Undersized forwards ready to make a splash at the NHL Draft

BUFFALO — Ty Ronning is out to prove his haters wrong. At 5-foot-8 and 165-pounds the forward is amongst the smallest ranked for this weekend’s NHL Draft in Buffalo.

Despite his size, Ronning is ranked 97th, and expected to be selected in the fourth round on Saturday when Rounds 2-7 are conducted at the First Niagara Center.

“As a smaller guy, there’s adversity, I guess,” Ronning admitted. “There’s going to be your haters, some will like you – it depends on how hard you work. I feel hard work beats everything and hard work pays off.”

The 18-year-old, who completed his third Western Hockey League season where he finished with a team-high 31 goals and 59 points in 67 games with his hometown Vancouver Giants, is not alone.

ISS Hockey had 17 skaters under 5-foot-10 ranked amongst the Top-200 players in its final NHL Draft Guide, including four players expected to go within the first two rounds.

At 5-foot-7 and 163 pounds, Alex DeBrincat had to answer questions about his height, or lack there of, numerous times when meeting with NHL clubs during the recent scouting combine.

The Erie Otters forward is expected to be a late first-round pick on Friday.

“Obviously it’s a pretty big concern. You get it sometimes and sometimes they don’t really care about that,” DeBrincat said. “I’ve proved people wrong my whole life so I think that’s kind of what I tell them. I’ve always had to prove (doubters) wrong and it’s worked out fine for me.

“I just have to tell (teams) that I have the compete level and I have, I think, the goal-scoring ability to play at the NHL level."

Last season DeBrincat was named both the Ontario Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year after scoring 51 goals and 104 points.

The Michigan native followed it up with 51 goals and 101 points in 60 games this past season – second only to Arizona Coyotes’ prospect Dylan Strome in team scoring.

Internationally, DeBrincat added a goal in five games for Team USA at the world juniors.

“I think I showed ‘em I can play. At my size, I tend to get looked over a lot, but I think this year, and last year, I think I opened some eyes and showed them that I can play hockey at my size,” said DeBrincat.

NHL rule changes implemented in 2005 have helped open the game paving the way for the undersized player to flourish. This past season 12 of the 30 clubs had at least one player under 5-foot-10.

In addition to DeBrincat, the likes of Clayton Keller (5-9, 168), Vitalii Abramov (5-8, 172) and Samuel Girard (5-9, 160) are expected to be selected within the first two rounds of this year’s draft.

“When they made the rule changes that were implemented to help speed up the game, it kind of opened up the door to where opportunities are there for players regardless of their size,” said Dan Marr, the Scouting Director at NHL Central Scouting. “Smaller players do need to be special and stand out.

“There’s numerous players now and you can see they’re sprinkling themselves throughout the National Hockey League, every team has one or two.”

Tyler Johnson, Brendan Gallagher and Johnny Gaudreau are some of the recent undersize forwards who have burst on to the scene and had success at the NHL level.

Tampa Bay Lightning Assistant GM and Director of Player Personnel, Pat Verbeek, has seen a change in the game from the ‘80s and ‘90s when he was a player.

“I think the big thing, if you’re smaller, you have to have a unique skillset, when you’re talking about smaller guys,” he said. “They have to have speed, and they have to have skill - that helps them tremendously to get a chance to play in the NHL.”

Adam Mascherin (5-9, 206), Will Bitten (5-9, 167) and Victor Mete (5-9, 174), in addition to Ronning, are expected to hear their names called on Saturday between rounds three and four.

According to Marr, it’s not that teams no longer pay attention to size, it’s that they’re not letting size be a final indicator on whether or not they select a player.

“They always pay attention to (size), but I don’t know that’s always the final indicator. Sometimes when you get later in the draft, you look at what separates guys.

“I think right now, the appreciation for speed, skill and hockey sense overrides the size.”

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