ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — For Dawson Mercer, November started very well, while the middle part of the month was pretty much a washout. But in the last few days, things have picked up again for the 18-year-old from Bay Roberts.
For two weeks, Mercer didn’t play any games for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs as he served a six-game suspension handed out for a dangerous hit to the head of an opponent in a Nov. 2 game against the Val d’Or Foreurs.
The penance was dispensed just after what had been a highlight couple of days for Mercer, who was considered one of the top players, if not the best player, for a QMJHL all-star entry in a two-game series against a team of Russian juniors.
Mercer returned to action last Thursday and had a goal, two assists and a plus-two rating in the two games since, both Drummondville victories. That included a second-star performance in a 3-2 win over the Rimouski Oceanic and Alexis Lafreniere, the presumptive first overall pick in the 2020 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
And the last couple of days, there have been a few high-profile prognostications reinforcing the growing belief Mercer will be a first-round selection in the same draft.
One of them came from TSN’s Craig Button in his latest instalment of Craig’s List, as he rank’s draft prospects.
Just about a month ago, Button noted Mercer hadn’t been listed in TSN’s pre-season and early-season draft rankings, but promised it would change. He lived up to that promise on Monday, placing Mercer 26th on the November edition of his predicted first-round list of 31.
At thehockeywriters.com, Josh Bell has Mercer slotted even higher, suggesting the right-winger will go 21st overall.
And although it isn’t a draft ranking, a column from junior hockey specialist Sam Cosentino posted on Sportsnet website over the weekend augurs well for Mercer’s future. In the piece, Cosentino presents 33 players, including 15 forwards, he feels deserve invitations to next month’s Hockey Canada selection camp for the team to represent the country at the 2020 world junior championship.
Cosentino has Mercer listed among the forwards, which has to be a boost to the hopes of the third-year QMJHLer. Remember, Mercer hadn’t been among the 27 forwards who had received invitations to the Canadian junior summer development camp and corresponding July Showcase tournament in Michigan. And there were suggestions his six-game suspension would hurt his chances at getting to the selection camp beginning Dec. 9 in Oakville, Ont., since it meant there was less opportunity for the Team Canada braintrust, including head coach Dale Hunter and general manager Mark Hunter, to judge his performance heading into the selection process.
Cosentino doesn’t feel that way, writing that Mercer “opened a lot of eyes at the CIBC Canada-Russia Series.”
Mercer isn’t the only Newfoundlander on Cosentino’s camp list. St. John’s native Alex Newhook is there, too, although that may be a bit less noteworthy, considering Newhook was at the summer development camp and Showcase and has a higher profile, seeing as he was a first-round draft pick, 16th overall, of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche last June.
(By the way, even though Newhook and Mercer are 18 and both have 2001 birth years, Mercer’s Oct. 27 birthday was six weeks beyond the Entry Draft’s Sept, 15, 2001 cutoff. That’s why he wasn’t eligible while Newhook, who was born on Jan. 28, was part of the process.)
“Can play with pace and produce, but would likely have to play back-end minutes,” said Cosentino about Newhook, who is in first year at Boston College, where the five-foot-10, 175-pound forward has five goals and three assists in his first 11 university-level games, putting him fourth in scoring on the Eagles.
The six-foot, 180-pound Mercer has 17 goals and 17 assists in 21 games with Drummondville. Despite his missing those six games because of the suspension, Mercer’s 34 points still put him second on the Voltigeurs and in the top 15 in the entire QMJHL.
If Mercer is chosen in the first round next June in Montreal, it will mark only the second time that players born in Newfoundland were opening-round selections in back-to-back drafts. The first occurrence was in the mid 1990s when Baie Verte-born Brad Brown (taken eighth overall in 1994) and Mount Pearl’s Terry Ryan Jr. (eighth overall in 1995) were chosen in successive drafts by the Montreal Canadiens.
Brown moved from Newfoundland to Ontario with his family at a young age and played his minor hockey in suburban Toronto.
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