Riley Mercer has big hopes for NHL entry draft

Bay Roberts goaltender Riley Mercer is hopes to hear his name called at 2022 entry draft

Riley Mercer’s time spent between his season with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and the 2022 NHL entry draft has been unique.

In between working out with his brother, New Jersey Devil Dawson Mercer, and swimming with the Bay Roberts Sea Lions swim team, the youngest Mercer brother has had time to graduate from high school and even cut a few lawns.

On Wednesday, the Mercer brothers were taking on another task you wouldn’t think you’d find a draft hopeful and his pro hockey-playing brother doing.

They were in the family shed trying to assemble a bench made from discarded hockey sticks.

“We swam this morning and worked out, so now we’re just home and doing that,” said Riley, 18.

A goaltender with the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Mercer is fresh off a year that saw him make 29 appearances for the Voltigeurs, going 9-11-5 with a 3.62 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage.

“I thought it was a pretty good year,” he said. “A lot of ups and downs as a goaltender where I’d like to even up my game, but I think I showed them what I could do during high moments and I think it’s just to find a way to be able to bring it night in and night out.”

Mercer enters the draft as the 32nd-ranked North American goaltender and is one of two Newfoundland and Labrador players ranked heading into this week’s entry draft.

The other is Paradise’s Ryan Greene. He is projected to go in the early rounds of the draft and is the 46th-ranked North American skater.

There are plenty of draft pundits who have him slotted to go in the 70s.

Heading into his draft year, Mercer had a pretty good resource when it came to getting an idea of what to expect. It’s only been two years since his brother was drafted and the younger Mercer started almost immediately picking Dawson’s brain.

A lot of the teams kept things virtual this season, which was the same as Dawson’s draft year.

“Before I started the season, obviously, I knew it was coming into my draft year and I asked him a few questions, but I kind of figured it out as (the season) goes on,” said Mercer.

The province enters the draft on a three-year streak of having a player selected in the first 32 pics of the draft.

It started with newly minted Stanley Cup champion Alex Newhook, when he was selected by the Colorado Avalanche with the 16th pick in 2019.

Dawson Mercer came next, in 2020, when the New Jersey Devils took him with the 18th pick.

The streak continued in 2021 when the Las Vegas Golden Knights took Mount Pearl’s Zach Dean with the 30th overall pick.

It was the first time in this province’s hockey history that a player was taken in the first round in three straight drafts.

With no Newfoundlanders expected to go in the first round, the run of locals getting taken in the first round will end Thursday. It is more likely that if either Mercer or Greene is to go, they will hear their name called on Friday, when rounds 2-7 occur.

It is the draft, however, and unexpected things sometimes happen.

Still, should one of the two locals get selected, it will mark the fourth straight year someone from this province has been selected. That would be second to a five-year run from 1994-1998, when 12 players from this province were selected.

Mercer doesn’t quite know where he will fall in the draft or if he’ll get drafted at all. It wouldn’t surprise him to see a team use a late-round pick on him.

If that doesn’t happen, he wouldn’t be caught off guard if he went to a development camp with a team.

Should Mercer get drafted, however, it will be another thing he can share with his brother.

“It’s obviously still something you look forward to doing,” he said. “You’re just playing hockey enjoying it and what happens just comes from that.

“I think it would just be really special and really hope it happens.”

“A lot of ups and downs as a goaltender where I’d like to even up my game, but I think I showed them what I could do during high moments and I think it’s just to find a way to be able to bring it night in and night out.”

Riley Mercer