Inside the rise of Team Canada's Tanner Molendyk: 'He’s the most beautiful skater I’ve ever seen'

OTTAWA Saskatoon Blades general manager Colin Priestner thinks Tanner Molendyk is the best player in the Canadian Hockey League in terms of the impact he has every night.

According to Molendyk himself, the Nashville Predators told him that it was just cap stuff that stood between him and making their opening-night roster this year.

Advertisement Hockey Canada thinks hes their No.

1 defenseman at this years World Juniors and hes the only defenseman they have wearing a letter.

He was pegged to be a top defenseman for them at last years tournament despite entering selection camp with a lower-body injury that kept him off the ice but saw him named to the team regardless only to break his wrist in Canadas final pre-tournament game.

Peter Anholt, Team Canadas management group lead in both tournaments, said, it was a big loss for us last year.

That team lost in the quarterfinals without him.

On Thursday night, in Canadas Boxing Day opener against the Finns, they began the process of trying to avoid another disappointing tournament.

For the opening faceoff, Molendyk lined up alongside fellow Predators prospect Andrew Gibson on Canadas top pair.

He ended the game sprawling to block a shot in the final minutes with Canada up 3-0 and the Finns pressing in the offensive zone.

On the ice, it all starts with his elite skating.

But off it, it started in the village of McBride, a small, northern British Columbia community of a few hundred people nestled in the Rocky Mountains.

On a recent phone call with The Athletic , Priestner said he couldnt remember more than two times in five years that Molendyk has got caught somewhere on the ice and hes thought to himself, Oh, he took a risk and now its on his D partner to bail him out.

Hes kind of a one-man zone entry for the team and then oftentimes hes in the offensive zone and hes leading the rush and hes never not back, Priestner said.

His skating is as effortless as it is fast.

Its extremely noticeable for how smooth it is.

He just seems to be able to get up ice and always lead the rush.

Hes so fast, according to his general manager, that he can try to make something happen deep inside the offensive zone and still be the first guy back.

Advertisement Hes got that incredible, effortless stride and then you combine the effortless stride with the amount of effort he actually puts in to backchecking and getting back, and its pretty special to watch, Priestner said.

Its a unique stride in its efficiency and he doesnt seem to carve the ice much when hes out there.

Its not a heavy stride, its very light.

Its also not heavy because hes not heavy.

Hes now listed at six feet and 181 pounds, but his slight build was part of the reason he was available to the Predators when they selected him with the 24th pick to match his Saskatoon number in the 2023 NHL Draft.

Maybe more importantly, though, his game doesnt start or end with his skating.

Al Murray has scouted a lot of players in his nearly four decades in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning .

He has won two Stanley Cups and two World Juniors.

After last years quarterfinal defeat in Gothenburg, Hockey Canada brought him back in as their head scout for this years World Junior team.

While Molendyks skating is obvious he can be a one-man breakout when he wants or needs to be, Murray said on a phone call pre-tournament the rest is subtle and effective.

Its tough to forecheck when hes out there so the other team really cant get pressure on when theyre dumping the puck because he can retrieve it and move it and the puck leaves the zone, Murray said, and then defensively hes not the biggest crash and bang guy, but he defends with his legs so hes always taking away time and space from opponents and hes in on their hands so they cant get into a situation where they can create plays because hes taken away their time and space.

Priestner argues that theres no deficiencies at all in his game.

Hes one of the best defensive defensemen in the league on top of all of his other attributes, Priestner said.

So for us, its the completeness of his game thats really the most remarkable thing about him.

Theres no flaws with him.

Hes able to do everything that you would want a top guy in each of their roles to do.

Advertisement Hell defend first, but hes not a stay-at-home defenseman.

Hell take chances without sacrificing his defensive play.

Hes a detailed defender who had 56 points in 50 games last year ...

and was also plus-40.

If you want a top defensive defenseman, generally youre not getting a lot of skating and offense.

If you want a top offensive defenseman, then you have to worry about the risk-reward ratio that comes with those guys and he kind of has both without sacrificing either of them.

With Tanner its that he does everything at a high level, Priestner said.

Hes able to be a complete shutdown defender against other teams best lines but hes also every single game generating our most scoring chances and if you look at advanced categories like scoring chances for and against, and Corsi, and all of those things, hes always first.

Hes truly kind of a modern-age defenseman.

Before he finally made his World Juniors debut for Canada on Thursday, he had played under Anholt at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, helping them to a gold medal.

Anholt talks about how well he has gotten to know Molendyk both through Hockey Canada and opposite him as general manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes , who play in the WHLs Eastern Conference with the Blades.

I really like this player a lot, Anholt said pre-tournament.

Hes an elite skater, he defends so well, he denies entries into zones because of how well he skates.

We really look forward to him being a big, big part of this years team.

Hes competitive, his skill level is elite and his character is second to none too so hes an important player for us.

That character piece has as much to do with his success as the skating piece, according to Priestner.

He calls Molendyk an amazing kid and laughs about how half the population of McBride was at the NHL Draft when he got selected.

When the Blades play on the road in Prince George, the closest WHL market to McBride at more than 200 kilometers away, he guesses that half the town comes to those games too.

Advertisement Hes extremely small-town in his nature and in his roots.

Hes not a cosmopolitan type of kid.

Hes very humble, very well-liked, Priestner said.

Hes very unassuming about everything.

Theres no ego there at all.

Hes just a special kid in that way.

Theres not a lot of kids that come from that.

Sometimes with a lot of high-end picks, the support system that they have around them has that kind of aura of being a manufactured nature to it and extremely professional and the kid is a cog in that wheel.

With Tanner, its very much just that hes a great small-town kid who is polite and respectful.

A year ago, Molendyk was on a Christmas Eve flight home to watch Canada on Boxing Day.

It was tough, he said twice in a recent interview.

Hed come into camp hurt and had left before the tournament had started with a whole different injury.

It was a learning curve the first bone hed ever broken, the first significant time hed ever missed.

He says it has set him up for this year, though.

It was hard but Im coming back stronger than ever, he warned.

We didnt get the results we wanted (last year), he added, still feeling like he was on that team, but hopefully this year we can change that round and flip the script.

Earlier this season, Team Canada management group member Scott Walker flew out to a game between him and would-be captain Brayden Yager to lay the groundwork for the returnees.

Canada then cut two of their returnees, including Preds prospect Matthew Wood, and spent selection camp talking about a need to be more competitive than they were a year ago.

Walkers message? To come in and be a leader, to hold the standard, Molendyk said.

They thought last year that it wasnt held high.

Had he made the Predators and again he insisted twice that he thought he was really close he might not have gotten the chance to flip that script.

Advertisement Now he and his potential future Predators teammate Gibson get to try to do it together.

After starting to get to know each other at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, Mich., in August, they played together on the same pair for the first time at Nashvilles rookie tournament in September.

Gibson said postgame on Boxing Day that Molendyk brings out the best in him.

Hes a great guy.

He brings it every day.

And then off the ice, hes a really good friend, just calm-spoken and super easy to talk to, Gibson said.

His hockey sense is through the roof.

We feed off of each other and it has been a great pairing so far.

...

We played really well (at the rookie tournament) so I think thats what got us the top pairing here.

And then theres one last thing ...

Hes the most beautiful skater Ive ever seen in my whole life, Gibson said, laughing and shaking his head.

(Photo: Mathias Bergeld / Sipa via AP Images).

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