There are many different paths a player can take to the WHL.
There’s the high bantam draft pick who’s destined to make the team as soon as possible as a 16-year-old. Then there’s the unheralded and undrafted player who has to open eyes to earn a roster spot.
Carson Samoridny qualifies as the latter, but even for someone in that category his route to the WHL was a roundabout one.
Samoridny’s WHL career may have gotten off to a delayed start, but the Everett Silvertips winger is determined to prove he belongs for good.
“It’s been kind of nuts, not how things usually go,” Samoridny said. “But it’s good to be back.”
It’s been a busy three months for Samoridny as the 17-year-old bounced between Everett and his native Alberta on multiple occasions. But his play upon joining the Tips two weeks ago means he’s now in Everett for good.
“He’s been real good,” Everett coach Mark Ferner said. “He’s certainly doing the things we’re asking him to do. He’s played in three games and he’s been real good in all three.”
This isn’t the first time Samoridny has had to take the long road. His path just to get on a WHL protected list was circuitous, too.
He went unselected in the 2009 bantam draft, then attended training camp with the Tips as a 15-year-old without being listed. Last year as a 16-year-old, he attended camp with Spokane and again wasn’t picked up. But his play last season with the St. Albert Raiders of the Alberta Midget Hockey League, where he had 22 goals and 20 assists in 34 games, finally convinced the Tips to find a place for Samoridny on their protected list.
Samoridny signed a WHL education contract and seemed certain to make Everett’s roster out of training camp. The Tips were rebuilding, and a 17-year-old who measures in at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds and has a goal-scoring touch appeared to be just what Everett needed. But Samoridny struggled in preseason games, and he was one of the last players to get cut.
“I just wasn’t playing up to my potential,” Samoridny said. “I wasn’t as comfortable as I should have been. I didn’t have as much confidence as I usually do with the puck and was a little hesitant to make plays.”
Rather than pout after being cut, Samoridny decided he would do everything he could to rediscover his game. He was reasigned to the Spruce Grove Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and after a slow start he found his groove, notching nine goals and two assists in 15 games. He was in the midst of a seven-game goal-scoring streak when fate intervened and sent him back to Everett.
In early November, the Tips were traveling through Alberta and found themselves short of available bodies. Samoridny, being based in Alberta, was called in as an emergency fill-in. The Samoridny who joined the Tips in Lethbridge was the one the team was expecting to see during the preseason.
“When he came to training camp he really struggled for some reason,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “He wasn’t himself, and he was the last cut. It was a setback, but he went back to the Alberta League and got himself going. He’s now the player we were hoping for in training camp.”
Said Samoridny: “I’m just more poised with the puck now and more poised when I get on the ice. I believe in myself a lot more. I guess you could call it swagger or confidence, and it’s really helping a lot.”
The Tips invited Samoridny to remain with the team the remainder of the season. But Samoridny was conflicted as he found himself pulled in different directions with both the Tips and the Saints wanting him. After some wavering, which included a brief trip back home after returning to Everett with the team from Alberta, he decided to spend the remainder of the season in Everett.
“I think I was a little more conflicted than I should have been,” said Samoridny, who admitted to being shocked by Everett’s offer. “It’s kind of hard to leave a group of guys you’ve made friends with and grown up with. It was a hard decision, but I think I made the right one.”
With the Tips dealing with a rash of injuries and suspensions, Samoridny already finds himself getting substantial minutes, playing primarily on Everett’s third line and even getting some power-play time.
“He’s a big body who can make plays,” Ferner said. “He’s a smart hockey player, he has the ability to score. Everything he does he does hard and that’s what we like. He’s still a young kid at 17, but he’s got real good instincts out there and has the ability to put the puck in the net.”
And now he knows Everett is where he belongs.
Slap shots
Everett’s leading scorer Josh Birkholz remains questionable for tonight’s home game against Portland because of a knee injury sustained during Everett’s 3-2 victory over Portland last Saturday. … Everett had two players listed in the NHL Central Scouting Service’s preliminary rankings for the 2012 NHL draft. Defenseman Ryan Murray, who’s currently out with a sprained ankle, is listed as the top skater from the WHL. Defenseman Nick Walters was ranked the WHL’s 10th-best skater. … Everett prospect Carson Stadnyk signed a WHL education contract with the Tips, committing his future to the team. Stadnyk, a 16-year-old center, was Everett’s eighth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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