Prince Albert Raiders goalie Ian Scott always knew that teammate Parker Kelly plays like a pest.
But he only experienced it firsthand over the summer with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Drafted in the fourth round (110th overall) by the Leafs, Scott played against Kelly and the Ottawa Senators in a game for each respective team’s rookie camp showcase.
The tenacious forward didn’t score any goals, and though he came close to it, Scott says another memory sticks out for him about Kelly.
“I remember him breaking my stick behind the net one time,” Scott said with a chuckle.
That, plus trying to see pucks around Kelly, who’d park right in front of his net, made Scott appreciate having the Senators’ signee as a teammate rather than an opponent in the WHL, he said.
Scott and fellow teammate Jordy Stallard enter the 2017-18 season as two of the Raiders’ four returnees from NHL training camps over the late summer and early fall. (Kelly and defenceman Vojtech Budik are the other two players.)
The 18-year-old netminder says that the speed of the NHL was one of the first things that struck him.
“I picked up my pace. Plays happen a lot quicker. You gotta be almost one step ahead,” he said.
For more on this story, see the Oct. 4 print edition or e-edition of the Daily Herald.
