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On to the Show
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Canadiens left wing Rene Bourque (17) battles Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr (62) for the puck during the Stanley Cup Playoff s game in Tampa, Fla. Sustr played for the Youngstown Phantoms during the 2009-10 season.
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
During a recent Pittsburgh Penguins telecast, play-by-play announcer Paul Steigerwald marveled at the skating skills of Montreal Canadiens’ left winger Jiri Sekac, saying the native of the Czech Republic has come “out of nowhere” to dazzle the NHL.
Not quite.
Sekac played two seasons with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms (2009-10 and 2010-11) before three seasons in Europe’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He’s not a stranger to North America.
Sekac, 22, is one of three former Phantoms who have NHL experience. Defenseman Scott Mayfield, a second-round draft pick of the New York Islanders in 2011, played five games last season for the Islanders. He played for the Phantoms in the same seasons as Sekac.
Tampa Bay defenseman Andrej Sustr played 43 games with the Lightning last season and 22 this season. He was a Phantom in their inaugural season (2009-10) before playing three seasons at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
Of the three, Sustr’s rise was the hardest prediction, said Phantoms assistant coach Brad Patterson who joined the team midway through the first season.
“Over the course of that season, he got better and better and better to a point where he probably was playing 35-40 minutes a night,” Patterson said of Sustr. But at that time, Sustr, a native of Plzen, Czech Republic, was 6-feet-6, skinny and a bit frail, Patterson recalls.
“He went to university and put on a few pounds,” Patterson said of the undrafted free agent. “After the first year [in college], he was actually offered NHL deals.”
What amazes Patterson is that Sustr, 23, resisted tempting offers after his first two college seasons.
“He turned them down because he didn’t feel his body was ready, which is a pretty mature thing to think about when you’re offered a ton of money,” Patterson said. “A credit to him, he went back to Nebraska-Omaha and played Division I another year, developed further.
“Now, he’s 6-8, built like a truck and playing every day in the NHL.”
This season, Sustr has three assists and has a plus 6 ranking in plus/minus rankings.
As his second season in Youngstown approached, Mayfield was the Phantoms’ poster child for touting the USHL as a pipeline to the NHL. The team needed someone to promote.
The Phantoms became the Covelli Centre’s main sports tenant one year after the Youngstown SteelHounds of the Central Hockey League folded in June 2008. Owner Bruce Zoldan’s Mahoning Valley Phantoms of the North American Hockey League played some games at the then-Chevrolet Centre.
That version of the Phantoms folded after the 2008-09 season so Zoldan could create the Youngstown Phantoms as a USHL expansion franchise. Brandon Saad, a third-year winger with the Chicago Blackhawks, played for the Mahoning Valley Phantoms in their final season.
After leaving the Youngstown Phantoms, Mayfield was drafted then played two seasons at the University of Denver before turning professional with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders’ top farm club.
Last season, Mayfield played 71 games with the Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League and five with the Islanders late in the season.
In 17 games this season with the Sound Tigers, Mayfield has two assists and 48 penalty minutes.
“NHL [teams] usually carry seven-to-eight defensemen,” Patterson said. “Right now, [Mayfield] would be [slotted] nine or 10.”
In The Hockey News 2014-15 Yearbook, the magazine projected that Mayfield, 22, would be ready for the NHL in the 2016-17 season. Patterson won’t be surprised if he’s an Islander sooner.
“His development curve has gone through the roof, from everything that we’ve heard,” Patterson said.
“He’s doing well in the American League right now, he’s getting a lot of ice time and that’s what you need, especially as a young defenseman.”
“Whereas if he was in the NHL right now, he might be in and out of the lineup.”
That’s what happened to Sustr last fall and winter with the Lightning until he was sent down in mid-January to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch to get more playing time. This season, he’s a regular with the Lightning.
Last summer, Sekac signed a two-year deal with the Canadiens.
Patterson said Sekac’s skills were obvious five years ago.
“His skill set was above-and-beyond a lot of guys on our team,” the former SteelHounds forward said. “He didn’t have a lot around him that was on his level, maybe two or three forwards.
“His skating, his explosiveness, his shot — those are things you can’t teach,” Patterson said. “You either have them or you don’t.
“He had an elite compete level to go along with that. That’s kind of what [delivered] him to where he is today.”
Most USHL players are striving for college scholarships. Sekac was not eligible because he had played eight games of major junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey League’s Peterborough Petes. In Canada, junior hockey players are paid and forfeit scholarship opportunities.
“When he went home, that’s when the KHL was beginning to explode,” Patterson said.
Sekac scored 27 points for the Phantoms in the 2010-11 season and there was a chance he was going to return.
“If he would have come back, he eventually would have had to go and play professional because he already had lost his college eligibility for playing major junior,” Patterson said. ”He got a pretty good offer.
“At 18 to play in arguably the top professional league outside the NHL, it was a pretty big jump for him, but a good opportunity.”
Sekac played 36 games with Lev Poprad in 2011-12, then played two seasons with Lev Praha, including 21 games in the playoffs last spring.
“His team made the final and he was one of the driving forces behind that,” Patterson said. “That’s when NHL eyes started to open up for him.”
The Canadiens signed him as an undrafted free agent.
What Patterson recalls most about this trio were their attitudes and desires to play beyond what was expected.
“The smiles and the willingness to go out and do anything that was asked [stand out],” Patterson said. “But first and foremost, they are unbelievable athletes.”