’ win was their 18th in the past 19 years. Hands up who else is tired with this. To the baseball crowd, a Caps-Barons all-Newfoundland is the ultimate but to the casual sports fan, it’s met with a collective shrug of the shoulders. Which brings us to Baseball Newfoundland and Labrador. Perhaps it’s time to stray from its template used last year, and the year before that, and the year before that (you get the drift) and come up with some kind of new format to generate a bit of interest for the senior championship. Maybe it means some kind of tournament format. Or how about considering going outside the province and exploring some kind of playdown with the Nova Scotia and/or New Brunswick senior baseball leagues. Just a thought, but baseball should start looking forward. The ol’ Caps-Barons thing is old …
Hats off to the St. John’s Regatta Committee for keeping everything together on a tight Regatta Day schedule last week … Like the Newfoundland Growlers duds. Plain, but nice. Not wacky at all, as some ECHL jerseys tend to be. That said, keeping in the spirit of the ECHL and some of its fun promotions, I’m looking forward to seeing what the Growlers have up their sleeve. How about these few: Newfoundland Elvis night, Mummers Night, Rabbit Huntin’ Night (when the Greenville Swamp Rabbits come to town, minus the firearms, of course), Townie/Bayman Night? I’ll leave it to the Growlers to figure out how to run those stunts …
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor. He can be reached by email at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
