Matthew Phillips’ elusive darting and dashing across American Hockey League rinks has finally landed the five-foot-seven, 140-pound winger a home in the big league.
Phillips is among 117 Western Hockey League graduates, and the lone Victoria Royals alumnus, on opening-day NHL rosters announced this week. There is another Island layer to the story. The man who named Phillips to the Washington roster is rookie Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery of Victoria.
Phillips, selected 33rd overall by the Royals in the second round of the 2013 WHL bantam draft, had a starry three-season career in Victoria from 2015-16 to 2017-18 with 136 goals and 145 assists for 281 points in 215 regular-season games and 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points in 30 playoff games. Yes, playoff games, from when the Royals were a regular participant in the WHL post-season.
There were doubts about Phillips’ pro prospects due to his size but his hometown Calgary Flames took a flyer on him in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL draft and he made a memorable and emotional return to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in 2019 for an exhibition game against the Vancouver Canucks.
But Phillips mostly played with the Flames’ affiliate teams in Stockton, California, and Calgary and appeared in only two NHL games despite amassing 313 points in the AHL over six seasons, including 77 goals and 144 points over the past two seasons. But now Carbery and the Capitals have given the 25-year-old his potential big break after he impressed in the preseason with a goal and three points in five exhibition games.
“It’s something that I was working all summer for and, frankly, I’ve been kind of working my whole life for,” Phillips told Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press.
“They gave me a great opportunity and put a lot of trust in me, so I just tried to kind of do my best every day.”
The Capitals open Friday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Phillips is earning praise from Caps veterans with Washington captain Alex Ovechkin telling AP: “He’s a hard-working guy. He’s small but doesn’t take contact and makes some plays. He deserves it.”
Veteran forward T.J. Oshie added: “Man, he can make plays. He’s very, very smart. He’s obviously a smaller guy, but he’s smart enough to put himself in positions to win puck battles [and] create space for himself. I wouldn’t want to cover him.”
There is at least one WHL graduate on 31 of the 32 NHL teams. Leading the list are the 14 Kelowna Rockets with 14 former players on NHL rosters, followed by the Portland Winterhawks with 12 and Red Deer Rebels with nine.
Among Islanders who played in the WHL, former Rockets forward Jamie Benn of Central Saanich is captain of the Dallas Stars, former Rockets blue-liner Tyson Barrie of Langford is with the Nashville Predators, Comox-native and former Winterhawks goaltender Adin Hill with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Port Alberni-native and former Edmonton Oil Kings goaltender Laurent Brossoit with the Winnipeg Jets.
Meanwhile, 19 former BCHL players are on opening-day NHL rosters. They include former Victoria Grizzlies Benn with Dallas and Alex Newhook with the Montreal Canadiens and former Cowichan Valley Capitals netminder Brossoit with the Jets.
