Why Phil Varone Should Be a 2009 First-Round Draft Pick

After not having written anything here for the last few months, I’ve decided to come back. I won’t bore you with the details of my absence, but suffice to say there was a contract dispute that was settled when Mr. Zander told me that I could take my then-current rate, multiply it by a trillion, and that would be my new rate per article. 

Of course, my former current rate was Zero, however the fact that he used such a big number made the five-year-old inside me feel good, and here we are.

Ninetieth overall.

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Not listed in the top-30.

Not a shock, their rankings are usually a joke anyway.

*Shakes his head.*

I’m not gonna lie, it was gonna take something I was really, really passionate about to bring me back to the keyboard—well, that & a desire to write while listening to club music. So here we are, and I’m here to tell you one thing, and one thing only:

Phil Varone should be a first-round draft pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

“Phil Varone you say? You must be rusty guy.” 

“Varone’s not even a first liner on his Jr. team, how can you possibly justify drafting him in the first round of the NHL Draft?”

Simple: He’s a playoff player.

In all sincerity, when it comes to top players, my caring about regular season statistics consists of “Did he play well and score enough points for his team to win more than they lost?” Because ultimately, your regular season stats don’t matter if you don’t produce in the playoffs.

Remember what they used to say about Pavel Datsyuk until he won a Stanley Cup last year? Exactly.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch Varone play countless times since he was a 15 year old kid. Fresh out of Vaughan, ON, playing for the Jr. B Kitchener Dutchmen, the OHL Rangers’ farm team.

Not only was he a point-a-game player in Jr. B as a 15-year-old on an offensively-challenged team, but he also dominated at times, even though his leg strength at that point wasn’t even close to paralleling his foot speed. 

I remember one shift in particular, he was on the first penalty kill unit against a rather physical team (likely Brantford or Waterloo).

He picked off a breakout pass at the opposition blue line, took the puck wide and circled all the way around the boards, behind the net, along the other boards, and right out of the zone.

Still holding onto the puck, he did the exact same thing again. He must’ve fought off six checks to hold onto that puck, and it was only after circling behind the net a second time that it took a hit from behind into the boards (which separated his shoulder) and two players to strip the puck from him.

It may have been the regular season, but that was playoff hockey. 

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