Fresh from having his family and closest friends around him for Day 1 of the NHL Draft and all in his house watching team after team calls names that were not his, Sam Colangelo was understandably disappointed. But he remained upbeat about what Day 2 might bring forth.
Six rounds remained, even if they never contain the hype and attention that the first round holds. Hope was flowing freely again. And it didn’t take very long for hope to spin into elation.
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Of course, Colangelo was thrilled when his name was the fifth one called as a long Day 2 only started to get going. No more wondering. No more thinking about the night before. The Ducks made him the third of their eight draft choices for 2020. And the 18-year-old wasn’t the only one jumping for joy at that development.
“So, my phone was kind of blowing up,” Colangelo recalled. “I hadn’t really been looking at it. I happened to be looking at my phone and it was a FaceTime from him and I walked to the other room and he answered the phone. We actually had kind of talked about the possibility of me maybe going last night to the Ducks at 27. It didn’t happen.
“I answered the phone and he was just kind of screaming. He was pretty happy for me. He was just saying, ‘Let’s go.’ We were just both kind of going nuts. We were pretty excited.”
On the other end was Trevor Zegras doing the screaming. This wasn’t just Anaheim’s top pick from the previous draft showing some love to a new prospect. This was someone that Colangelo has known since the two were growing up playing in the New England youth hockey scene.
“I’ve been playing with or against Sammy my whole life,” Zegras told The Athletic. “I remember back in the day he played for the (Boston) Jr. Eagles and that was pretty much our rival. And at like 8 years old, I remember being scared to play this guy because he was the only kid taking slap shots.
“But he’s such a talented kid and works so hard, the sky is the limit for him. I can’t wait to hopefully one day play with him.”
Colangelo is already looking forward to that day. During a Zoom interview following his selection, he joked that his excitement was to the level of putting “a couple of holes in the wall” of his Massachusetts basement.
“He’s one of a kind,” Colangelo said of Zegras. “I’ve known Trevor since I was, I don’t know, maybe 6 or 7 years old. … He’s one of my best friends. I haven’t really seen him and been able to hang out with him too much for the past couple years because our paths kind of went different ways.”
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Maybe those paths will converge down the road. The two hope so. Given the complementary skills that are the strongest parts of each, one could eventually be setting up the other and vice versa.
One look at Zegras in his breakout World Junior Championship performance said everything about his playmaking wizardry and innate ability to anticipate where the action is going in the offensive end and put the puck right on the tape of a teammate armed and ready to fire it into the net. The Ducks might start him out at center or the wing, as they already have him working on his physique and skating. But there isn’t any question that his vision and mind already process the game at a level where the NHL isn’t far off.
Colangelo is going to take longer to develop, either. The Ducks are believers in his raw skills. He already has the kind of size (6-foot-2, 207 pounds) that has long been an attraction for them. And he is a trigger man that doesn’t hesitate to shoot the puck but can also see a teammate in a better position to score and uses the threat of his shot to draw a goalie his way and then find that teammate with a crisp pass.
Following a USHL season where he led the league in points per game while playing with equally high-scoring teammates Brendan Brisson – who went 29th overall to Vegas – and Mathieu De St. Phalle, Colangelo is headed to Northeastern after visiting with “10 or 15” schools.
The attraction of Northeastern being just 10 miles from his home in Stoneham, Massachusets, had plenty of appeal. So did the relationship with head coach Jim Madigan and assistant coach Jerry Keefe, whom Colangelo already has an affinity for. Keefe was at the winger’s home on draft night.
“Northeastern was the first school I ever toured,” Colangelo said. “I was 13 years old. I didn’t even know where I was going to high school yet. I kind of fell in love with it right away. The Beanpot’s a huge thing and being able to play in that was a huge attraction for me. Coach Keefe, he’s a great offensive coach and he knows how to develop players.
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“Over the past couple of years, Tyler Madden, Adam Gaudette, Dylan Sikura, those are a few to name. Excited to hopefully be another one of those names.”
If he follows what other talented Husky forwards have done over the years, Colangelo could be an impact player in the NCAA and have a future in the NHL. Gaudette won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top collegiate player and is now a regular with Vancouver. Zach Aston-Reese was also a Hockey East Player of the Year and is part of Pittsburgh’s lineup. Sikura is now in the Vegas organization, while Madden is part of a deep Kings prospect pool.
“He’s a special offensive player,” Keefe said of Colangelo. “He’s a big body with a great stick. But he’s got great sense. He can play a lot of different ways. He can get to the net when he needs to. He’s got great speed for a big kid. But I really like his offensive awareness. He knows how to find the good ice. He knows how to find the areas of the ice where the puck is going to end up.
“He’s a shooting threat all the time, which I really like. Adam Gaudette was that way for us where he was constantly a shooting threat. So, he has that mindset as a shooter. And I think the most underrated part of his game, to be honest with you, is his passing ability. The way he sees the ice. … When you get a kid that can make plays that has that sense with the NHL body that he has, it’s going to be fun to work with him and help him develop his game.”
With his combination of power and skill while being a mobile skater for his size, Colangelo has drawn comparisons to Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler and Pittsburgh’s Kasperi Kapanen. Though his ability isn’t in a class that Auston Matthews is, Chicago Steel coach Greg Moore has mentioned the Toronto star as someone Colangelo’s style of play mirrors.
But when watching highlights of the right wing, there is a former Ducks scorer that Colangelo offers reminders of with his size, vision and soft hands. Bobby Ryan.
“That’s a really good comparison,” Keefe said. “Both players have great awareness on the ice. I think that’s the biggest key. They kind of see it before the puck comes to them. So, I think that offensive awareness is a huge benefit when you have it as a player. Sam definitely has it.”
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Being a Boston kid, the famed Beanpot has been part of Colangelo’s sphere for as long as he can remember. The metro’s four hockey schools – Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern – get together in the first two Mondays in February to battle for the trophy and, just as important, bragging rights that do matter in that town.
The Ducks have had a Boston vibe run through their last couple of drafts. Zegras is from outside New York City but has long played against Boston-based age group teams and played in the Beanpot last year during his only season at BU. Defenseman Henry Thrun, a Southborough native, will play his sophomore season at Harvard once the Ivy League allows the Crimson to get back on the ice. And after selecting Colangelo in last week’s draft, Anaheim grabbed Concord defenseman Ian Moore with its next pick. (The Beantown vibe can extend to veteran Ducks defender Josh Manson, who was a captain and three-year performer at Northeastern).
Those went over real well with Thrun. Moore, who’ll play for the USHL’s Steel, is committed to Harvard. “I was pumped about it,” Thrun said. “I have played with Ian and Sam since mites. Both great teammates and hard workers.”
It could be an interesting Beanpot in a couple of years.
“Every school has fans but Northeastern’s kind of dominated that, which is pretty cool,” Colangelo said, referring to the Huskies’ large and boisterous student section. “This year there probably won’t be fans if we’re able to even play the Beanpot. That’s something I’m looking forward to. If you grow up around Boston and you play hockey, you know what the Beanpot is and it’s a pretty big deal around here.
“It’s incredible. I’m excited to hopefully play in that someday.”
Keefe remembers running practices with a 10-year-old Colangelo on the ice. And then he watched the youngster grow. Literally as in five inches and 50 pounds between his freshman and junior years of high school. Figuratively as in becoming a top player within Boston prep hockey for Lawrence Academy.
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Now after growing into a top junior player in the U.S., the coach sees someone hungry to take on a new challenge.
“I’m really excited for him just because I can see the attitude,” Keefe said. “I can see the ambition to just want to get better. And that’s such a tremendous asset as a hockey player when you can be a sponge and constantly want to work on your game.
“That’s where, as an individual, you got to invest in your own game. It’s so, so important. And you want to surround yourself with other players that feel the same way.”
When he met with Anaheim’s scouting staff and had conversations over several Zoom calls, Colangelo appreciated the straightforward approach that the Ducks took with him. The elements that their scouts were really impressed with. The areas that he needed to work on. Improving his skating, for one.
His attitude resonates with team officials. Martin Madden, the Ducks’ assistant general manager who has long been their chief amateur scout, found the winger receptive to coaching through chats with him and two scouts, Steve Lyons and Kevin Murray, that have monitored the player. “Sam’s a kid that wants to learn,” Keefe said. “Wants to get better.”
Critiques don’t sting him. They drive him.
“I think that motivates me,” he said. “Seeing stuff that people criticize me for, it motivates me to get into the gym. To get stronger, to get faster. It’s a motivation factor and I don’t think I’d be where I am and be in this position if it wasn’t for that motivation.”
(Photo of Sam Colangelo: Courtesy of Chicago Steel)