Published: Friday, October 24, 2008
Worth the wait for the Silvertips
Everett didn't rush Kellan Tochkin into the WHL, allowing him to mature and develop his skills, and now the first-round pick in the 2006 bantam draft is off to a rollicking start in his rookie season
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Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Everett's Kellan Tochkin (16) battles Vancouver's Simon Witt for the puck in the first period of the Silvertips' game against the Giants on Sept. 20.
EVERETT -- For Kellan Tochkin and the Everett Silvertips it's been all about patience.
Patience on the Tips' part, recognizing it wasn't worth rushing Tochkin to the WHL just because he was a first-round bantam pick.
Patience on Tochkin's part in understanding he needed one more year of growth and development before he was ready for this level.
And that patience has been rewarded big-time so far this season, both for Tochkin and the Tips.
After a delayed start to his WHL career, Tochkin is now showing the skills that made him such a hot commodity in the 2006 bantam draft, and he's off to the kind of start he could only have dreamed of for his rookie season.
Even if that rookie season came a year later than he would have liked.
"That whole year away (from the Tips) I think was really good for me," Tochkin said. "It was a good wakeup for me, I was really humbled. It just made me work that much harder throughout the year and come in this year with a new and healthy attitude."
Tochkin is off to a flying start. In his first 11 games the 17-year-old right wing from Abbotsford, B.C., tallied four goals and nine assists. Seven of those points came in Everett's past three games, all victories. He currently sits fourth in the league in scoring among rookies, with a greater per-game scoring rate than the three players above him.
"It's somewhat surprising, but then it's not surprising because he's done this at every level he's been at," Everett coach John Becanic said about Tochkin's quick start. "All the things offensive playmakers need he has. Offensively, his last two or three games speak for themselves."
But flash back a year earlier and this kind of instant impact would have been a pipe dream.
Expectations were high for Tochkin, whom the Tips selected with the 13th-overall pick in 2006, at last season's training camp. He'd been a prolific wherever he played, racking up 107 points in 49 games as a 14-year-old bantam player, then leading the British Columbia Major Midget League with 68 points in 37 games as a 15-year-old.
The thought was Tochkin would play for the Tips as a 16-year-old. After all, every first-round pick who preceded Tochkin cracked Everett's roster at 16.
However, Tochkin had a rough camp. Often appearing overmatched physically when facing WHL-caliber competition, Tochkin did little to impress and was cut. He ended up being the only first rounder from the 2006 draft who didn't appear in the WHL last season.
"In those preseason games I was just all over the map," Tochkin recalled. "I didn't have a clue what to do, I was scared. The other players were a lot bigger and a lot stronger. I just didn't come ready to play last year, that's why I didn't stay."
The question was whether Tochkin would ever overcome those physical shortcomings. For all his skill with the puck, Tochkin is a small guy (5-foot-9, 176 pounds) who was not blessed with blazing footspeed. In order to compete at the WHL level Tochkin needed to get stronger and faster, so the Tips told him to work on those areas during the season.
Tochkin took the advice to heart. He began working out more seriously, started taking power skating lessons, and had fantastic season for the junior B Ridge Meadows Flames of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League (two levels below the WHL). Playing against physically-mature players as old as 20, Tochkin racked up 24 goals and 35 assists in 32 games. That was good for 12th in the league in scoring and fourth in points per game.
"It was good for my confidence," Tochkin said about his season at junior B. "I was a top-six forward and got power-play time. It was tough at the start, but I realized getting another year with my family was really good for me. Now at 17 I'm ready to leave home where at 16 I still needed to be at home, and I got to have another year of school with my friends. But this year I'm ready and I'm loving it so far."
How much is Tochkin loving it? He has now caught and even surpassed many of his fellow 2006 first rounders, at least as numbers go. Among those 21 players just Vancouver's Evander Kane and Kelowna's Tyson Barrie currently rank ahead of Tochkin in scoring.
He also seems to have found a home on a line with fellow 17-year-old rookies Byron Froese and Tyler Maxwell. Those three have been a terror as Everett's top line of Kyle Beach, Daniel Bartek and Shane Harper has absorbed the attention of the opposition's top defensive players.
"We're all happy," Becanic said. "Our coaching staff is happy, Doug (Soetaert, Everett's general manager) is happy, and I think Kellan's happy with where he's at now. I'm not so sure he'd be where he's at now if he had played here last year. I don't know if he would have had the confidence he had going into this year. He's been a pleasure to coach."
And through it all Tochkin learned the value of patience.
"When I was 15 and just getting drafted I wanted to come here right away and suit up that summer," Tochkin said. "Then I was constantly wondering if they were going to call me up. That year off, not talking to anyone here, let me refocus and set up my goals. It ended up being awesome and I don't think it could have gone any better as a 16-year-old."
So far it's going pretty well as a 17-year-old, too.
