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Score One For The Little Guy - Apr. 03, 2017 – Vol. 70, Issue 13 - Ryan Kennedy

LAST YEAR, I WATCHED several webcast games featuring Avon Old Farms, the Connecticut prep school that produced NHLers Jonathan Quick, Cam Atkinson and Nick Bonino. The Winged Beavers (amazing nickname) had a couple draft-eligible prospects, most notably Jamie Armstrong. Or so I thought. Every time I watched, the power forward was overshadowed by a 5-foot-7, 150-pound waterbug named Patrick Harper. Some scouts thought he was too small to draft, but the Nashville Predators had no beef and grabbed the skilled center in the fifth round. Armstrong, whose skating was a concern, went undrafted.

This season, Harper is a freshman with Boston University, where he is one of the Terriers’ top scorers and a world junior gold medallist with Team USA. The only freshman to fare better than Harper in Boston this season is Clayton Keller – who’s not exactly a physical monster himself.

Keller is the Terriers’ leading scorer and played an even bigger role on America’s golden junior squad, earning post-tourney allstar honors. At 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds, Keller’s not that much bigger than Harper (who is now listed at 5-foot-9). But the Arizona Coyotes saw so much promise that they took him seventh overall in 2016. While Keller isn’t Johnny Gaudreau small, Keller is one of the only sub-5-foot-11 players to go top-10 in the draft in recent years, and that’s in a climate where Atkinson plays in the All-Star Game and Patrick Kane reigns as one of the NHL’s biggest offensive threats. I asked Coyotes GM John Chayka about ignoring the size bias at the draft, and he was firm in his newly minted selection. “He has excelled at every level,” Chayka said. “When you’re as smart and creative as he is, size isn’t a limiting factor.”

Drafting players not blessed with big frames has been like turning around a battleship for NHL franchises, especially since they love battleships. The adage was if you whiff on a big kid, he can turn into an enforcer or a bottom-sixer. Whiff on a small guy and he’s an AHLer at best.

But that was the old NHL, where clutching and grabbing was an intractable dark art and teams actually drafted fighters. Though the league’s not perfect right now, smaller players can succeed, and Keller leads the next generation as our No. 1 prospect in Future Watch in his first year of eligibility.

When you watch the Terriers play, you don’t see a onedimensional power play threat in Keller. If anything, opposing teams have to be just as wary of him when he’s killing a penalty, as the speedy and crafty pivot is at the top of the conference when it comes to shorthanded goals. He has already caught the eye of Kane, who met Keller after the WJC and has watched BU games on TV. Does the Blackhawks star see a bit of himself in the youngster? “You can see the similarities,” Kane said. “He’s not overly big, but he makes a lot of plays and creates offensive chances. He’s a kid I’ll be following, especially once he gets to Arizona.”

HE HAS EXCELLED AT EVERY LEVEL. WHEN YOU’RE AS SMART AND CREATIVE AS HE IS, SIZE ISN’T A LIMITING FACTOR – JOHN CHAYKA, COYOTES GM

What may be the most fascinating battle of the future for Keller will come once he leaves college – and it shouldn't be long before that happens. Arizona needs a front-line center for its rebuild, and up until this season, the consensus was Dylan Strome was that guy. After all, Strome had the size, smarts and points to justify going third overall in the 2015 draft behind Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel (but before the smaller Mitch Marner). He was the No. 1 prospect in Future Watch 2016. Now, skating concerns dog Strome, who was sent to junior by the Coyotes after a seven-game NHL stint that produced one assist. Does this open the door for Keller? That may be the biggest mindbender for those of us who look conservatively at hockey’s future, but speed is destiny in today’s game. The Coyotes apparently see him starting his NHL career on the wing, where there is less responsibility and size isn’t as much of a measuring stick. But we’ve seen smaller players blow up previously held notions before, so why can’t it happen again with Keller?

With a number of smaller, elite players such as Eeli Tolvanen and Jack Hughes coming down the pipeline in the next few drafts, it will be interesting to see if Keller’s success and draft slot impact the game at large. At the least, the Coyotes will be pretty happy with their investment in the skill-trumps-size debate.

Schaefer’s Historic Night And a Controversial Call Hand Mammoth a 3-2 Overtime Loss It was looking to be a quiet night for Matthew Schaefer against the Utah Mammoth defense.

Utah Mammoth Snaps Losing Streak, Score Five Unanswered Goals in 5-2 Win Over Buffalo The Sabres were up 2-0 after a defensive breakdown from the Mammoth allowed Isak Rosen to score his second goal of the game. The energy for Utah Mammoth was low, turnovers in their own zone were increasing and Buffalo was getting freebies at the net one after another. 

From THN's Archive: Second Effort Keller’s flashy rookie season couldn’t save the Coyotes. But hope springs eternal

From THN's Archive: Score One For The Little Guy