Deven Sideroff of the Kamloops Blazers will likely be picked this weekend at the NHL Draft, while teammate Connor Ingram is not counting on being selected. The draft runs Friday and Saturday in Florida. Allen Douglas/KTW
Connor Ingram of the Kamloops Blazers is in with a chance of being selected at the NHL Draft. Allen Douglas/KTW
Deven Sideroff’s picture featured prominently in The Province’s sports section on Monday, above an article that suggested the Vancouver Canucks might consider nabbing him at the NHL Draft this weekend in Florida.
The 18-year-old Kamloops Blazers forward from Summerland is doing his best to keep focused on training at Crash Conditioning in Kelowna, but admits the attention is hard to ignore.
“I’m getting more and more excited as the week goes on,” said Sideroff, the right-winger who found a place on Kamloops’ first line in 2014-2015, playing alongside centre Matt Needham and left-winger Cole Ully.
“The next few days are going to be a little nerve-racking,” he said. “Getting attention from teams like the Canucks and other teams that are looking at me closely gives me confidence in my game and helps me push myself more and more in the gym to be a better player.”
Round 1 of the draft will be held Friday at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., with rounds 2 through 7 to be held on Saturday.
Sideroff finished last season with 17 goals and 42 points in 64 games and was 134th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2015 draft.
Many are pegging the lightning-quick forward to be a late-third to fifth-round pick this weekend.
Blazers’ goaltender Connor Ingram, 18, landed 19th among North American netminders in the year-end draft rankings and is not expecting to hear his name called this weekend.
“I haven’t been in serious contact with anyone, so nothing too exciting going on around here,” said Ingram, the backstop from Imperial, Sask., who finished last season with a 2.96 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
“You try your best not to get your hopes up. You don’t want to be disappointed, so you try and get away from it as much as possible.”
That Sideroff and Ingram are in the NHL Draft conversation is an accomplishment in itself, given both were passed on at the WHL Bantam Draft and forced to crack the Blazers’ roster as list players.
Sideroff, who made a name for himself in the midget ranks with Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton, was listed by the Blazers at the conclusion of training camp in 2012 and signed in January of 2013.
He played most of 2013-2014 at OHA before bursting onto the WHL scene last season, racing to the top of the rookie scoring race with 17 points after 16 games.
“I felt comfortable coming into the WHL as a 17-year-old rookie,” Sideroff said. “I felt that I had a good year and I accomplished a lot.”
The five-foot-11, 180-pound right-hand shot was 110th in the January mid-term rankings, with decreased production in the second half seeing him slide to 134th by season’s end.
KTW caught up with Canucks’ general manager Jim Benning on March 11, when he was in the Tournament Capital to watch the Blazers play the Prince George Cougars.
“I don’t mind that Sideroff,” said Benning, who was in town to watch Cougars’ top-prospect forward Jansen Harkins.
“He’s a hard-working kid and it seems like he’s having a pretty good year. I’ve got my eye on him.”
Vancouver will draft 23rd overall Friday, but is without a pick in the second and third rounds, so Benning will need to be smart with his selections the rest of the way — 114th (Round 4), 144th and 149th (Round 5) and 174th (Round 6).
The Canucks are not the only team with an eye on Sideroff, who earlier this month attended the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, where teams he spoke with included Chicago, New Jersey, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Anaheim and Vancouver.
“The first interview was nerve-racking, but then it was kind of the same questions after that, so you know what to expect,” said Sideroff, noting practices at the combine were strenuous.
“I never got any weird questions, but some teams were trying to throw guys off with weird things and seeing how they would react.
“One of my friends got asked, ‘What kind of beer do you prefer?’ It was kind of a hard question to answer.”
Ingram was listed by the Blazers in September of 2013 and went on to lead the Prince Albert Mintos to victory at the 2014 Telus Cup, the national midget championship.
He signed with the Blazers at training camp last summer.
“I went from not being able to make a midget AAA team to, a year-and-a-half later, being talked about for the [NHL] draft,” Ingram said. “It’s definitely been exciting. It’s been a long journey, but it’s been a fun one.”
If the Blazers’ goaltender is passed over this weekend, he will not be the first Ingram to be snubbed this year.
Mark Ingram, Connor’s brother, was a standout safety with the Saskatchewan Huskies in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport ranks, but was spurned at the CFL Draft in May.
“He had a lot better chance than I did and he didn’t get drafted,” said Ingram, who works part-time on a farm in the off-season.
Kamloops’ No. 1 goaltender might not have the depth of resume to attract an NHL team this weekend, but if he can return to the form he showed in the second half of the 2014-2015 WHL campaign, his professional-hockey dream will be alive and well.
Ingram was the WHL’s goaltender of the month in January after posting a record of 4-0-0-1, with a .955 save percentage and a 1.48 goals-against average.
Sideroff, who works in the summer at a paddleboard-surfing business on a beach in Penticton, will be following along closely to the draft, refreshing his browser and hoping to see his name pop up.
Ingram won’t be doing anything of the sort.
“I think that’s kind of a hex,” he said.”I won’t be following along but, hopefully, I get a phone call.”
Draft notes
Blazers’ defenceman Michael Fora, 19, was listed 205th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2015 draft.
Marc McNulty, also a blue-liner with the Blazers, will re-enter the draft this year.
The 20-year-old rearguard was picked in the sixth round, 169th overall, in 2013 by the Detroit Red Wings, but was not signed by the June 1, 2015, deadline.
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