Canadian hockey fans, if you don’t know the name Quinton Byfield yet, it’s about time you learned it.
The 18-year-old from Newmarket, Ontario, was selected first overall by the Sudbury Wolves in the 2018 OHL draft, and he’s panned out to be everything the Wolves could have hoped for and more. His 82 points in just 45 games last season earned him the second overall selection in this year’s NHL Draft, when the LA Kings snagged the powerful forward as soon as they could.
Byfield is the youngest player on Team Canada’s roster for the second year in a row, but when he only registered an assist in last year's tournament, and another lone helper before last night’s game against the Swiss, fans were critical of his output. Just to be clear, the criticism of his production was pretty tough to validate. Byfield was playing some of the lowest minutes on the roster as the youngest player on the team, so if you were disappointed in his lack of point production, you probably should have been disappointed he wasn’t on the ice enough instead. Point production aside, Byfield’s mature play away from the puck should have been impressive enough to make his elite status obvious.
Though Canada has yet to face a truly tough opponent in this year’s tournament, last night was Byfield’s time to shine, and we loved every second of his success. Byfield put up 6 points - two goals and four assists - in Canada’s 10-0 shutout of Switzerland, and he did it all in just 11:03 of ice time.
Is he producing enough yet, people?!
There’s nothing like getting the monkey off the back when you have a lot of pressure on you, and it looks like Byfield shook it off with ease. Keep in mind that most of the players in the tournament are a year older than him, and that Byfield has another year to develop compared to most of the guys playing around him. There’s no doubt that the Kings have an absolute stud in this lad, and he’s going to be an exceptional pro for a long time.
