For the Minnesota Wild, the first day of the Traverse City Prospects tournament was successful on two fronts; a win and Mason Shaw coming full circle after a brutal injury last year.
The return of Mason Shaw for the Minnesota Wild is a big positive.
Last year, heading to Traverse City, Mason was an intriguing prospect especially given he plays at center – an elusive spot to find good value depth.
He was coming off a strong campaign with the Medicine Hat Tigers, offering up a 94 point year and entered the prospects tournament looking to prove his value to the Minnesota Wild organization.
Then the worst thing that can happen to a junior league player just drafted by an NHL team happened. He went down and couldn’t get back up; a shredded ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) the prognosis. The sort of injury with potential to be a career-ender.
"Obviously, it was disappointing with how things ended here last year, but that’s behind me now and it feels good to be back on the ice with the guys. – Mason Shaw (NHL.com)"
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Returning to the ice, Mason was given an ‘A’ on his jersey with his perseverance clearly on display given the amount of rehabilitation such an injury requires.
Granted, he doesn’t exactly pack the muscle and equally he was a fourth round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. He definitely had something about him that suggested his skills could be useful. Even if it means converting from center in the junior leagues to being a big-league winger.
The cap space that is lacking for the Minnesota Wild, coupled with the fact they’ve been giving away first round picks over the past few years, mean that guys like these, Mason Shaw included, need to be successful.
He may have been a fourth round pick and there’s not exactly a huge trend towards them succeeding at NHL level, but Shaw certainly offers something to the team.
It’s obviously hard to judge given the Traverse City Prospects tournament is only a couple of games old, but he doesn’t seem too impacted by his injury.
Any doubts will surely be shaken off as the tournament rounds out and you’d be hoping he makes a big enough impression to get more than just a one-game AHL trial last year.
However he develops, if he can show the same commitment as he has to recovering from injury, I have no doubt we’ll be seeing him in the NHL some day.
Hopefully providing very good value for money, at least for the first few seasons!