Scouts appreciate his poise, his smarts and his ability to distribute the puck
Henry Mews’ development as a blue-liner was sidetracked by a several-season stint as a forward.
It’s only been three years since he returned to patrolling the point.
“The plan was always to be a D,” Mews explained to Postmedia. “I started off playing D, but my team couldn’t score goals, so they put me up on forward and we started winning games and scoring more goals, so I decided to stay like that for the rest of my minor hockey career and just develop my offensive abilities and stuff like that. And then COVID happened, so two years of no hockey. That delayed the switch a bit. But I ended up going back to D, and that’s where I am now.
“I’m happy with the switch. I’m still developing as a player. I think I have a lot of potential left in me and a lot of upside.”
The Flames feel the same way.
Mews collected 61 points — a mix of 15 goals and 46 helpers — in 65 regular-season outings with the 67’s as a draft-eligible. His stat sheet included 19 assists on the power-play. He also helped power Team Canada to gold at the World Under-18s this spring.
Just like Flames fixture MacKenzie Weegar, Mews is originally from Ottawa. And just like so many kids from that area, he idolized former Senators smoothie Erik Karlsson as a kid.
Scouts appreciate his poise, his smarts and his ability to distribute the puck. This rising righty is listed at 6-foot and 187 pounds.
“I like quarterbacking the play and being able to see everything ahead of me,” Mews said. “I think my vision is probably one of my best strengths of my game and that allows me to make plays and make my teammates around me better. That’s all stuff I like to do from the back end.
“I’d describe myself as a two-way defenceman that likes to get the puck up the ice and get my team playing in the offensive zone more. And I’m not afraid to score goals, too, and make plays, whether it’s five-on-five or on the power-play. That’s the kind of the player I am.”
There are a few players like that in Calgary’s future pipeline, and that doesn’t seem like a bad thing.
Parekh piled up 96 points, which was four more than Brzustewicz. (Since Parekh will presumably return for another winter with the Saginaw Spirit, he should have a shot at triple digits in 2024-25. Brzustewicz, 19, will start his pro career in the fall.)
“I’m really looking forward to learning from them and obviously get to know them better and play alongside with them,” Mews said. “It’s going to be pretty great. We’re going to build a great thing going here, and I’m really excited to be part of that.
“You need defencemen to win and go far, right? I think that’s what Calgary sees in adding me to the club. I think we’re going to have a great group going forward here.”
Certainly, there is no shortage of competition for future jobs on the big-league blue line.
Also in the system are offensive-minded Etienne Morin and Jeremie Poirier, plus stay-at-home sorts such as Artem Grushnikov, Axel Hurtig, Joni Jurmo and Yan Kuznetsov.
With their final pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Flames added hometown hopeful Eric Jamieson, who hits hard but has also flashed soft mitts. This lefty, previously a student/skater at Edge School, put up 32 points and a plus-34 rating this past season with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL.
Shortly after hearing his name called at Sphere in Las Vegas, Mews mentioned that he’s been to Calgary a few times for tournaments. He called it a “great hockey town.”
To make it his future hockey home, this converted forward knows he’ll need to address concerns about his defensive deficiencies.
“I recognize what I need to work on,” he told the Ottawa Citizen in the lead-up to the draft. “It’s all stuff I can fix and turn into a strength. Every interview I’ve had with teams, I say, ‘You haven’t seen the best of my game. I know I’ve got better in me. I’ve still got a lot of ceiling to go.’ ”