Thursday, October 15, 2015 // FACEOFF 2015
3C
Werenski a bright spot in downward trend
I
t was 3:00 in the afternoon
on March 26. Red Berenson
walked into the media room
at Yost Ice Arena, took a seat in
his usual chair and drank two
sips of black coffee before saying
a word. Disappointment flowed
through his body.
His team’s
captain,
Andrew
Copp, had
just decided
to forgo his
senior season,
opting to
sign with the
Winnipeg Jets
on a deal that
Copp would
later say was too good to pass
up. But to the Michigan coach,
no offer could surpass becoming
a two-time captain and playing
your senior season at Michigan.
“I just wish he would stay and
do it right — graduate with your
teammates and classmates and
take this team to another level,”
Berenson said at the time. “I
just told Andrew that I hope he
makes it and plays in the NHL
next year because I will feel sick
if he is playing in the minors
and giving up his senior year at
Michigan to play in the American
Hockey League.”
Copp has since defied the odds
and landed a spot on the Jets’
roster. However, Berenson has
seen too many players leave early
and not make it to the highest
level. Phillip Di Guiseppe hasn’t
played an NHL game. Neither
has Alex Guptill, or even Chris
Brown, a former first-round pick
who played just two seasons at
Michigan. And that’s just a small
sample.
Sure, Copp’s decision was his
to make, and it already looks
like he made the correct choice.
However, the odds weren’t
initially high.
When any 21-year-old is
presented with an offer for
just under one million dollars
— knowing he could also get
severely hurt in his senior season
— it’s too hard and too much
cash to pass up. But who is to say,
injury aside, that Copp or Guptill
or Brown wouldn’t have received
a similar offer the year after?
“When the money is there, you
have to go,” said St. Louis Blues
head coach Ken Hitchcock, who
was in Ann Arbor for a team
practice. “It’s the tough nature
of the business. You’d like that to
change, though.”
That’s a tough pill to swallow
for college hockey fans.
It’s a shame that the NHL
franchises are prying prospects
away from college just to ensure
control, even if it’s detrimental
to their development. And it’s a
shame that players buy into these
often-false promises and realities.
***
S
ophomore defenseman
Zach Werenski watched
Copp leave. He watched his
former roommate Dylan Larkin
sign his deal. And he watched
Noah Hanifin, the fifth pick of the
draft and one of his best friends,
turn pro.
But Werenski wasn’t so keen
on that route. Yet. He understood
his time to play in the show would
come.
“When you take a step back and
talk with your family,” Werenski
said, “you realize everyone has a
different path.”
On March 22, when Michigan
lost in the Big Ten title game
to Minnesota, Werenski wasn’t
thinking about his future. He
was disappointed he let down
his senior class and only thought
of avenging the loss, saying the
Wolverines had “unfinished
business.”
But that quickly changed in
June when he attended the NHL
combine.
“I talked to a lot of teams at the
combine,” Werenski said. “There
were some teams that said if we
draft you and we tell you to leave,
you have to leave. But other teams
like Columbus said I could do
whatever I wanted.
“It’s tough when an NHL team
comes to you and says you can
shine and try and make our team,
because that is ultimately your
dream, right?”
He’s right. It’s the dream of all
these players. But the idea that an
NHL team would demand a player
skip the four best years of his life,
sometimes
against his
will, to bus
around the
United States,
playing in front
of smaller
crowds than
Yost Ice Arena
is sickening.
Shocking, really.
And it only got worse as
Werenski clarified the process.
“It’s not like they say, ‘If we
take you, you’re coming,’ ” he said.
“There was one team, I won’t
name the team, that told me, ‘If
we take you, and say that you
can play in the NHL, would you
come?’ And you just say yes or no.
And obviously it’s a yes because
it’s the NHL.
“And then they go, ‘If we take
you and we say you’re going to the
AHL will you go?’ They go based
on your word. So if you tell them
yes, then the guy looks at you says,
‘Well you just said yes, so if we
take you and you go against your
word, then you are dead to us.’ ”
Dead to us? Really? How many
18-year olds are the saviors of a
franchise, anyway? Sure, there
were Sidney Crosby, Jonathan
Toews and Patrick Kane. Perhaps
Connor McDavid, touted as the
next Wayne Gretzky before even
playing one pro game, will join
that list. But those are once-in-
a-decade players. What about
the hundreds of others who end
up busing between Milwaukee,
Rockford,
Albany,
Syracuse,
Orlando, Fort
Wayne and
more? You
don’t hear
about those.
And probably
never will.
The fact that Werenski felt
“relieved” when Columbus drafted
him because teams drafting
around them would force him to
bolt the place he loved is a sobering
reality. Even worse, he’s not the
only player who feels that way.
***
S
teve Shields won 111 games
as Michigan’s goalie
from 1990-94. He led the
Wolverines to two Frozen Four
appearances and went on to play
12 seasons in the NHL.
He understands the process.
He knows players who have
taken every route to the pros. So
it annoys Shields when players
leave college with the allure of
accomplishing their dream only
to be placed in the AHL — or even
a lower league — and miss out on
their junior and senior seasons.
“The experience when you’re
here, you can never duplicate,”
Shields said of Michigan. “Of all
the guys I have ever spoken to,
I have never met one guy who
left and said he was glad he was
playing in the American Hockey
League or lower.
“If guys are leaving because
teams are promising them time
in the minors with a chance to
come up to the NHL, that’s not
the reason I went to school. That’s
not why most guys go to school.
That’s not why their parents want
them to go to school.”
Werenski realized this — a
rarity today, which is odd
considering many players have
had NHL success after four
years of college. Berenson
cites Columbus Blue Jackets
defenseman Jack Johnson and
former Hobey Baker-winner
Brendan Morrison as players
who benefited from staying all
four years. Both went on to have
successful NHL careers with
little time spent in the AHL.
Shields and Berenson do admit,
though, that there are times
when players are ready. Jacob
Trouba, for example, left after
his freshman season in 2013 and
ended up making an immediate
impact in Winnipeg. Larkin and
Copp are a couple others. But they
are not the majority.
“When you are ready or over
ready, you get to jump in and
make a splash,” Shields said. “But
when you’re not ready and you
jump in and don’t make a splash,
then the team is already looking
at the next guy coming up.”
So why not wait? Will a team
really pass on your potential if
you simply want to stay in college
an extra year? As Berenson noted,
until a player signs his contract,
they “are in the driver’s seat.”
Werenski figured that out. Now,
he’ll have an opportunity to lead
Michigan back to the Frozen Four.
Rubinstein can be reached
at jasonbr@umich.edu and
on Twitter @jrubinstein4.
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Sophomore defender Zach Werenski passed up the NHL to return to Michigan and will have an opportunity to lead as a reward.
JASON
RUBINSTEIN
“When the
money is there,
you have to go.”