Kraken draft pick Berkly Catton was tired of the “shooting tutor” practice tarps he draped over the nets and practiced his shots on in the summer, so he literally took matters into his own hands.
Catton, 18, a center and first-round pick of the Kraken and eighth overall pick by the Spokane Chiefs in Friday’s NHL draft, spent three days last summer building a wooden goalie, put pads and a mask on it and hold it upright. between the pipes for a more realistic look. The impromptu workouts paid off as Catton began a 54-goal, 62-assist season with the Chiefs and entered Friday as the draft’s leading scorer before the Kraken took him.
“It’s not the biggest job,” Catton said of his creation in the backyard of his family’s Saskatoon home. “The middle part is wood, and then I just put the goalie equipment on top and it’s held up pretty well.”
Catton had taken care to leave specific openings between the goalkeeper’s pads and under his armpits to practice shooting through. That is, when the improvised guard remained standing. At first, he tipped every time a puck hit him, forcing Catton to get even more creative.
“I had a post attached to the crossbar so it could absorb a little more shots and stuff,” Catton said. “But I’m thinking about hanging it at the top of my shooting zone now, so we’ll have to see.”
Catton’s natural intelligence on and off the ice is a big part of what led the Kraken to pick him 8th overall when many analysts had him just outside the top 10.
The San Jose Sharks kicked off the latest “centralized” NHL draft involving all 32 teams – next year the plan is for teams to draft remotely – by selecting Boston University center , Macklin Celebrini, as widely expected.
Chicago then selected the first in a series of highly touted defensemen by selecting Belarus native Artyom Levshunov of Michigan State at No. 2. Anaheim, at No. 3, had the crowd of thousands at the Sphere in Los Angeles gasping. Vegas by taking Oshawa Generals winger Beckett. Sennecke at No. 3, a move that seemed to stun even the player himself.
The second day of the draft begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. PT with final rounds 2 through 7. The Kraken has seven more picks, including four in rounds 2 and 3.
Several top defensemen, including Zeev Buium of the NCAA champion University of Denver and OHL products Zayne Parekh and Sam Dickinson, were still available Friday when the Kraken’s No. 8 pick arrived. But Kraken general manager Ron Francis instead used his first-round pick on a forward for the fourth time — and a center for the third time — in the franchise’s first four drafts.
“We really liked his hockey IQ,” Francis said of Catton. “And obviously, his skills. His ability to score and make plays and he definitely has a high level of competition. So all of these things come into play.
And Francis, always a fan of centres like him with a keen hockey sense, thought the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder was worth taking a little earlier than expected. He used a No. 2 overall pick three years ago on centre Matty Beniers — who announced Catton on stage with Francis — then a No. 4 pick on Shane Wright in 2022 before opting for winger Eduard Sale at No. 20 last summer.
Francis said he even considered making a trade this time around to acquire something in exchange for a slightly lower draft position in which he could still take Catton.
But with Catton widely expected to finish somewhere in the top 10-15, Francis felt it wasn’t worth the risk.
“As the draft went on, we felt that going down was almost too much of a risk,” he said. “That we were probably a player outside of the realm of comfort. And with this guy sitting at No. 8, he was a guy that we really liked. So we didn’t do anything and we ended up going with him at No. 8.
Francis said the makeshift goalie built by Catton, whose parents are both teachers and encouraged him to work hard at school from a young age, was one of the many things that impressed him.
“I think when you look at him, his hockey IQ is really elite,” Francis said. “The fact that he is so interested in hockey and that he took the time to study this field and create his own tool to improve himself is impressive, especially for a young player. »
Kraken director of recruiting Robert Kron said Catton “carried his entire (Spokane) team on his back” last season.
“He’s an extremely intelligent player with great skills,” Kron said.
Those skills include high-level skating ability and quickness. He was used extensively on the power play and penalty kill and won an impressive 53.4% of faceoffs.
Kron also said that Catton’s “playmaking ability” is at a very high level and that he projects as an NHL center or winger on one of the top two lines.
For now, he has two seasons of eligibility remaining in the Western Hockey League. And that means he’ll be honing his left-handed shot further in his Saskatoon backyard this summer in preparation for his third campaign with the Chiefs.
“It’s a bit like shooting a real goalie,” he said of his makeshift replacement. “Even if he doesn’t move, he still has cracks under the pads and on the glove and stuff. So you can still do that and it looks more real. »
This work led to the second-most prolific season for a 17-year-old player in Chiefs history, behind Pat Falloon, and to Catton’s WHL American Division Player of the Year award. .
Last August, he led Canada to gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, leading the under-18 tournament with eight goals and tying for the lead with 10 points in five games.
This season, Catton has scored 54 goals, many of which came between the pads of goalies, including on one-shot shots, on which he believes his device has helped him become more accurate. He also studied numerous videos and found that goalies looked weaker between the pads when sliding from side to side before one-shots.
He said his father, Chris, and mother Desrae, who taught eighth and first grade respectively, definitely helped him study and learn things.
“Yes, I always did well in school,” he said. “And I think that carried over to hockey a little bit and allowed me to showcase that part of my game.”
Yet some family members weren’t entirely convinced by his ingenuity. His grandfather, John, wasn’t impressed by his makeshift goalie, who collapsed with every shot.
“He’s the ultimate carpenter and I’m just a beginner or a rookie, I guess,” Catton said. “So he would just give it to me a little bit when he wasn’t standing up and stuff. But ultimately, he says now it’s not too bad.