Two seasons into his Western Hockey League career with the Edmonton Oil Kings, along with a trip to Germany to compete at the U18 world championship, Travis Ewanyk's stock is definitely rising before the upcoming NHL entry draft.
Ewanyk hasn’t decided yet whether or not he will make the trip in person to St. Paul, Minn. for the June 24 and 25 draft and isn’t putting much thought into the early speculation that he will go as early as the middle of the second round or as late as an early fourth round pick.
“I guess it’s always in the back of your head but I try not to think about it too much. I’ll just see what happens when the draft comes,” said the Edmonton Oil Kings’ centre, who was listed 66th among 2011 draft-eligible North American skaters in the last NHL Central Scouting report before the draft.
At worlds, the St. Albert minor hockey product picked up one assist, had 13 shots on net, played tons of minutes and was plus-one defensively in seven games as Canada finished fourth overall.
The U18 lineup consisted of players born in 1993 or earlier from Canadian Hockey League teams that were not in the playoffs when player selections were made in early April.
Even though the points never came easy, Ewanyk was happy with his performance throughout the tourney, especially his expanded role.
“I thought I played pretty good. I kind of got better as it went on there and I played a bigger role on the team so it went pretty well as a whole,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting to play on a team like that.”
Even though Ewanyk is used to covering some of the top players in his age group during the WHL playoffs, including the Edmonton Oilers’ potential number one pick, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Red Deer Rebels, worlds was a different experience that he savoured.
“Playing against the best players in the world in your age group and seeing how strong the players are just makes you realize how much harder you have to work to stay at that level,” said one of only two Oil Kings to play all 72 games this season
After posting 32 points through 116 WHL games, including 16 goals this season, Ewanyk is looking to make an impact next season with the up-and-coming Oil Kings.
“Personally I’d like to develop my offence more this year and keep developing as a player,” said the recipient of the Oil Kings’ unsung hero award. “We have a bunch of good young players so winning a couple of playoff rounds and going deep in the playoffs and maybe making the WHL championship would be a realistic goal in the next couple years.”
