Strome gets chance to shine for Canada after missing out on NHL opportunity
TORONTO — Dylan Strome didn’t plan to be here.
Team Canada’s captain at the world junior hockey championship imagined he’d be playing for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes right now. But just over a month ago, after spot duty with the club that drafted him third overall in 2015, Strome was sent back to the Ontario Hockey League. The 19-year-old, who said he felt “done with junior hockey” in July, was suddenly back there once more.
“It’s something that I’ve obviously never really done before,” Strome said of the experience of having to return to the Erie Otters for a fourth season. “It’s kind of just weird coming back to a situation that I’ve been in for three years. It’s not really weird, but at the same time it is just because you haven’t been there.”
Arizona opted to return Strome to Erie on Nov. 20 after he was made a healthy scratch for the 10th time. His inclusion in head coach Dave Tippett’s lineup was sporadic. He played in only seven games in just over a month with the Coyotes, registering a single assist. It was the kind of thing Strome, always among the best players on his teams growing up, had never experienced before.