VibeBlog

(Editor’s note: Zach Benson was drafted at No. 13 by the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.)

Last summer, when a group of NHL players and prospects pulled into the Canlan Sports Scotia Barn in Burnaby, B.C., for power skating with Barb Aidelbaum, or skill development with Justin Rai, none travelled from as far as Zach Benson.

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Benson, a projected top-10 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, would work out in a gym in his hometown of Chilliwack in the morning before hopping in his car to make the westward drive into suburban Vancouver.

On a good day, it was a three-hour round trip for a one-hour skate. On a bad day, it would take him two-plus hours to get home in rush hour.

And yet when they all showed up at the rink, none ever had a bigger smile on their face than he did, with the sides of his head shaved into a 90s-style mullet and a “mischievous grin.”

It was only Aidelbaum’s first summer working with him, but she learned quickly that he was unlike any of her other clients in both personality and game.

“It’s impressive what he does (traveling in). I’ve never met his parents, I’ve only talked to them on the phone, and he’s his own guy. He’s mature beyond his years,” Aidelbaum said. “Leaving home at 15 does that to you, but he’s a special one, for sure.

Aidelbaum found that the harder she worked him, the happier he was. The only time he wasn’t smiling when was she’d give him very precise information, and his eyes would narrow and focus, listening keenly. Whenever she was done with an instruction, he’d take it all in and jump right into his “work mode.”

And he hated taking breaks.

“If we’ve done a hard, technical conditioning drill and I’ll say ‘OK, two-minute break,’ he’ll go over, he’ll take a sip of water,” she said, chuckling mid-sentence, “and as he’s swallowing the water, he’s back out on the ice for free time working on his intricate moves. A lot of players will stand at the boards and be like ‘Did he really just do that? How did he do that?’ And when he’s out there trying those moves, I’ll often say to him ‘You can’t do that again two times in a row’ and sure enough that’s a move that he has created and gone out and perfected, and it will be the exact same. If there’s the Michigan, then he’s got the Benson.”

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There are similar stories about him in Winnipeg, where he’s a star with the WHL’s Ice, in Chilliwack in a gym that has welcomed other NHLers like Noah Juulsen, and in Rai’s skates, which can include players like Kent Johnson, Connor Bedard, and Andrew Cristall.

This season, he was the best player on one of the CHL’s best teams, and the WHL’s third-leading scorer, as a 17-year-old. On Friday, he returned from a month-long layoff with an upper-body injury to score in Game 1 of Winnipeg’s second-round playoff series against Moose Jaw.

But there’s also a lot more to him — and his game — than his gregarious personality, his impressive production, and the skill level that comes with it.

When people show up to watch him play, they’re wowed by his moves, a lot like Aidelbaum and her clients are. But they’re usually surprised when the small, ultra-talented winger is also the game’s best defensive forward, or hardest worker, with an energy on the ice that matches his spirit off of it.

In the spring of 2022, as Ice head coach James Patrick wrapped up his first full season coaching Benson, who’d just led his team — a team that featured would-be, older top draft picks like Matthew Savoie and Conor Geekie — in playoff scoring with 23 points in 15 games as a 16-year-old, he said the following:

“He’s going to be a special player. He’s one of the smartest young players I’ve ever seen. He has high-end hockey IQ, he’s got a great stick, he’s as good defensively as he is offensively … and he’s real good offensively.”

A year later, almost to the day, when Patrick is read back that quote and asked if it still rings true, he almost scoffs.

That kid, he says, did it against second- and third-line matchups. This one has now done it against the opposing team’s best 19- and 20-year-olds. This one just led his forwards in minutes while playing on the first power play and first penalty kill.

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“He’s the guy that the other team has tried to shut down, or gone after, or been physical on,” Patrick said.

But it’s that defensive game — a rare strength for a 5-foot-9, 163-pound player — and not the team-leading 98 points he scored in 60 games, that defines him according to Patrick.

“He stops on pucks. He gets under sticks. He can still check guys who are 40 pounds heavier than him just by having a real good stick and body positioning. He reads the play very well. He’s got really good habits. Stick-on-stick, stick on the ice, stick in passing lanes, he’s really good at picking passes out of the air. His hockey sense and reading the play has always been a really big part of his defense,” Patrick said. “And the other thing is, when we have a lead he doesn’t cheat. He can push the pace if he reads the play for it, but he doesn’t do it at the wrong time and get on the wrong side of the puck. Compared to other high-end offensive players who maybe have the green light but also don’t think twice about jumping, he does and he’s also got the defensive conscience.”

When Patrick’s asked about the kid, rather than the player, he laughs.

“I view him as a kid who is incredibly passionate, crazy about hockey, and just really enjoys life,” Patrick said.

If Benson isn’t laughing whenever he sees him, he’s always ready to. Benson’s the kid who others in the dressing room gravitate to. When his teammates aren’t laughing with him, they’re usually laughing at him. A diehard Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid fan, Benson’s the kid who makes sure his teammates know whenever the Oilers have won the night before, and slinks into the locker room to avoid their jabs after they’ve lost

“He takes it on the chin from his teammates … and some of his coaches,” Patrick said.

