A large part of that was goaltender Dryden McKay. I say “was,” as McKay played his final game before graduation, which was a 5-1 loss to the Denver Pioneers in the National Championship back on April 9.
McKay also tested positive for an anti-doping violation through the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), despite winning the Hobey Baker Award in 2022 as the nation’s top player.
Previous Hobey Baker winners over the past 10 years include Colorado Avalanche defensive phenom Cale Makar, Montreal Canadiens’ forward Cole Caufield, Calgary Flames’ All-Star Johnny Gaudreau (aka “Johnny Hockey”) and some guy named Jack Eichel who was drafted second overall in 2015, then forced his way out of Buffalo in being traded to Vegas.
The Golden Knights are also on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
McKay accepted a six-month ban by USADA, which means he likely may be signed as a free agent by a NHL club looking to shore up the back end of the goaltending situation. Many NCAA players who stay all the way through their four years do not enter the draft protocol, which benefits NHL teams that do not need to spend draft picks. This allows the collegiate players who no longer have eligibility to go straight to the minors, rather than return to their squads like much of what the Michigan Wolverines who were drafted last year did.
The thought of McKay succeeding someone like a Jonathan Quick in Los Angeles, adding to Buffalo’s youth movement, or being a key component of a rebuild in Chicago, Arizona or Seattle might sound very appetizing on paper. Then you realize McKay cannot participate in any team-sanctioned activities until October, when training camps would have come and gone makes a team pump the brakes very quickly.
McKay claims he tested positive after taking an immune booster to help fend off the omicron variant of Covid this past winter. He suspected that a substance may appear in the vitamin, which he shipped to a lab for testing. When a USADA urine test came back positive for a trillionth of a gram (according to ESPN reports), McKay knew his fate was sealed.
A history-setting season at Minnesota State, McKay recorded a NCAA-record 37 wins, with 34 being shutouts.
McKay went undrafted in 2021, with many attributing this to his 5-foot-11 frame. Andrei Vasilevsky (Tampa Bay) is 6’3”, Jacob Markstrom (Calgary) is a towering 6’6” and Darcy Kuemper (Colorado) is 6’5”. The NHL has turned to using larger players in the net that can take up more space, rather than smaller players with rubber bands for limbs. Martin Brodeur and Dominik Hasek were only 6’2” and 6’1” respectively, while being considered two of the five greatest goaltenders in league history.
When McKay signs as a free agent, he likely will be reporting to that team’s AHL affiliate for at least the start of the 2022-23 season. Unless there is a mishmash of veterans like in Buffalo, or a retirement in Los Angeles, McKay’s best option is to use the suspension to his advantage and learn the NHL game at a level with other players on the verge of jumping to the show. Quinton Byfield played 32 games with the Ontario Reign in 2020-21, after being drafted second overall by the Kings that summer. Byfield played the final six games of the regular season in Los Angeles and 36 more this year, despite still only being 19 years old.
With McKay being 24, the time he needs in the minors might be limited before that first call-up. The wait may be worth it, but this is also a wait that should not have needed to occur.
-JC24