Vancouver Canucks prospects Ty Young and Sawyer Mynio faced off in the WHL playoffs not too long ago, but they're now soaking in experience at development camp.
While Day 2 of the 2023 NHL draft was unfolding in Nashville last Thursday, Ty Young and the Vancouver Canucks' four other goaltending prospects were early arrivals at their team's development camp, going through testing ahead of Sunday's first day of full-group on-ice activity.
These camps are important opportunities for prospects to learn and show their stuff. But after being selected by the Canucks in the fifth round a year ago, Young admitted that he spent part of his testing day keeping tabs on the draft status of his Prince George Cougars teammates Riley Heidt and Koehn Ziemmer.
"Every chance I got, I kind of looked at my phone to see if they got taken," said Young. "When they did, I sent them a text right away. It was awesome for them."
Both top-10 scorers in the WHL last season, Heidt landed with the Minnesota Wild at end of the second round. Ziemmer went to the Los Angeles Kings at No. 78 midway through the third.
Eleven picks after that, at No. 89, Young's Canucks selected defenseman Sawyer Mynio from the Seattle Thunderbirds.
And while you might think that the junior hockey connection would create a bond between the Canucks' only two WHL prospects at camp, Young may not be fully over last April's second-round playoff series. He was called into action in place of injured starter Tyler Brennan, but the Cougars were swept in decisive fashion as the Thunderbirds steamrolled their way to the WHL championship.
"Maybe there's still a little bad blood; you never know," said Young with a sly smile after the Canucks' first full day of camp on Sunday. "I haven't talked to him yet, but it's pretty cool to see him get drafted here, too."
In all likelihood, the Thunderbirds and the Cougars will pick up their rivalry this fall — with both Canucks prospects in elevated roles. Young should be in position to become Prince George's full-time start now that Brennan has signed his entry-level contract with the New Jersey Devils and turns 20 in September, so he'll probably move into the pro ranks. And Mynio should climb the defensive depth chart in Seattle after the Thunderbirds' triple threat of Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan and Luke Prokop move up to the next level.
Fittingly, the two players will also be on opposite sides for the Canucks' Wednesday-evening scrimmage, which wraps up their development camp.
With Group A, Young will share the net with newly acquired Belarusian stopper Nikita Tolopilo, a 23-year-old who was signed as a free agent after a stellar 2022-23 campaign in Sweden's Allsvenskan.
Mynio will be patrolling the blueline with the Group B defense corps. That group will also include Vancouver's newest first-round pick, Tom Willander, and 2022 third-rounder Elias Pettersson — generally known around these parts as 'D-Petey,' for reasons you can probably surmise.
After finishing his second major junior season with a whopping plus-50 which put him in the top 10 in the WHL, left-shooting Mynio recognizes that his first pro development camp is a chance to show what he can do while also learning all he can — especially with Hall of Famers like Daniel and Henrik Sedin on the ice as mentors.
"I think just having my ears open, soaking the experience all in, it's my first one," he said Sunday. "I got drafted two days ago so it's a pretty quick turnaround. But I think just showing my work ethic here and what I bring to my game — I think it'll do me good."
Still 18 until September but now at his second development camp, Young is carrying himself with more certainty this time around.
"I have a little bit more experience and kind of know what it's about here," he said. "Definitely a little more confident this year, but still just working hard and trying to show myself."
Is it more important to make a strong impression with skills or to stay open to taking in all the information that Canucks goaltending guru Ian Clark and AHL Abbotsford goaltending coach Marko Torenius have to offer?
"I think it has to be a little bit of both," Young said. "You obviously want to show that you want to stick around here and that you're good enough to stick around here. But as well, you want to show that you're not at your full potential.
"You want to still be a sponge, taking stuff in. And the biggest thing is that you want to show them that you can still learn and get better. You don't want to tell them that 'Oh, this is the best goalie that I'm going to be.' That's not what you want to do. You want to show them you're improving and have the ability to improve, but also just just take in everything."