‘Definitely going to have a chip on my shoulder from this.’ Shane Wright shakes off his 2022 NHL Draft snub

MONTREAL – The anticipation just hit different. Typically, there’s no particular mood in the air when a freshly selected No. 4 overall pick shows up to speak with the media minutes after being drafted. If there’s a prevalent emotion, it’s probably excitement, right?

But that wasn’t a given for Shane Wright. No one could predict what feelings he’d express after not hearing his name called first overall…or second overall…or third overall Thursday night in Montreal. The tension was real.

It’s one thing for a player ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect for much of the season to slip a single slot. It’s not like Wright was a runaway generational talent in the mold of Connor McDavid. But it’s another for that player to fall after publicly expressing his desire to don one team’s jersey. Wright, who grew up in Southern Ontario and played his junior hockey down the 401 in Kingston, just a few hours from Montreal, said earlier this week that was “where I want to be.” So there had to be a sting when Habs GM Kent Hughes called Juraj Slafkovsky’s name first on Thursday night, causing an eruption of shock in the boisterous crowd of Habs fans in attendance. But if that wasn’t enough of a blow to the ego, the New Jersey Devils and Arizona Coyotes passed on Wright with the No. 2 and 3 pick, too, opting for puck-moving defenseman Simon Nemec and higher-ceiling speedster Logan Cooley, respectively.

So, yes, there was a real anticipation in the air when Wright, 18, sat down to discuss being picked fourth overall by a team on the opposite side of the continent: the Seattle Kraken, fresh off a decidedly flat inaugural season.

But Wright held his head high and did his best to stay positive and have some perspective. He was no victim.

“I was drafted by an NHL franchise, I was drafted by team with a lot of potential into a great city with a great fan base,” he said. “Obviously you want to go first. It’s definitely something every guy wants to do going into the Draft. But I couldn’t be happier with being in Seattle, being a Kraken and really excited about the future ahead.”

That said, he didn’t try to downplay the idea that getting snubbed by the host Canadiens hurt.

“Definitely going to have a little chip on my shoulder from this for sure,” he said. “Definitely a little more motivation. I’ve always been self motivated, pushing myself internally, but this is going to give me a little more fire for sure.”

As for the fall from projected No. 1 to relatively shocking No. 4, Wright surmised that it had a lot to do with every team’s fit from a hockey perspective. The Devils, picking second, already have co-No. 1 overall picks Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier up the middle, while the Arizona Coyotes were in desperate need of a truly dynamic, high-ceiling talent, so Logan Cooley made sense for them, too. Maybe Wright was onto something. He was considered far and away the safest pick in the draft given his brainy all-around game and commitment to two-way play as a center. But there were questions among scouts among his ceiling. He never reached the heights that were promised when, in 2019, he became the sixth player to earn exceptional status and play in the OHL as an underager. He also didn’t dominate in his draft year the way scouts want a top overall pick to, something he acknowledged Thursday night.

“Not even close – this year was nowhere near my best,” he said. “I can be a lot better. I believe I haven’t reached even close to my potential. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I made a lot of mistakes this year, had some failures and faced a lot of adversity with myself and my game. But I think I’m still growing as a player, I’m still learning a lot about myself, a lot about my game and how to be the best player I can be. That’s definitely something I want to improve on for sure.”

He certainly won’t be short of opportunities playing for Seattle, a franchise that, unlike the Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion draft year, did not stockpile first-round picks and thus don’t have a robust prospect pipeline yet. The Kraken had just one first-round pick last year and used it on Matty Beniers at No. 2 overall. Between him and Wright, they have two pillars to build around up the middle, both of whom are best known for their all-around hockey sense and 200-foot games.

“Matty Beniers is going to be a focal point as well and hopefully I can be part of that great future as well with the young talent coming up in the organization,” Wright said. “So I think it’s a great fit, I think I fit in really well into Seattle’s lineup and hopefully next year I can make that jump to it.”

More so than on almost any franchise in the league, Wright has little competition to ascend Seattle’s depth chart and make an impact in the NHL by next season. That’s a silver lining on a night when he probably needed to find one.

‘Definitely going to have a chip on my shoulder from this.’ Shane Wright shakes off his 2022 NHL Draft snub

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