Hannay hoping to be selected at NHL draft
By Willy Palov - Sports Reporter
The Chronicle Herald

This time last year, Sawyer Hannay saw himself as a long shot to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

He was a sixth-round pick of the Halifax Mooseheads and knew he’d have to overachieve in training camp to make the team. As most fans of the team know already, he pulled that off and started the year as Halifax’s seventh defenceman.

After bouncing in and out of the lineup for the first month of the season, Hannay turned the misfortune of others into an opportunity for himself. He took advantage of some injuries to some of his teammates and established himself during a short time as a player who deserves to play every night. He wasn’t scratched again and finished the year as one of the team’s steadiest defenders.

"The coaches gave me lots of opportunity and I tried to do the best with the chances they gave me," Hannay said. "But for the most part I just tried to enjoy myself and the experience and it seemed to work out well.

"But, yeah, a year ago I was just worrying about my midget team and our championship and then the Q draft came along, which was a nice little surprise. I was just taking it step by step and hoping for the best."

Hannay improved so much during the course of his rookie QMJHL season that NHL scouts even began to take notice. They admired his physical style of play and saw him as a player who wasn’t receiving enough praise for his capabilities in his own end. With the NHL draft coming up this weekend in Los Angeles, there’s a legitimate chance he could be selected.

Some scouts have quietly made it known they would pick him in the fifth or sixth round and the independent scouting service Red Line Report rates Hannay as the 138th-best prospect available.

"As assets go," reads his brief writeup in Red Line Report, "huge and mean are a fine place to start."

At six-foot-four, 190 pounds and with plenty of room to fill out, Hannay has the framework to be stay-at-home NHL defenceman who can also stand up for his teammates. He says he "loves the physical part of the game" and proved it on numerous occasions during his rookie season, enthusiastically engaging the toughest fighters in the league.

"I enjoy it," said Hannay, who was fourth in the Quebec league with 158 penalty minutes in 54 games. "I really like the rough stuff and, in my opinion, that’s the way to play the game. You level with the game, you level with your opponents when you’re playing physical and it brings out the heart in a player. And it’s fun. I love competing at a high level."

In one of its special sections ranking players’ specialized skills, Red Line Report rates Hannay as the fifth-toughest prospect available.

"Where did this guy come from?" reads Hannay’s Red Line Report evaluation. "Guys in the Q have already seen enough to know they don’t want any part of him."

But as much as he has every right to feel like he deserves to be drafted, Hannay knows there are no guarantees he will be picked this weekend. He still feels most comfortable in the long-shot role heading into the draft and said his only plan for the weekend is to follow the proceedings on the Internet and hope someone takes a chance on him.

"It would be a nice little surprise if I got picked but if not there’s always next year," said the Moncton native.

"I’m not going to worry too much about it. There’s not much I can do to help myself get picked now."

( wpalov@herald.ca)