Connor adjusting quickly to life in the NHL

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This article was published 03/12/2017 (2836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No matter his surroundings, Kyle Connor figures out how to score goals.

When he was on the frozen rink his dad, Joe, built in the backyard of their home in Shelby Township, Mich., young Kyle whipped pucks into the net.

Playing bantam for Belle Tire in the Detroit area, he consistently lit the lamp in his early teens. In three years of junior hockey with the Youngstown Phantoms, he had a pair of 30-goal campaigns. In his only year of college, he fired 35 goals in 38 games with the University of Michigan.

Last winter, in his first pro season, he beat AHL goalies 25 times as a member of the Manitoba Moose and tallied the first two goals of his NHL career in limited duty for the Winnipeg Jets.

He’s got it figured out this year, too, as a regular on the Jets’ top line with centre Mark Scheifele and right-winger Blake Wheeler. Heady company indeed for a guy who failed to even make the club out of training camp.

On Friday, his power-play marker just 33 seconds into the third period — a wicked shot past Vegas goalie Maxime Lagace — snapped a 2-2 tie and helped propel the Jets to a 7-4 win. The former first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2015 NHL draft added an empty-netter to seal the deal.

The two-goal output pushed the NHL rookie’s season total to nine in 21 games after he was recalled from the Moose on Oct. 16.

He’s also chipped in eight assists and has been a key member of the Jets’ top line, undeniably one of the NHL’s premier trios.

Connor says he’s just happy to be making a contribution.

“Those guys are awesome. They’re two unbelievable, world-class players and I’ve just tried to find the open areas and they’re going to get it to me,” he said of Scheifele and Wheeler, both occupying spots in the top-10 in league scoring. “It’s been a lot of fun.

“I learn so much from those guys every day, how you have to play at this level. Whether we come back to the bench and it’s something one of them sees, we talk about it and bounce ideas off each other.”

His quick shot was evident the moment he arrived at Jets camp in 2016 — it’s just a gift he’s always possessed.

“It’s always been part of how I played my whole life,” he said. “It’s kind of continued and grown throughout my career. There’s no real adjustments to scoring goals. It’s better goalies and better defence, obviously, but my approach is always the same.

“You find that quiet area on the ice and the players in this league will always find you. You look for the holes in the coverage, in the (defensive) zone, get there and make a play.”

Connor, a week shy of his 21st birthday, began the season with three goals in his first four games with the Moose. When he was promoted to the big club, he started on a line with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine, but that combination didn’t even last two periods against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Head coach Paul Maurice switched out Nikolaj Ehlers in favour of Connor on the left wing, and the No. 1 unit has clicked ever since.

“He gets better and better every game,” Scheifele said. “Me and Wheels love playing with him. He’s got a knack to find the net, he knows the areas to find those scoring opportunities. He makes good passes, he plays a simple game, and we like that about him.”

Maurice said beyond the obvious point production, Connor — currently eighth in NHL rookie scoring — is demonstrating he can do the gritty work necessary to chase opponents down, win battles and retrieve pucks.

“Young guys with that high-end skill normally come in with a bit of a perimeter game, they can back people off with their speed and they don’t have to play a hard-gap game, and they can let other people do most of the heavy lifting and the dirty work, he said. “Where he’s made his biggest improvement is the grind part of the game, getting into the forecheck with his speed, containing pucks and moving away from guys.

“The goal he scored (against Vegas), getting it off his stick across his body, he’s got that skill. He could skate well enough to play in the NHL last year and he could shoot it well enough, but his improvement is he put some time in this summer, got a little thicker, a little stronger, a little heavier, and now he has a better understanding, the mentality, of being on the puck.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell