John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid and Sean Day. Only four players have ever been granted exceptional status to start their OHL careers a year earlier than their peers. One is a bonafide superstar and one is the reigning Calder Trophy winner. One was widely regarded as the best prospect in hockey since Sidney Crosby and the fourth is Sean Day. He’s a hulking defenseman who at this point might not even crack the first round of the 2016 NHL entry draft. By all accounts Sean Day should be seen as a top-10 prospect in the upcoming draft. He’s physically mature enough to play in the NHL today, he’s got the skating ability to rival any defender his size and he has an exceptional pass to start the break-out. Yet many have him projected as a second round pick or worse. He was the first player with exceptional status not to be selected 1st overall into the OHL. This summer he could be the first one not to be selected first overall into the NHL, and to manypeople he has become the poster child for wasted potential and a cautionary tale, even though he is not yet half way through his 18 year old season in the OHL. When Sean Day was granted exceptional player status in 2013, he was seen as a man-child who was more physically mature than half of the CHL by the age of 15. When petitioning the league for exceptional status, the player is supposed to show that he is able to fit into the league from both a talent and physical maturation stand-point. While Day did not show the dazzling skill of McDavid, there was little doubt that at 6’2 210lbs he could more than hold his own against the older competition of the OHL. That year Day was selected fourth overall by the Mississauga Steelheads behind 2015 draft picks Travis Konecny, Dylan Strome and Matthew Spencer. While physically ready, Day seemed to have a rough time adjusting to the higher competition of the OHL. He played like most starting players do in minor hockey, “get the puck and go”, as the most talented player on the ice able to do what he wants. He was the biggest and strongest player in almost every game and was able to play at a speed and skill level that no opponent was used to. Now up against older players who were just as talented, Day found himself struggling to adapt. Mistakes that would be easy to recover from before became amplified and would often end up costing his team. Day’s hockey intelligence and ability to adapt on the fly came into question very early and is a stigma that he has carried with him into his draft year. It is now the major reason he is falling down draft boards despite his tremendous skill. Last week, NHL Central Scouting graded Day as a ‘B’ prospect, meaning he is projected to be picked in the second or third round. This grade makes him the 4th best prospect on his junior team behind Michael McLeod, Alexander Nylander and Nathan Bastian, something that would have been unheard of 24 months ago. As recently as this past summer Day was seen by some as a potential steal in the 15-20 range of the 2016 draft. Since then, his stock has done nothing but decline. Everything from rumors of being out of shape to a below average hockey IQ, to run-ins with his head coach have led to a stigma being put into Sean Day as a prospect. He is being talked about as much for potential off-ice issues as he is for his actual on-ice play. All of this talk has made Sean Day one of the most polarizing prospects in recent memory. For a player to be ranked in the first round during the preseason to have those kind of varying scouting reports in November is rather unheard of. TSN’s head scouting analyst, Craig Button, ranks Sean Day all the way down at #92. Mark Seidel of Central Scouting has him barely outside the first round at #36, and you’re likely to find most other scouts ranking him somewhere in between. Looking at his skills in a bubble, Sean Day is a first round lock that is physically mature enough to step into an NHL lineup quicker than most other prospects, forward or defender. He has tremendous skating ability, an incredible first pass and a knack for making his teammates better. He has all the physical tools to be a successful hockey player for a long time, but it’s everything else that scares off scouts. Is he coachable? Does he have the hockey sense to adapt and learn how to play at higher levels? Does he care enough about hockey? Many believe that all Day needs is someone who is able to communicate with him in a way that better suits his needs. Differences with the head coach aside, his teammates believe Day gets a bad rap and that his talent will win out. “Yeah, people have been hard on Sean, for sure, because of the big expectations,” said Nathan Bastion. “I am with him every day and I see him when he’s at his best in practice and games and he will be a stud in the NHL one day.” Could Day be the prototypical example of ‘wasted talent’ that never figures it out? Possibly. But there is a suspicion that things are going to go the other way. Those of us that have seen him in person see his skill on a game to game basis. He’ll have shifts that make him look like an ordinary junior player that doesn’t have much of a future, but those are drastically outweighed by the ones that have you convinced he is destined to be a top pair defender in the NHL. One scout seeing him at his best in Mississauga is all it takes to convince an NHL general manager that Day is worth the risk. It may be a team with extra picks in the top-50. Or, maybe a team that has a stockpile of prospects that can afford to take a bigger risk than others can. Quite possibly, it could be a team that has a scouting group that is convinced that Day’s talent will win out. He is a very polarizing player that will be the focus of much scrutiny during the 2016 draft, but Sean Day could prove someone right, and many people wrong, when he turns into the kind of professional hockey player many envisioned when he was 15 years old.
Should be interesting to see. I didn't realize he was that touted as a 1st rounder. Hopefully he can get in shape, get his act together and develop well in a year or two.