Slap shots: The Tips potted the 1,000th goal in franchise history during last Friday's 8-6 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. Subsequent research conducted by the team revealed that Bartek's second goal of the game was the milestone marker. ... Everett will not have the services of defensemen Shayne Brown this weekend because of a hip flexor injury. However, left wing Jordan Mistelbacher should be available after recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him for three games.
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Patience on the Tips' part, recognizing it wasn't worth rushing Tochkin to the WHL just because he was a first-round bantam pick.
Patience on Tochkin's part in understanding he needed one more year of growth and development before he was ready for this level.
And that patience has been rewarded big-time so far this season, both for Tochkin and the Tips.
After a delayed start to his WHL career, Tochkin is now showing the skills that made him such a hot commodity in the 2006 bantam draft, and he's off to the kind of start he could only have dreamed of for his rookie season.
Even if that rookie season came a year later than he would have liked.
"That whole year away (from the Tips) I think was really good for me," Tochkin said. "It was a good wakeup for me, I was really humbled. It just made me work that much harder throughout the year and come in this year with a new and healthy attitude."
Tochkin is off to a flying start. In his first 11 games the 17-year-old right wing from Abbotsford, B.C., tallied four goals and nine assists. Seven of those points came in Everett's past three games, all victories. He currently sits fourth in the league in scoring among rookies, with a greater per-game scoring rate than the three players above him.
"It's somewhat surprising, but then it's not surprising because he's done this at every level he's been at," Everett coach John Becanic said about Tochkin's quick start. "All the things offensive playmakers need he has. Offensively, his last two or three games speak for themselves."
But flash back a year earlier and this kind of instant impact would have been a pipe dream.
Expectations were high for Tochkin, whom the Tips selected with the 13th-overall pick in 2006, at last season's training camp. He'd been a prolific wherever he played, racking up 107 points in 49 games as a 14-year-old bantam player, then leading the British Columbia Major Midget League with 68 points in 37 games as a 15-year-old.
The thought was Tochkin would play for the Tips as a 16-year-old. After all, every first-round pick who preceded Tochkin cracked Everett's roster at 16.
However, Tochkin had a rough camp. Often appearing overmatched physically when facing WHL-caliber competition, Tochkin did little to impress and was cut. He ended up being the only first rounder from the 2006 draft who didn't appear in the WHL last season.
"In those preseason games I was just all over the map," Tochkin recalled. "I didn't have a clue what to do, I was scared. The other players were a lot bigger and a lot stronger. I just didn't come ready to play last year, that's why I didn't stay."
The question was whether Tochkin would ever overcome those physical shortcomings. For all his skill with the puck, Tochkin is a small guy (5-foot-9, 176 pounds) who was not blessed with blazing footspeed. In order to compete at the WHL level Tochkin needed to get stronger and faster, so the Tips told him to work on those areas during the season.
Tochkin took the advice to heart. He began working out more seriously, started taking power skating lessons, and had fantastic season for the junior B Ridge Meadows Flames of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League (two levels below the WHL). Playing against physically-mature players as old as 20, Tochkin racked up 24 goals and 35 assists in 32 games. That was good for 12th in the league in scoring and fourth in points per game.
"It was good for my confidence," Tochkin said about his season at junior B. "I was a top-six forward and got power-play time. It was tough at the start, but I realized getting another year with my family was really good for me. Now at 17 I'm ready to leave home where at 16 I still needed to be at home, and I got to have another year of school with my friends. But this year I'm ready and I'm loving it so far."
How much is Tochkin loving it? He has now caught and even surpassed many of his fellow 2006 first rounders, at least as numbers go. Among those 21 players just Vancouver's Evander Kane and Kelowna's Tyson Barrie currently rank ahead of Tochkin in scoring.
He also seems to have found a home on a line with fellow 17-year-old rookies Byron Froese and Tyler Maxwell. Those three have been a terror as Everett's top line of Kyle Beach, Daniel Bartek and Shane Harper has absorbed the attention of the opposition's top defensive players.
"We're all happy," Becanic said. "Our coaching staff is happy, Doug (Soetaert, Everett's general manager) is happy, and I think Kellan's happy with where he's at now. I'm not so sure he'd be where he's at now if he had played here last year. I don't know if he would have had the confidence he had going into this year. He's been a pleasure to coach."
And through it all Tochkin learned the value of patience.
"When I was 15 and just getting drafted I wanted to come here right away and suit up that summer," Tochkin said. "Then I was constantly wondering if they were going to call me up. That year off, not talking to anyone here, let me refocus and set up my goals. It ended up being awesome and I don't think it could have gone any better as a 16-year-old."
So far it's going pretty well as a 17-year-old, too.
Slap shots: The Tips potted the 1,000th goal in franchise history during last Friday's 8-6 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. Subsequent research conducted by the team revealed that Bartek's second goal of the game was the milestone marker. ... Everett will not have the services of defensemen Shayne Brown this weekend because of a hip flexor injury. However, left wing Jordan Mistelbacher should be available after recovering from an ankle injury that sidelined him for three games.
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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