Edwin THE Encarnacion - Rookie Experience

[Tagger 2,722]

 

Reservations

 

Easily my biggest reservation heading into the world of professional hockey was whether I'd be able to adapt to extended periods of not playing hockey. Ever since joining the Wild at the trade deadline of Season 58, I featured as a top line defenseman with close to 30 minutes on the ice every game, but I knew that was going to change heading into my first season in the pros given the team I’d joined. As of the writing of this piece, Calgary sits atop of the VHL standings and that’s in no small part thanks to the exceptionally talented defensemen ahead of me; little needs to be said about the top line of Stropko Jr. and Paddywagon, but the second line of Jordan Tonn and Cody Smith have been surprisingly effective for players that don’t feature on the first line. As a result though, my minutes have been extremely limited and, while it can be difficult to keep upbeat knowing you might only play as little as seven minutes in a game (especially as someone who was drafted first overall), I just have to keep playing hard when I get on the ice and working even harder off it so that, when the playoffs come around and we’re (hopefully) there, I’m ready to contribute when my name is called.

 

Expectations

 

If I can take positives out of this tough rookie season, it’s that despite my extremely limited minutes, I’m still putting up the same amount of points as other defenseman from my draft class who don’t have those same problems. I’m ahead of both Glade Jr. and Omdahl in points and tied with my former Wild teammate David O’Quinn, all three of whom average over twice as many minutes as myself per game. So while the initial numbers don’t look great, I do have faith that I’m on the right track and will continue to play my part on the third line for the remainder of this season. As for the remainder of my rookie contract, I honestly believe that I’ll see a huge upswing in my performance in both my second and third seasons. While I’ll continue to improve my game, my fellow Wranglers defenseman will have their focus centred on fighting off the effects of regression, so I’ll not only get more minutes, but my continued and consistent improvement (I haven’t missed one capped TPE since entering the VHLM) will see my performance on the ice improve and I’m hopeful that, by the end of my third season, I’ll have had one season where I’ve recorded over 60 points