Early in Andre Burakovsky’s first season in North America, his parents traveled from Sweden to northern Pennsylvania to watch him play junior hockey for the Erie Otters. As Robert Burakovsky, a former NHL player himself, watched his son, though, another Otters forward grabbed his attention: No. 97.
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“Look at that guy,” he remembers saying to his wife, Pernilla. “He’s going to be the best player in the world.”
He was right. Two Hart Trophies and seven point-per-game seasons later, Connor McDavid has seized the mantle as the NHL’s best. And Robert Burakovsky wasn’t alone with his evaluation back in Erie. McDavid frequently left spectators, scouts and even his own teammates in awe.
“You could just tell how much better he was than everybody else,” says then-teammate Dylan Strome, who is now on the Blackhawks.
“Everyone knew he was special,” adds Blue Jackets forward Brendan Gaunce, a midseason acquisition by Erie in 2013-14. “He does stuff that no one else in the world can do on a day-to-day basis. And it’s kind of funny that I saw it in junior before he kind of turned to the NHL.”
Now McDavid is playing in the Western Conference final, the furthest he’s reached in his seven NHL seasons with the Oilers. And with Edmonton playing the Avalanche, the series marks a mini-reunion for the 2013-14 Erie Otters, a star-studded junior team in the Ontario Hockey League.
McDavid has been a force all playoffs for the Oilers, logging 30 points in 15 games, and Burakovsky had an assist for the Avalanche on their first goal of the series. He suffered a suspected lower-body injury blocking a shot later that game and hasn’t played since, though he skated at an optional practice Sunday and could return this series, according to a source. And then there’s Colorado’s Kurtis MacDermid — a bruising, 6-foot-5 sometimes defenseman, sometimes forward who appeared in 58 games this season. He’s been a healthy scratch in the playoffs but has emerged as an Avalanche favorite, both in the dressing room and among the fan base.
Very large human Kurtis MacDermid. (Erie Otters Staff and Matt Mead Photography)They’re all different types of players — one’s a superstar, one’s a worthy top-six forward and one’s more of an enforcer — but they were all buddies back in Erie, helping the Otters go from one of the worst teams in the OHL to one of the best.
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To learn about that time period in each of the players’ lives, The Athletic talked to those around the team. They offered memories that reflected the life both of an elite hockey team and of teenage boys.
(Note: Some quotes have been edited for clarity and length.)
There’s a reason the Otters got McDavid. Before he arrived, they were bad. Really, really bad. They had a 10-52-6 record in 2011-12, earning them the first pick in the OHL draft. McDavid, meanwhile, had already become a phenomenon. He earned exceptional status, allowing him to enter the league as a 15-year-old, and the Otters drafted him.
Sherry Bassin, then-Otters general manager: When he came to our first camp, he comes out with his minor (AAA) gear. He’s got our uniform, but his pads and everything are all mismatched. I go down to the trainers and I say, “What the hell is going on?” They tell me, “You better talk to him.” So I go ask him what’s going on. He says, “Mr. Bassin, I haven’t made the team yet.” I say, “If you don’t make this team, I’m moving to China, because I don’t know nothing about hockey.”
Dane Fox, Otters teammate: That’s one thing about Davo. He was really humble, too. He didn’t know how good he was.
Bassin: Extremely humble. Extremely loyal. And phenomenally competitive. I was going to his house one afternoon. He’s in his garage wearing his rollerblades and just perspiring. I mean totally soaked. It’s 29 Celsius. He already had worked out for four hours, and then he’s been in the garage for at least an hour, hour and a half. I say, “What the hell are you doing?” He says, “Bass, my shot’s gotta get better. What else do I have to do? All my friends are working.” Talk about the (Malcolm Gladwell) idea of 10,000 hours.
Gaunce: Connor was kind of figuring out how dominant he could be, I think. That’s what I remember. His first year, I think he was right around a point a game.
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Connor Brown, Otters teammate and now-Senators forward: I always put it like this: If you would have someone have so much skill, he’s the right guy to have it. Because he makes the most of it.
