* This text was initially posted within the THN Journal on APR. 6, 2021/ Vol 74, Challenge 4. Written by: Jared Clinton *
Quinton Byfield is aware of a factor or two about accuracy and understands that taking your pictures after they’re obtainable is the distinction between successful and dropping. It’s why, throughout an low season through which rolling lockdowns and pandemic-induced restrictions meant free time was spent hunkering down at dwelling, Byfield put within the work to grow to be a sharpshooter of kinds. He realized to hit shifting targets and discover a tiny opening and ship with precision. He labored on getting extra correct on the transfer, delivering strikes from distance and being faster on the attract shut quarters.
Byfield put in these hours in service of changing into a difference-maker for his squad. He knew it was the distinction between standing atop the heap or being despatched packing early. And all that effort paid off when the 18-year-old lastly received to see these two phrases that he, like so a lot of his friends this previous summer season, endeavored for therefore lengthy hoping to lastly see: “Warzone Victory.”
“Truthfully?” Byfield pauses for comedic impact when requested whether or not successful a spherical of Name of Responsibility or scoring his first AHL tally was adopted by an even bigger celebration. “No, no. Most likely the primary professional purpose, truthfully.”
Not in query, although, is which of the 2 Byfield is celebrating extra usually as of late. His success on the digital battlefield has been hit or miss – “There are some robust video games and a few actually good video games. I’m everywhere in the map,” he laughed – however Byfield exited the again half of March as one of many AHL’s hottest gamers and its most threatening first-year skater. Starting with an help in opposition to the Henderson Silver Knights on March 13, Byfield went on a seven-game tear through which he compiled 9 factors, together with targets in 5 straight video games. By the point March was over, Byfield was main the Ontario Reign in scoring with six targets and 16 factors in 21 video games, sufficient to sit down alone because the AHL’s third-highest scoring rookie.
As spectacular as that’s, there’s further context vital to elucidate simply how uncommon a feat Byfield’s manufacturing has been. Not since William Nylander in 2014-15 has a participant as younger as Byfield – one in all almost two dozen under-19 skaters to play within the AHL this season – scored at such a charge throughout 20-plus video games. True, this season has created the proper storm for Byfield to have such a possibility. In another marketing campaign, the switch settlement between the NHL and CHL golf equipment would require gamers like Byfield – beneath 20 and with fewer than 4 seasons of CHL service – to be despatched again to their respective major-junior groups except they’re on the NHL roster. However that does little to take the shine off of his stat line.
However don’t for a second take Byfield’s offensive accomplishments to imply he’s anyplace close to glad. “When you simply take a snapshot of his targets and assists and video games, you’re content material with the ratio,” mentioned Reign coach John Wroblewski. “However I believe all people concerned needs to maintain pushing him to attempt to convert much more usually. It’d be one factor if he was scoring on each one in all his possibilities. Then you definately’re going, ‘OK, that is about proper.’ However he’s undoubtedly left some alternatives on the desk. I believe he’ll be the primary one to confess it.”
IF THINGS DON’T GO HIS WAY, HE’S READY TO WORK THE NEXT DAY, READY TO GET BETTER– ONTARIO COACH JOHN WROBLEWSKI
An exasperated “ugh” from Byfield confirms Wroblewski’s suspicion and speaks volumes about Byfield’s want to be the identical offensive game-changer he’s been at each degree all through his profession. To listen to Byfield inform it, he’s sad not solely concerning the video games through which he hasn’t scored however these through which he hasn’t scored a number of instances. To Wroblewski, that’s a sign of Byfield’s “murderer’s-type mentality,” which is among the many traits that set him other than the remainder of his class and led the Kings to pick him second total within the 2020 draft. However Wroblewski, who spent 4 seasons teaching with USA Hockey’s Nationwide Crew Improvement Program previous to arriving in Ontario, Calif., mentioned Byfield additionally strikes an necessary psychological steadiness, particularly for his age. “It’s a positive line between being content material with the place you’re at once you’re not having success and overreacting and getting too fired up and making an attempt to alter issues ,” Wroblewski mentioned. “He has received an ideal mix of that. If issues don’t go his method, he exhibits up and is able to work the subsequent day, able to develop, able to get higher. Only a few indicators on the surface of being annoyed. He appears to compartmentalize these feelings and be capable of allow them to roll off his again and simply return to work.”
