Canadian university athletes are a rarity in the NHL, but some shining examples in recent years include Logan Thompson, Derek Ryan and Joel Ward.
When the school year ends for Canadian university students, it marks a new beginning for the graduating U Sports men’s hockey players – they enter a crossroads of making the jump to professional hockey or calling it a career and starting a new chapter of their lives.
Most U Sports hockey players who end up signing professional contracts will continue their careers in the minor leagues or over in Europe with the hope of one day making it to the NHL. And while it’s rare for U Sports athletes to crack an NHL roster, there have been exceptions. For example, in the salary-cap era, Joel Ward, Jody Shelley and Derek Ryan are former U Sports athletes who have played over 500 games in the NHL.
Meanwhile, Vegas Golden Knights netminder Logan Thompson is the most recent U Sports graduate to shine in the NHL and has the potential to be one of the league’s best goalies. Injuries derailed the second half of Thompson’s rookie NHL season, but the 26-year-old represented the Golden Knights at the NHL All-Star Game and was one of the best goalies in the Western Conference before getting hurt.
Thompson spent the 2018-19 season playing for the U Sports’ Brock Badgers in the OUA after finishing his WHL career and never being drafted to the NHL. He posted an 18-6-0 record at Brock with a .934 save percentage before signing a contract with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder.
“He’s a unique case,” said Luc Lobsinger, who was Thompson’s goalie coach at Brock. “I really believe that when we got him, he was the best undrafted 1997(-born) guy in the country.”
Lobsinger credits Thompson’s athleticism and mindset for elevating him above other U Sports goalies.
“He made the most of the opportunity,” Lobsinger said.
Thompson’s athleticism has carried over into the NHL, but something that he worked on at Brock – and continues to work on and it has contributed to his pro success – is playing bigger in the net.
“Being an athletic guy, sometimes he’d get a little bit deep in his stance,” Lobsinger said. “We wanted him to be comfortable in there, play his game and not get away from his natural ability. But also understanding that when you get to higher levels, any little extra added net coverage you can give yourself by being a little more upright in your posture would give him a better chance to make saves.”
The journey to The Show is rarely linear, and Thompson, like some of the other U Sports athletes who made it to the NHL before him, may have been overlooked and undervalued during his junior years.
Neither Ward nor Ryan put up numbers in junior that stood out, but both were star players in U Sports, and the rest of their respective hockey careers progressed similarly to plenty of current athletes.
Ward signed in the AHL with the now-defunct Houston Aeros, and Ryan played four seasons in Europe before he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2015.
In the NHL, Ward wasn’t the point-per-game producer he was at the University of Prince Edward Island, but his skill set allowed him to play a role in a team’s middle six and thrive. Ward used his size and strength to create space for himself and his teammates on the ice. He was strong on the forecheck, a good penalty-killer and well-liked in the dressing room. He used these skills to carve out a 726-game NHL career, which is quite rare for a U Sports player.
Ryan is the perfect example of a late bloomer. He was 29 years old when he made his NHL debut and has blossomed into a reliable fourth-liner who’s sound defensively and good at faceoffs. He reached 500 career NHL games this season.
“U Sports allowed him to flourish and gave him an opportunity to play when people passed over him at other levels,” said Lobsinger about Thompson’s university career.
U Sports has never been a feeder league to the NHL, and it probably never will be – but it could be on its way to becoming a market inefficiency. If players from U Sports have similar breakouts to the likes of Ward, Ryan and Thompson, we could see more alumni from the league playing games in The Show.
Thompson had NHL potential from the beginning of his time at Brock University, even if he went undrafted while in the WHL. Lobsinger said he wasn’t sure if it would be in the NHL for one game or a decade, but he believed Thompson would make it. Nevertheless, Thompson was overlooked because he was playing in U Sports. It’s a sign that NHL front offices still view U Sports athletes as long shots.
That said, if a U Sports alumnus plays well in the minor leagues or Europe, they may earn an NHL contract and become the next U Sports athlete to succeed in the NHL.
All three of Thompson, Ward and Ryan worked their way up the ranks and beat the odds to get to the NHL. All three are players praised for their work ethic and are prime examples of the cliche that if you’re good enough, someone will notice you.
Each player is an example of a late bloomer who found their role, and it helped them work their way up the ladder and make it to the NHL. They used U Sports as a stepping stone to a pro career, and as they improved as players, they ended up on teams’ radars and eventually lived their dream in the NHL.