American Hockey League reclamation projects often take very different guises.
Sean Day is perhaps the most high-profile player in recent times, looking to rebuild his career at the tender age of just 22 years of age.
The context of his story is high expectation and failing to deliver on that.
Day was awarded Exceptional Status to join the OHL a year early in 2013.
This was a controversial decision at the time and proved even more so at the OHL Draft.
Day became the first and the only player in major junior to earn Exceptional Status and not go first overall in his home league’s draft.
McDavid, Ekblad, John Tavares and Shane Wright all went No. 1 in the OHL, while Joe Veleno did the same in the QMJHL, as did Connor Bedard in the WHL.
The Mississauga Steelheads selected the Belgian native fourth overall and you could hardly blame them.
A big defenseman who was an excellent skater and a huge name for a franchise that has historically struggled in attendance.
The concerns that led many to believe he wasn’t worthy of exceptional status and had three teams pass him came to fruition.
His decision-making, especially in the defensive zone, was questionable at times and those were errors that were still present in his game when eligible for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
There were also rumours, true or not, questioning his conditioning, unwillingness to push himself in the gym and a possible poor attitude.
The New York Rangers took what many conceive to be a gamble of selecting Day in the third round.
One does wonder how far the defenseman may have fallen if the Rangers had passed on him.
The Steelheads traded Day to Windsor Spitfires early in what was only his second season in Mississauga.
The blue-line contributed to the Spitfires Memorial Cup Championship in 2017 but he was far from being a star on the team.
His junior career comprised 158 points, including 42 goals in 291 regular-season games.
In post-season play, Day suited up for 34 games, helping himself to five goals and eighteen assists.
Life as a professional began with the Hartford Wolf Pack but Day found life extremely tough and he ultimately struggled as a member of the Rangers organisation.
Through 2018-20, Day played just 62 games in the AHL and found himself in the ECHL for the majority of his second year.
Image: https://marinersofmaine.com/
New York was so disenfranchised with Day that they cut ties with him a year early.
Now a free-agent, who in the eyes of many fans and pundits was perceived to be a bust, where would Day choose to turn next?
There were rumours of a possible move overseas away from the North American spotlight.
However, the Tampa Bay Lightning came calling and offered the 22-year-old a one-year contract and an opportunity to wipe the slate clean.
As born out by the success of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Syracuse Crunch has an excellent track record of developing all kinds of players into NHL-ready assets.
There were few better places for Day to have landed. There was no pressure for the defenseman to try and make the NHL and a commitment from the player and the coaching staff to develop his existing skill set and improve the parts of his game that have held him back to this point.
Day would play in 29 of a possible 32 games for the Crunch and was part of a Syracuse team that started slowly but was on fire by the end of the shortened season (finishing 10-2-2).
In some way, Day’s campaign mirrored that of his new team.
After registering just two assists in his first nine games, Day broke the dam with a pair of goals on the road against Wilkes-Barr/Scranton Penguins on March 19, 2021.
That kickstarted his season offensively and finished with three goals and ten assists for thirteen points through the final twenty games of the year.
Often it’s the case that offensively-minded defenseman can forgo that part of their game when trying to focus too hard on making sure they are being ultra-conservative on the other side of the puck.
Whether the product of a poor mindset, bad coaching or a combination of both, Day refound his groove during this compacted AHL season as the clips below highlight.
What might have been for Day had he not been rushed into the OHL and remained developing in the USA is very much up for conjecture.
By all accounts, his defensive game improved in Syracuse and that’s no surprise under the tutelage of Benoit Groulx.
He’s taken a step back in the right direction and though the hype and expectations placed upon him may have been misplaced, the now 23-year-old has a chance to establish himself in North America.
Once again a free agent, I don’t believe he’ll be short of suitors this summer.
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