EVERETT — Kyle Beach hopped on a plane for Chicago on Sunday, and the Everett Silvertips are crossing their fingers it turns out to be a round-trip ticket.
It’s reached that time of year again, where drafted junior players head off to NHL training camps. Everett may not have a large number of players going to camps this season, but the two they do — winger Beach and defenseman Taylor Ellington — are the type who have a chance of sticking in the pros and therefore not returning to Everett.
Beach and Ellington, who departed Thursday for camp with the Vancouver Canucks, are not expected back in time for Everett’s season opener Friday at Kamloops.
If they return at all.
“By this point I’m used to guys leaving, so you get a little resilient to it,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “We wish both boys well. I think we expect both to potentially come back, but they still have the opportunity to make teams.”
The bigger worry concerns Beach. The talented and tempermental 18-year-old was taken 11th overall in this year’s NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. Unlike Ellington, who as a 20-year-old is eligible to play professionally in the minors, Beach would have to crack Chicago’s NHL roster not to return, a significantly more difficult task.
However, the Blackhawks had great success with a pair of 19-year-old forwards last season, with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews finishing 1-3 in the Calder Trophy voting for rookie of the year. Therefore, Chicago may be more disposed toward keeping a young player.
“I think I’m definitely ready,” Beach responded when asked if he thinks he’s ready for the NHL. “I think I’m big enough, and I’m going to go there and try and prove that. I think my hockey play is where it needs to be. Obviously it can always be better, but hopefully I’ll be able to crack a spot.”
And it’s not so much the probability of Beach not returning that is worrisome for the Tips, but the type of player Everett would lose if it happened. In the case of Ellington, Everett has a reasonable amount of experience available on defense, and if he doesn’t return it opens up another overager spot.
But Beach is Everett’s only proven goal scorer. With no other returning player with more than 17 goals last season, and with eight rookies up front, Beach’s loss would be devastating.
But the Tips aren’t dwelling on the possibility of losing either player, though they will have to learn how to get along without them for at least a couple games.
“Neither organization has given us any indication they’re keeping them,” Becanic said. “Ellington can stay in Manitoba, and the American Hockey League camps aren’t until the start of October, so there’s the potential he could be gone all the way through early to mid October.”
As for Beach, he’s ready for the challenge.
When he attended Chicago’s rookie training camp in July it was his first time back on the ice following April surgery to repair a sports hernia. He wasn’t yet up to speed then, so he’s anxious to show the Blackhawks brass what he can do at full strength.
“I feel good,” Beach said. “I’d like to be in a bit better shape strength wise and weightlifting wise, but I feel I’m in good game shape and that should help me out.
“I really don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m going there with an open mind, I’m going to work hard and we’ll see what happens.”
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