Gaunce: It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure we had to drive through the zoo to go to this old, old practice rink — freezing cold, small roof. It’s just where you don’t want to be as a 17-, 18-year-old on a random Saturday morning. (Coach Kris) Knoblauch was yelling at us, either at Connor or the group in general. It was either a one-on-two or a two-on-two drill, and it was more for the defensive side of the puck. Connor was on offense. And I remember Connor putting it through his legs, taking it to the net, and then going through his own legs and going either bar down or shelf. It was just something hockey players don’t do, other than the ones that are elite. He was 16 and I was just standing there. All the guys were just standing there. We don’t know what just happened. This drill’s supposed to be defensive — just slow, figure-it-out systems stuff. And he turned it on his head because he was upset. I just remember thinking, “Oh, OK, he’s a lot better than the rest of us.”
McDavid tallied 66 points in 63 games his first year in Erie, and the team saw marginal improvement, winning nine more games than it did the season before. But with future NHLers McDavid, Brown and Adam Pelech on the roster, the Otters had building blocks for a strong team. And Bassin’s roster kept improving. Strome, drafted at No. 2 in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection, joined the team, and Burakovksy, a first-round pick by the Capitals, was selected by Erie with the No. 5 pick in the 2013 CHL import draft. Then came a hold-up: Burakovsky’s agent, Kevin Epp, told The Hockey News his client wouldn’t sign with Erie. But the Capitals signed Burakovsky, and Bassin came to training camp to talk with the winger.
Andre Burakovsky. (Erie Otters Staff and Matt Mead Photography)McDavid: There was a little bit of a debate about whether he was going to come play for us.
Bassin: He didn’t want to come because he didn’t know us. Once he got to know us, he was committed.
Robert Burakovsky: Washington wanted him to learn to play this game over here and wanted him to learn the language better. Live like a pro.
Fox: It worked out really well for Burra.
Robert Burakovsky: Andre was in school at the time. So I think he was happy to not go to school and go to play hockey instead.
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McDavid: I remember that first time being on the ice with Burakovsky. Seeing him skate, seeing him shoot the puck — it was really impressive.
Jeff Jackson, McDavid’s agent: Great speed and one of the guys who could actually keep up with McDavid back in junior.
Gaunce: He had one of the best releases on his wrist shot, still to this day, that I’ve ever played with. He used a really, really light-flex stick, something in the low 70s. The way he shot the puck, it was just different than everyone else. He could shoot it from behind him, he could shoot it from in front of him. He had so many different release points. In the OHL that’s not very common. You can either shoot it hard or you can’t.
Strome: I remember the first day he got there. Sherry Bassin kind of always hyped everything. With Burakovsky, he was like, “Oh, we got this guy coming in, he’s got the best shot you’ve ever seen.” We’re like, “OK, Bass, sure.” Sure enough, this guy gets to our team. Just the way he shoots the puck, he was a really good player, and he was fun to be around.
Jackson: Especially on the power play, they were pretty lethal.
Brown: I was on one side on the power play, Burakovsky on the other, McDavid was low and Adam Pelech was at the point. And we had Dane Fox in the middle, and he scored 64 goals that year. It was insane.
Gaunce: Burakovsky was learning English. He was learning the North American style of living and hockey. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy.
Fox: He was just kind of like a lost puppy. Just walking around, always smiling, the best moods, always joking around.
Gaunce: Great teammate. Exactly what you expect of Swedes.
Fox: If you’re playing in your home country, you take care of the imports who come over. You introduce them to things.
Burakovsky, in a 2014 interview with Erie Highlight Reel: I really like Chipotle. It’s really good. Chicken burrito.
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Fox: Oh, I remember me, Connor Brown, Adam Pelech — there was a group of us that got Chipotle every day. It was so good.
And on the ice, Burakovsky thrived, scoring 41 goals in 57 games. Though he had chemistry with McDavid, the team often put them on different lines. “They’re both such talents,” Brown said. “They both created everything.” McDavid’s star, meanwhile, continued to grow.
Gaunce: He started realizing he could completely dominate. And by the end of the year, he had 99 points, numbers that aren’t easily attainable for anyone, let alone a 16-year-old.
