TORONTO — Sean Durzi knew heading into last year’s NHL draft there was a chance me might not get picked.
Seated in Chicago’s United Center with his family, he waited for his name to be called.
And waited. And waited.
Durzi ended up going all seven rounds without getting selected.
“I believe I should have been picked,” Durzi said Wednesday. “It didn’t go my way.”
But it finally did over the weekend in Dallas. The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted the slick 19-year-old defenceman with their second selection, 52nd overall, at the 2018 draft.
“You look back at it now, it was probably one of the biggest points of my career,” Durzi added of his 2017 setback. “It really pushed me.”
A few hours after the pick Saturday, Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas referenced lifestyle changes the Mississauga, Ont., native made following last June’s disappointment as part of the reason for taking him.
Durzi, who attended a couple of pro camps last summer, including Toronto’s, rededicated himself to his craft in the off-season before returning to the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack.
“It wasn’t so much proving teams wrong, it was proving the people who believe in me right,” Durzi said. “If you take that mentality it’s a lot better way of thinking.”
Owen Sound general manager Dale DeGray said he noticed an immediate difference in the six-foot, 188-pound blue liner.
“He’s matured in all the facets where you want a hockey player to mature,” DeGray said in a phone interview. “He’s been around guys that are a little bit older and a little bit farther along in the maturity phase — eating properly, getting the proper rest — and seeing what they’re able to achieve and how they’re able to achieve it.”
Durzi, who had just two goals and 36 assists in 60 games for the Attack in 2016-17, put up 49 points (15 goals, 34 assists) in only 40 games in a 2017-18 campaign that saw him miss significant time with an ankle sprain.
He then added four goals and 12 assists in 11 playoff games.
“It’s something I’m going to continue to do,” Durzi said of the focus on his body. “As you go along in your career, you’ve just got to be more detailed with that stuff. It makes a difference.
“It was something I thought I’d take upon myself and take the initiative on. I studied what it takes.”
But food and sleep weren’t the only things that propelled Durzi into this year’s second round.
DeGray spoke with the player’s parents after the draft in Chicago and was struck by their positive outlook despite watching six of Durzi’s Owen Sound teammates get picked.
“They weren’t disappointed,” DeGray said. “His parents thought it was a fabulous day and an incredible event.
“They just looked at it as, ‘How many parents get to experience that? How many kids get to experience that?’ Then he plays another year of junior and does really well.”
Durzi said it wasn’t hard to keep a positive mindset after being passed over.
“It’s just a mentality I had growing up,” he said.
DeGray said Durzi’s success early this season reaffirmed his commitment was going to pay dividends.
“He was driven to get better and then performed,” said DeGray, whose career as an NHL defenceman included 56 games with the Leafs. “That let him realize, ‘I can be this guy, I can play this way, I can have success.’”
Attack head coach and former Toronto blue liner Todd Gill said what stood out for him was Durzi’s mental toughness after what can be a demoralizing experience.
“Sometimes there’s a wake-up call needed, and he got it,” said Gill, who played 639 of his 1,007 NHL games for the Leafs. “He knew he had to do things differently and do them the right way.”
A life-long Toronto fan, Durzi is on the ice this week at the team’s development camp along with other prospects, including No. 29 overall selection and fellow defenceman Rasmus Sandin.
Durzi tweeted out a childhood picture of his father and two younger brothers wearing Leafs jerseys after getting drafted, adding Wednesday he used to make sure his seat in front of the television was picked out on Saturday nights.
“It’s a dream come true.”
DeGray said players in similar situations to the one Durzi found himself in last June can use his journey as fuel.
“Don’t let the draft disappointment define you as a player,” DeGray said. “Work at it and come back.
“One player from (the OHL) that didn’t get drafted this year, I told him: ‘Sean Durzi came back at 19, now he’s a second-round pick to the Maple Leafs. Why can’t that be you?’”
—
Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
