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To Joe Veleno’s mind, the gauntlet was thrown down the moment he slid to the Detroit Red Wings at 30th overall in the 2018 NHL entry draft.
He’s opted to utilize that as a motivating tool to show the other NHL teams who passed on him that they made a horrible mistake.
“Yeah, it does for sure,” Veleno said of how the perceived snub drives him to succeed. “I don’t think I was the 30th pick. I could have gone a lot earlier in my opinion but I was lucky enough to fall to a historic, great organization in Detroit, but for sure it motivates me even more to be better than all those players that went ahead of me and be the best player in that draft.”
“For any player who slides in the draft, obviously, it kind of gets to you a little bit and you want to kind of shove it to the other teams that passed to you. I want to do the same thing. I want to be better than all those guys that went ahead of me and prove to all those teams that they shouldn’t have passed on me.”
Veleno will be offered a chance to just that this week as he skates for Canada Red in the 2018 World Junior Summer Showcase in Kamloops. B.C.
At one time, Veleno rated right up there as an NHL prospect at a level alongside the likes of Connor McDavid, Aaron Ekblad and John Tavares. Veleno was granted exceptional player status and allowed to enter the QMJHL draft at the age of 15 and selected by the Saint John Sea Dogs.
“I think it brought me a lot of experience,” Veleno said. “I really matured as a person, as a hockey player. I was placed with great billets, a great team, a great organization that was filled with a lot of good veterans, really good guys off the ice, who kind of took me under their wing.
“What it made it me is mature a little quicker. I think at 15, I felt a lot older in terms of maturity and I just kind of grew from there as a player and as a person.”
Not that there weren’t struggles. Last season, after scoring just six goals in 31 games, the Sea Dogs dealt Veleno to the Drummondville Voltigeurs, where he potted 16 goals in 31 games.
“I think there were a little bit of ups and downs last year,” Veleno said. “I think at Saint John things weren’t working out as well and I got the opportunity to be dealt to Drummondville, a contending team with some really good players, some really good talent and I kind of found my game after that with Drummondville.
“So my season for the most part was pretty good but of course I don’t think I was consistent enough throughout the season.”
The Wings see unlimited potential available to be tapped in the case of Veleno, while admitting the reason he slid to No. 30 is because he does have some questions to be answered regarding his game.
“His skating is incredible, Detroit co-director of player development Shawn Horcoff said. “He’s got a good skill set, too. He’s just a guy that you can see out there – can he become an elite penalty killer with that skill, a guy that’s hard to play against, and chip in with offense?
“He’s got a good skill set. There’s just a lot of areas in the game that he could influence.”
The Detroit Six
Veleno will be one of six Red Wings prospects in action during the world junior summer showcase event.
Center Michael Rasmussen, Detroit’s top pick in the 2017 NHL entry draft, will join Veleno on the Canada Red roster, as will defenseman Jared McIsaac, a 2018 second-round pick.
Defenseman Alec Regula, a 2018 draftee, and goalie Keith Petruzzlli, a 2017 pick, are on the Team USA Blue roster. Forward Jonatan Berggren, like McIsaac, a 2018 draft choice, is with Sweden.
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