Robert Burakovsky: Andre told me every time they went to a hotel there were a lot of people standing outside waiting for him.
Gaunce: I actually roomed with Connor on the road, so I got to know him pretty well. People don’t see he’s just a normal guy. It’s unnatural for anyone to be in the spotlight, and when you’re the best at what you do in the world, it’s even harder. There’s always eyes on you, and you always have that guard up. The one thing I really found out that year was he’s just a genuine dude.
Andre Burakovsky: Never talked about himself. Probably one of the best guys I’ve met.
Fox: Darren Raddysh and I lived really close to McDavid and Strome. We’d always go to Dylan Strome’s house, us four. I always remember playing “sting” pong.
Strome: That was in my billet parents’ basement.
Fox: It’s a ping-pong game, a four-player game. And if you messed up you get the ball whacked at you. I remember it getting very serious, very competitive. Strome and Davo getting at it.
Strome: Definitely a little too heated, for sure. But it was a lot of fun.
Fox: You had to pull your shirt off and everyone whacked a ping-pong ball at you. And we weren’t taking it easy.
Strome: We had a good time.
Fox: It was a nightly thing at one point.
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Strome: We would go to the movies, hang out at my billet parents’ house. Pretty much just what high school kids do. Maybe not the typical life, with all the parties and stuff, we kind of missed out on that. But we’d go to the movies, go-karting or batting cages.
Fox: There are some good pictures of McDavid getting his haircut in the mall, too, me chirping him about it.
Connor McDavid (Courtesy of Dane Fox)Midway through the season, Bassin made another addition, trading for MacDermid, who played on Owen Sound. He added size and toughness and was a more-than-capable player.
Strome: I don’t think I’d ever seen a human that big. Especially one that plays hockey.
McDavid: Big Mac is a massive human. That’s the first thing. He plays the game the right way. Great guy off the ice, a really good teammate.
Strome: I just remember shaking this guy’s hand, like, “Oh, my God, did we just trade for this guy? Who is this guy? Is he allowed to play in the OHL?”
Jackson: Andre and Connor were very potent when they played together, and I do remember Kurtis stepping up and protecting those two and others.
Brown: I remember playing against him when I was getting into the OHL. He’s a scary dude. Then you get to know him and he’s such a good guy.
Fox: Just a class guy, character dude. We roomed together on the road in Saginaw for playoffs. We had a kitchenette, and he made me some omelets in the morning.
Kurtis MacDermid (Courtesy of Dane Fox)Strome: He actually has underrated skill. I know he doesn’t play a lot of minutes in the NHL and hasn’t played in the playoffs yet, but there’s a reason he’s in the NHL. That’s something that gets lost.
Brown: He was one of the better defensemen in the league.
And MacDermid did stick up for his teammates, though it was sometimes hard for him to find a fighting partner because of his size, Brown said. One story stands out to former NHL defenseman Jay McKee, who became an assistant coach for the Otters in 2014-15, when McDavid and MacDermid were still with the club.
McKee: Somebody tried fighting McDavid. I don’t think the fight amounted to a lot, but someone tried to. And when the guy was in the box, I remember MacDermid jumped off the bench, skated over to the box and tapped on the penalty box to say, “You’ve got us next.”
The 2013-14 Otters finished the year 52-14-2, and their .779 points percentage was the best in team history. They ultimately fell in the OHL conference finals to a Guelph team featuring multiple NHLers and a hot goaltender. Burakovsky made the Capitals roster the next year, and McDavid arrived in Edmonton a season after that. MacDermid went undrafted but signed with the Kings after the Otters’ 2014-15 season. And now, of course, the trio is in the Western Conference final.
Bassin: They were the founders of an era. With a 68-game schedule, we won at least 50 games four years in a row. That’s hard to do in junior hockey. They started that era.
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Brown: Solid guys, good teammates, good players.
McDavid: I certainly loved my time with both those guys.
(Top photo of Connor McDavid: Courtesy of the Erie Otters Staff and Matt Mead Photography)
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