I’M STARTING TO IMPROVE, WATCHING AS MUCH VIDEO AS I CAN…THAT’S HELPED ME OFFENSIVELY, AS WELL. THAT’S A BIG KEY– QUINTON BYFIELD
And there’s work to be executed. Byfield’s bodily attributes are apparent. At 6-foot-4 and 215 kilos, he cuts an imposing determine. That he pairs it with a swiftness belying his body makes defending him a daunting proposition even for skilled defensemen. And he’s solely going to get stronger and sooner as he exits his teenage years and enters maturity, which leaves no query that he’s the prototypical energy ahead in a day and age when gamers lower from related material are threatening to go the way in which of the Atlanta Thrashers. However, alongside the way in which, the advantages of Byfield’s construct have additionally produced a number of tendencies in want of correcting. “He’s survived and thrived with numerous poke-and-go kind of play,” Wroblewski mentioned. “That doesn’t translate to the large leagues right here. He’s going by means of all of that. He’s studying completely different assist routes, completely different defensive-zone coverages and completely different mindsets.”
Byfield isn’t blind to his personal deficiencies. He echoed Wroblewski’s critique of the one-handed puck play as if coach and participant are of 1 thoughts. Byfield clearly heeds the recommendation of the Reign teaching employees, and he additionally extolls the virtues of the modifications he’s made in that regard. Being stronger on his stick has helped him create extra for himself and make performs faster, an all-important talent on the highest ranges.
He seems on the enhancements he’s made away from the puck in the identical mild. Going again to his early days in main junior, Byfield famous he wasn’t dependable defensively however put the time in to grow to be a fixture in late-game and shorthanded conditions for the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves. “It’s the identical factor right here,” he added. “I’m making an attempt to regulate defensively as nicely. Nonetheless not having an incredible yr plus-minus sensible, so actually making an attempt to work on the defensive recreation and be the perfect I can again there. I’m beginning to enhance, watching as a lot video as I can, studying some positions, the place I ought to be and getting the construction proper. I believe that’s what helped me offensively, as nicely. That’s a giant key.”
Nobody goes to accuse Byfield of failing to place within the work. Arduous because it may be to seek out positives in what has for a lot of been the strangest and most troublesome yr of their lives, Byfield has used the restricted alternative to benefit from the off-ice facets of residing in southern California to place in as a lot time as he can on the rink. And since night leisure is predominantly restricted to family actions, he’s been a pupil away from the rink, too. He’s residing by his lonesome for the primary time in his life, however that permits him to manage the distant. Positive, he’ll tune into a night’s slate of big-league video games for the sake of leisure, watching the likes of Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews for sheer enjoyment and to probably choose up an offensive trick or two. However the Los Angeles Kings, the Reign’s father or mother membership, are categorized as must-see TV within the one-person Byfield family. “We play the identical construction, so I watch to attempt to get these factors down,” he mentioned. “Hopefully once I go up there at some point, I could be comfy and be proper as much as par as quick as I can.”
The best of the silver linings isn’t misplaced on Byfield, both: that his AHL stint is just potential as a result of provincial well being mandates haven’t but allowed for the OHL to return to play. If and when that does come to go, the Kings must determine whether or not to ship Byfield again to Sudbury or make area for him on the NHL roster. Submit-trade deadline roster growth will open further spots, one in all which may go to Byfield, however finally the Kings must make a troublesome alternative ought to the major-junior circuit get again up and working this season. That’s the group’s option to make, although, not Byfield’s, and he’s content material to take advantage of his AHL expertise. “There are a bunch of fellows that we’re taking part in in opposition to that performed within the NHL and have had success there, so taking part in in opposition to these guys, you may see how good they’re and the way sturdy they’re, how the professional recreation works, and I really feel like that basically helps you fairly a bit,” he mentioned. “It’s going to make the transition to the NHL that a lot simpler, as nicely.”
And if that is how he’s performing within the AHL, that transition is sort of sure to come back sooner moderately than later.
