Flyers' Wayne Simmonds and his unlikely NHL all-star journey
Winger’s career will come full circle in his return to Los Angeles
The most unlikely of the NHL all-star game participants will arrive in style for the festivities in Hollywood this weekend, having scored in back-to-back victories for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Wayne Simmonds pushed his total over the 20-goal mark for the fourth consecutive season and fifth time in his career. There is no doubt the 28-year-old right wing deserves the all-star honour, but considering where he was a decade ago, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Simmonds faced long odds to one day become one of the game's top players.
It's tempting to state that Simmonds' career has come full circle in his return to Los Angeles for the all-star game. After all, the Kings drafted him in 2007 in the second round (61st overall).
But Simmonds' underdog story began before the Kings drafted him.
He had been overlooked in the OHL draft and failed in his bid in a free-agent tryout with the Mississauga IceDogs.
While playing Tier II junior for the Brockville Braves, then Owen Sound Attack general manager Mike Futa was urged to take a look at Simmonds from scouts Chris Byrne, Todd Gill and Ken Cook. Futa liked what he saw and selected Simmonds in the sixth round of the 2006 OHL draft, a few months before his 18th birthday.
Simmonds already had committed to a scholarship at Bowling Green University, but Futa met with him and his parents, Wanda and Cyril. Simmonds changed his mind and reported to Owen Sound.
He had plenty to overcome in that rookie OHL season. He was only 145 pounds. He had to fine-tune his game to the elite level of the OHL and Simmonds had to adjust to living in the league's smallest town, not easy being raised in Scarborough, Ont., in Toronto's east end.
'Now you're leaving'
Simmonds managed to score 23 goals and 49 points in 66 games in that first-year in Owen Sound. He was feeling pretty good about his rookie season but then learned that Futa was leaving to become the Kings co-director of amateur scouting.
"He threw his hands up in the air and said, 'now you're leaving after I made a commitment to you,'" Futa recalled.
A few weeks later, as Futa prepared for his first NHL draft with the Kings, his mobile phone rang. It was Simmonds, wanting to know if Los Angeles was going to draft him.
Futa would not make any promises. He also could not reveal to Simmonds that he was high on the Kings rankings, but he did tell Simmonds that if he wasn't drafted the Kings would bring him in for a tryout.
Meanwhile, Kings GM Dean Lombardi and other scouts with the organization challenged Futa as to whether Simmonds should be ranked in the mid-to-late first round on the Kings' list.
"I was terrified," Futa confessed. "But I believed in him and his attitude to do anything to succeed. One of the lessons Dean has taught me was that if you believe in something, stick by it."
Futa did stick by his convictions and his insider knowledge about Simmonds' work ethic and potential. Still, the selection was panned in the hockey world.
Futa got a text from a junior hockey executive back then that read, "I hope you haven't moved everything out of Owen Sound yet."
Simmonds went back to Owen Sound for an eventful second season. He was traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, made the Canadian junior team, won gold and finished the season with 33 goals and 75 points in 60 games.
From Los Angeles to Philadelphia
He then made the Kings as a 20-year-old rookie. But after three seasons in Los Angeles, Simmonds and Brayden Schenn were shipped to the Flyers in exchange for Philadelphia captain Mike Richards.
The Kings went on to win two Stanley Cups, but Richards is now out of hockey at age 31, while Simmonds has flourished with the Flyers and earned a training camp invite with Canada for the World Cup of Hockey last summer.
Simmonds also has continued to give back to his community, remembering how difficult it was financially for his family to cover the cost of playing hockey.
His dad rose early for a construction job and his mom worked for the city of Toronto, but with four brothers and a sister, sacrifices had to be made to pay for skates, sticks and registration fees for Simmonds.
But family friends, co-workers and teammates helped to keep Simmonds playing, and he took summer jobs. Now he returns every summer to raise money for hockey-playing kids from his neighbourhood through a charity ball hockey tournament.
"He deserves to go to the all-star game," Futa said. "One thing I like to say about him is that he doesn't sneak through doors, he crashes through them. He doesn't settle for anything. He wants to the best. I'm very proud of him.
"He's been a fun story to watch."
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