NASHVILLE – For a game in October, the stage couldn’t have been bigger: Saturday night, Montreal, Hockey Night in Canada. With the game on the line, rookie phenom Seth Jones did what he has always done best — shine when the lights are brightest.
Rewind 10 months to when hockey fans got their first glimpse of the glow. Jones made a bold statement last December, proclaiming that Team USA was the best team at the world junior championships. His comments garnered plenty of headlines in Canada, but Jones backed it up and led the Americans to a gold medal at the tournament.
On this October night, eight games into his NHL career, Jones took a pass from David Legwand, toe-dragged around Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges and ripped the game-deciding goal past Carey Price with just 1:27 remaining. It was a defacto overtime winner as the Nashville Predators went on to beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1, courtesy of Jones’ heroics.
Less than four months after slipping to No. 4 overall at the NHL Draft, Jones is already one of Nashville’s top defencemen – which is saying something considering the talent the Predators possess on the blue line. Jones is averaging 24:28 of ice time through nine games (partially circumstantial due to Roman Josi’s injury) and has excelled alongside Shea Weber on Nashville’s top pair.
You get the feeling this is just the start of something special for the 19-year-old defenceman.
“At the draft we were excited to get Seth, there’s no question. As a coach you don’t know how that’s going to translate to the NHL game. The NHL game is a really good game, and it’s tough to play at an elite level at a young age,” Predators head coach Barry Trotz said recently. “He has really surprised me with his poise, his maturity and his confidence at this level.”
Going into June’s draft, there was a feeling that no team could go wrong with any of the top four prospects. Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin were considered rare offensive prospects, and Aleksander Barkov’s size and hockey sense were praised by scouts. Jones was undoubtedly the top defenceman in the draft, thought of by many as the best player overall.
Jones was Nashville’s guy all along, though, and it was surprising to them that he was still available after three selections were made. After Colorado drafted MacKinnon No. 1 overall, Predators GM David Poile tried to trade up to No. 2 or No. 3. When Tampa Bay was on the clock following Florida’s selection of Barkov, Poile had a brief discussion with Lightning GM Steve Yzerman.
“After they had talked, David sort of looked at (assistant GM) Paul Fenton and (chief amateur scout) Jeff Kealty – I’ve seen the smile. It’s very subtle, but there’s a little bit of a smirk. At that moment he didn’t have to say anything. We were getting (Jones),” Trotz said.
“It was a perfect storm for us.”
The entire organization was giddy with the addition of a prodigy like Jones. They were very aware of the magnitude that selection would have on the Predators’ future. But for Jones to come into the NHL and succeed right away as a 19-year-old defenceman, it gives the Predators even more optimism that the star teenager could become a franchise player one day.
“He’s developing at a good rate. There was a big improvement from the world junior team coming into development camp in July and up until now,” said assistant coach Phil Housley, who guided Jones at the world juniors last winter. “He’s been put in a spot and taken on a lot of responsibility for a young man. He’s relished that. He’s accepted the challenge of playing against world-class players. He just continues to improve.”
Housley knows firsthand what it’s like to be a young defenceman in the NHL. Like Jones, Housley broke into the league as a rookie in his draft year. He collected a whopping 66 points in 77 games. He said the toughest adjustment for someone making the jump to the NHL at Jones’s age is the grind of an 82-game schedule and learning the nuances of opposing teams and players.
Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty can also relate to Jones. Selected No. 2 overall in the 2008 draft, Doughty was 18 when he made his NHL debut. He played 81 games in 2008-09 and had ups and downs that naturally come with being a teenage blue-liner.
“Your fourth-line guys still have a lot of skills – they are big, strong, fast – and then obviously the top guys are the top guys. It’s so hard to play against them because they are so strong physically,” Doughty explained. “As a young kid coming in, you’re obviously not as built as those men are. That was a big adjustment.”
Housley went on to have a successful career and is a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Doughty was a finalist for the Norris Trophy in his sophomore campaign and is a top defenceman in the NHL today. That Jones is already playing well beyond his years – and is mature beyond his years off the ice – is a big reason why many believe he’s destined for stardom.
When asked about Jones’s on-ice poise, Housley said, “That’s just him. He has a very calm demeanour, and I think that is a reflection of how he plays.”
“His upside is phenomenal,” Trotz added. “The number of minutes and situations we’re playing him in as a 19-year-old, it’s unprecedented here with the Predators.”
Compared to 10 years ago, more and more teenagers are breaking into the league. Players coming up through their junior programs are getting better coaching and are in better physical shape than ever before. They’re simply more prepared for the NHL game and lifestyle. Jones is just the latest teenager to make it to the NHL in his draft year, but is one of the few that has had instant success.
“It’s just now feeling a little bit more real,” Jones said last week.
The Texas native is the latest star defenceman Nashville has had the luxury of owning in their 15-year history. It started with Kimmo Timonen before Weber and Ryan Suter took over as the league’s top pair. Jones, whose teammates admit it’s easy to forget he’s just 19, has a chance to be as good, or better, than all of them.
Suter made his NHL debut when he was 20; Weber was 21. Jones turned 19 on the night of his debut and is more advanced now than when Suter or Weber arrived to Nashville.
No stage has ever been too big for Jones, who has been incredibly humble amidst the attention he’s received in his first month in the NHL. Case in point: When asked if he’s pinched himself at all this month, playing big minutes next to an elite defenceman like Weber, Jones said, “Hopefully I can stick after nine or 10 games.”
The 6-foot-5 defenceman doesn’t take anything for granted, and his off-ice demeanour is impressive for his age. Jones said he can’t let himself think about how old he is, though.
“Once you start thinking that you don’t belong or that you’re the young guy, I think that’s when things go wrong,” he said. “Your mentality in games and practices has to be that you belong here.”
Oh, does he ever belong in the NHL.
When you watch Jones play, it looks as if he has been in the league for years. Nothing fazes him. He has natural traits that aren’t teachable. In the early going he has lived up to everything that draft scouts and pundits touted him as.
Jones has provided a jolt of energy to the Predators. When Josi went down in the second game of the season, there was some question as to whether Jones was ready for a top-two role. He has played so well, he may stay alongside Weber when Josi returns.
“All the top players that are 19 years old that play in this league,” Weber said, “I think you realize there is something special about them. You don’t realize how old they are. They’re gifted and they have the ability to play early, and that’s something that we’re thankful for.”
