Perfetti is ready

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2021 (1348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To: Dave Lowry

CC: Kevin Cheveldayoff

Subject: Cole Perfetti

Gents,

Happy Holidays!

Boy, that’s a lot of snow we had dumped on us the past few days, eh? And now comes the bitter cold. Makes one want to just curl up in a ball on the couch, turn on the TV and not leave the house for a while. Speaking of which…

I happened to be flipping through the channels the other day — I’ve pretty much been glued to a Blue Bloods marathon for the past week — when I stopped on TSN to check out the World Juniors. Normally, these early round-robin games don’t do a whole lot for me, but I decided to give Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg and Bridget Moynahan a rest for a few hours to see what young Cole Perfetti was up to.

I was not disappointed. The kid is something else.

This isn’t exactly a newsflash, but you’ve got a heck of a prospect in the 19-year-old from Ontario taken 10th overall in 2020. Perfetti the playmaker had three terrific assists in Canada’s 6-3 comeback victory over the artists formerly known as the Czech Republic, now going by Czechia.

Other than defenceman Owen Power, the No. 1 overall pick by Buffalo last summer who recorded a hat trick, Perfetti was the best player on the ice. He’ll never be the biggest or the fastest skater out there, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a smarter one. Throw in a tantalizing skill set and you have the makings of something special.

Perfetti followed that up Tuesday night by scoring once and adding two more helpers in a 11-2 rout of Austria. His six points so far are tops on his team and lead the tournament.

I was still thinking about Perfetti as I sat down at Canada Life Centre on Monday and Tuesday watching your team practice. And I couldn’t help but ponder how the situation is setting up perfectly for the young phenom to fly back to Winnipeg next week — hopefully with a gold medal in tow — and head straight to the Jets, rather than back to the Manitoba Moose where he’s spent most of this season so far.

You don’t need me to tell you, but your forward depth has taken a bit of a hit these days. Riley Nash, a serviceable centreman, was claimed on waivers by Tampa Bay. Then captain Blake Wheeler went down with a serious knee injury. Then Evgeny Svechnikov got hurt. Then Andrew Copp and Kristian Vesalainen got COVID-19.

Things are so desperate right now, you’re actually planning to use your seventh defenceman, Nathan Beaulieu, as your fourth-line left-winger until or unless one of the above players can return to the lineup. Yikes! Jansen Harkins is currently skating on your second line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor. Kristian Reichel, with one career NHL game under his belt, is on your third line. C.J. Suess, a veteran of two games, is also on the fourth line.

You get the picture. It’s not exactly pretty.

Yes, you’ve dodged a bit of a bullet, with three straight post-Christmas games now postponed, to go with the two that were scrubbed just before the holiday break. By the time you finally return to action Sunday afternoon in Vegas — knock on wood — it will be two full weeks since your last game. Copp and Vesalainen could both be out of protocol by then and might be ready to go without missing a single contest. Svechnikov is also getting closer to a return, having skated two straight days on his own this week.

That’s great. But it still shouldn’t change the fact there ought to be a spot just waiting for Perfetti.

He didn’t look out of place when he made his NHL debut in Anaheim a couple months ago, then was in the lineup three nights later in San Jose. Since then, he’s gone back down to the farm and continued to polish his game against older, more experienced competition. He has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 17 games, after posting 26 (nine goals, 17 assists) in 32 games as a rookie last year, when the only reason he could even play in the second-best hockey league in the world was because the OHL was dark because of the global pandemic.

In my eyes, the best place for him to now further his development is in the NHL. Sure, the quality of opposition will improve. But so will the quality of his linemates.

Perfetti has the innate ability to quickly adjust to every level he’s played, and a dominating Boxing Day performance at the World Juniors shows just how far he’s come. Assuming you want to keep your top line of Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Paul Stastny intact, while not shift Perfetti from centre to wing and try him in the spot currently occupied by Harkins, along with Dubois and Connor, while also giving him some power-play time.

Talk about setting him up for potential success and putting him in a natural offensive role, rather than putting a square peg in a round hole and trying to ease him in on the bottom-six, as was the case in his first two games under Paul Maurice. That would allow you to keep Copp on a shutdown line along with Adam Lowry and any number of players — Harkins, Vesalainen, Svechnikov or Dominic Toninato, who was there right before the break. The rest form your fourth line, with young David Gustafsson also in the mix.

Just like that, you’ve got two strong scoring lines, a well-defined checking line and an intriguing fourth line with hungry players eager to prove they deserve more ice time and opportunity. And when Wheeler is finally ready to return, perhaps at some point in February, you’ll have a good body of work by which to judge where all your pieces fit best as you head down the stretch and what you hope will be a playoff run.

From where I sit, Perfetti certainly isn’t going to cost you any games. But he might just help you win some along the way, while also gaining valuable experience at the highest level.

I realize there are some who think your organization doesn’t give young players a fair shake, but I’ve never completely bought that theory. Sure, you might allow them to ripen on the vine a little too long in some case — cough, Ville Heinola, cough — but history has shown the cream will eventually rise to the top. Whether it’s Scheifele, Connor, Ehlers or defenceman Josh Morrissey, inexperienced but highly-skilled players have been thrust into big roles early in their careers.

There’s no reason Perfetti shouldn’t be given the chance to shine bright on an even bigger hockey stage than the one he’s currently in. I sincerely hope you’ll heed my advice.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to return to my couch to see what the Reagan family is up to.

Warmest regards,

Mike

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg