FRISCO, Texas– How did this happen? How did the Dallas Stars drop down in the 2021 NHL Draft and steal center Wyatt Johnston with the 23rd pick? How did that help you land defenseman Chris Tanev as well?
It’s a fascinating story involving the COVID-19 pandemic, the building where the stars practice, and Hockey Hall of Famer Paul Coffey, who is now an assistant for the other team in the Western Conference finals, the Edmonton Oilers. .
Johnston, who turned 21 on May 14, led the Stars with 32 goals in the regular season and leads them with seven goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Stars and Oilers are tied 1-1 in the best-of-7 series after Dallas won 3-1 in Game 2 on Saturday.
“I could lie and say I knew I was going to do that from a young age,” Dallas amateur scouting director Joe McDonnell said Friday, laughing over the phone. “But things don’t work like that. “It sure has exceeded (expectations).”
Johnston scored 30 points (12 goals, 18 assists) in 53 games for Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League in 2019-20. Then the pandemic arrived. The OHL did not play in 2020-21, which meant Johnston was unable to play junior hockey in his draft year.
The only hockey he was able to play was for Canada at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship, which was held from April 26 to May 6 in Frisco and Plano, Texas. Johnston played seven games, the last three in Frisco at the Comerica Center, the building where the Stars practice.
“It was on this rink where we scouted Wyatt,” Dallas general manager Jim Nill said Wednesday during a news conference on the concourse, with the seats and ice in the background.
Johnston didn’t necessarily stand out. Canada won gold, led by forward Shane Wright, who scored 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in five games, and Connor Bedard, who scored 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in seven games. Johnston scored four points (two goals, two assists) in seven games in a third-line, checking role.
But McDonnell had seen Johnston in Windsor in 2019-20, as had Dallas amateur scout Jimmy Johnston.
“I kind of focused on him,” McDonnell said. “His hockey sense was off the charts and you could see that he was capable of playing as a first-line center on that team. But he was just the coach, that’s where he put him, and he handled it, and he was really good.”
McDonnell did some research.
“We just did a lot of background checks with different people,” he said. “It was just that a quality kid, a quality individual, was raised the right way. Obviously the parents did a great job.”
For one of his background checks, McDonnell called Coffey.
He and Coffey were defense partners with Kitchener of the OHL in 1979-80. He played in the minors in the Edmonton organization, while Coffey played for the Oilers from 1982 to 1984, and they crossed paths with the Detroit Red Wings in 1995 to 1996, with Coffey as a player and he as an amateur scout.
As it happened, Coffey worked with Johnston with the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League from 2018-19.
“I called him to get a brief history of Wyatt during his training,” McDonnell said. “It was kind of fun. He hadn’t spoken to Paul since he was in Detroit with us.”
The 2021 NHL Draft was held July 23-24, delayed a month and held virtually due to the pandemic. Johnston was not a good candidate.
“No one was really talking about him for the draft or anything like that,” McDonnell said. “That’s where I told Jim, ‘I think maybe we can negotiate and we can get it later in that first round.’”
The Stars had the 15th pick.
“I said, ‘Joe, are you sure? Are you sure this is your guy?’” Nill said. “Because we are relying on limited information. And he and his staff were adamant that this was the man, and they made the decision and they made the right decision.”
The Stars traded the No. 15 pick to the Detroit Red Wings for the No. 23 pick, a second-round pick (No. 48) and a fifth-round pick (No. 138). They selected Johnston at No. 23. They selected forward Logan Stankoven at No. 47 and defenseman Artem Grushnikov at No. 48.
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