Benson’s the kid who grins when he’s asked about answering nuclear physicist in the “aspires to be” section of his NHL Central Scouting survey. “It’s a little bit of a joke. I was kind of sitting in class and didn’t know what to put. The guys were really giving me a hard time telling me what to put so I listened to a couple of them,” he said with a smirk.

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Benson’s the kid who described his game in that same survey as smart, shifty, skilled and (most importantly) fun.

Patrick says his self-deprecation actually hides how smart and driven he is behind the light-hearted facade, as well. Benson won’t tell you that he gets good grades in school, or that he’s an ambassador for KidSport Canada, a program that helps cover registration costs for youth sports.

Paul Nicolls, who used to own Club XO Fitness, the Chilliwack gym Benson has trained out of, calls him “the most focused athlete I ever worked with.”

“His focus and competitiveness was incredible. He was driven to get better every day and to make the NHL,” said Nicolls, who worked with Benson for a few years before moving to Toronto, but still texts with him after games. “And his love for the game is next level. I’m so proud of what he has accomplished. Chilliwack is so proud of him and I can’t wait to watch him in the NHL.”

That focus and competitiveness, Benson says, is just who he is.

“It’s just ingrained in me to be the hardest worker. Since a young age, I’ve always been the hardest worker. My 15-year-old year, learning from a guy like (Sabres forward) Peyton Krebs who was already a first-rounder at the time, and seeing how hard he went every rep in practice was pretty crazy. And I think I’m doing a pretty good job in following in his footsteps,” Benson said.

“I’m not just out there to goof around.”

The first question every NHL scout asks of a small winger — the first thing they all look for — is whether or not he can skate. If you’re small and slow, that’s a red flag.

But NHL scouts don’t see the red flags in Benson that they see in other smaller players.

Neither does NHL Central Scouting, who’ve ranked him near the top of their list of the top North American skaters for the draft all season.

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Here’s their scouting report: “Although not big in stature, (Benson) brings all the attributes to be a complete player … plays bigger than his size … excellent puck pursuit in all areas, whether on offense or defending … hard to contain with his second and third efforts … a player who wants the puck on his stick and to be a game changer … plays a high-tempo game … effective on both the power play and penalty kill … his transition game in all areas makes him dangerous with his quickness … displays very good skill and vision.”

The first time Patrick saw Benson skate, he thought to himself “Jeez, he really gets low, he’s got great knee bend.”

The first time Aidelbaum saw him skate, she harkened back to a trio of old clients: Pavel Bure, Cliff Ronning and Sam Reinhart.

He doesn’t have Bure’s starting can’t-catch-him explosiveness, but he blends his power with his acceleration into a similar mechanic. And he skates with the same consistency as Reinhart.

“When he’s on the ice skating it doesn’t matter whether he’s skating with or without the puck. Nothing changes with his speed or acceleration. Sam Reinhart, it doesn’t matter, his skating does not change when he gets the puck on his stick and Zach fits into that mold as well,” Aidelbaum said.

Last summer, they worked to dial in his efficiency so that his stride didn’t look so hurried all the time. It was a stride that had worked for him, bouncing from one spot to the next, but she wanted to help him turn eight steps into five in order to maximize his speed. They also worked on his stance and balance so that he could enter into battles in stable positions on his blade.

A few sessions in, she realized not only that he naturally sat deep on his inside edges to compensate for his size, but that he was already efficient in one way she couldn’t teach: he saw the ice differently, and found faster ways around the sheet that way — on top of his speed and effort level. That was reinforced when she caught him in a live game setting at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in Langley.

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“The thing that’s interesting with Zach is he’s very smart (and) he sees the openings to move into, so he’s going to the right spots and saving on efficiency that way. He’s more efficient than many other players just because he sees it,” Aidelbaum said. “He’s such a smart player. If you look through all of the fundamentals, he’s very proficient. And he’s a moving target because of his size. When he gets hit, he can re-balance quickly and then accelerate.”

Though Benson doesn’t have the highest top-end on the Ice (that mantle belongs to Savoie), Patrick calls him a strong skater in his own right.

“I think he’s got a very good stride. And agility is part of skating and he’s got really good agility. His side-to-side mobility, his backwards to forwards mobility is top-end. His quick feet are top-end,” Patrick said. “(And) I think it’ll continue to get better because he’s got such good knee bend that when his legs and ass get stronger, it’s just going to give him more power.”

But maybe most importantly? He has put in the work to get to that point, and will put in more to get to where Patrick thinks he can, because he doesn’t want to be known just as the small-skill guy.

“I think my hockey IQ and my skillset are my biggest assets (but) I just have so much in my toolbox that I can dish a puck, I can shoot a puck, I can put it in the net, I can forecheck, I can get the puck back,” Benson said.

“I know where to be and how to get there.”

And by all accounts that last part is as true on the ice as it is off.

The where? The NHL, next.

With reporting in Langley, B.C.

(Top photo: Erica Perreaux / CHL Images)

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