Former Aspen Junior Leaf drafted by Red Wings

There was not much fanfare when Fisher Scott became what is believed to be the first former Aspen Junior Leaf selected in the NHL draft on Saturday.

The 19-year-old himself wasn’t even at Sphere in Las Vegas when his name was called; instead, he was at his mother’s cabin in California. He found out he was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the seventh round, No. 208 overall, when he received a text from his friend. His coaches — who were in attendance — sent him a video of his name being announced, as well as its appearance on the gigantic, rounded screen.

Regardless, the impact is huge. This week, Scott is up in Michigan, sporting the historic winged wheel at development camp.

“It’s something that I’ve dreamed about since I was a little kid,” Scott said via phone from Detroit on Tuesday. “I’m super excited, especially (to be drafted by) an Original Six team. It’s pretty cool.

Scott, a native of Basalt, has climbed the hockey ranks the hard way: AJH Executive Director Harlan Pratt could not think of another player drafted out of the Colorado mountain youth hockey programs altogether, let alone Aspen’s program. He stayed with the Leafs into his bantam hockey age, before heading to Denver for AAA hockey with the Thunderbirds program. As a defenseman, he tallied 37 points for the under-16 Thunderbirds in 2020-21 before signing on with the Springfield Jr. Blues of the North American Hockey League, in Illinois. 

After one season there, he was drafted into the U.S. Hockey League, the top junior league in the nation, in what his eventual head coach Kirk MacDonald said was an “off the radar” selection. He racked up 47 points with nine goals in 123 games for the Dubuque Fighting Saints across three seasons, last season wearing the “A” as an alternate captain. In 61 games last season, he was a plus-28 and all but two of his 33 points — the 11th most for a defenseman in the league — came at even strength.

“Our GM drafted him before I arrived in kind of an off-the-radar pick, from what I was told,” MacDonald said. “A guy that just kept getting better and better. In his first year, by the end of the year, he was our best defender, just rock solid in the playoffs and I thought he carried that into this year. He was awesome from a leadership standpoint and on the ice he was one of the best defenders in the USHL.”

MacDonald, who was announced on June 19 as the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the minor league affiliate of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, praised his steadiness on defense, particularly in defending the rush, which he said Scott does “as well as anybody I’ve seen.” He added that Scott is not a flashy kind of player, one that you need to watch every day to appreciate.

So it was no surprise that Detroit, whom MacDonald said perhaps scouted Dubuque’s games more than anybody else, thought highly enough of Scott to take a flier on him with their last pick of the draft.

“Fisher’s progression over the last few years of junior hockey has been impressive,” Kris Draper, Detroit’s assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, told the Aspen Daily News via an email statement. “He is a very good skater. His skating, along with good stick detail, allows him to end plays quickly. He’s a high-character kid which we value. He’s smooth in transition, moving pucks on time. We’d like to see him work on his strength like most young players but we’re very happy to have him in the organization.”

Draper’s name should be familiar to hockey fans in Colorado: As a player, he was a central figure in the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry at its peak around the turn of the century.

That could’ve made it awkward for Scott, who grew up cheering on the Avs, but he said he’s just elated to play pro hockey.

“As a player, you dream of being in the NHL. It doesn’t matter what team you go to, you’re pretty happy and fortunate to be anywhere,” Scott said.

He noted that he’ll probably still cheer for the Avs, and hopes to one day play against them.

But there’s still a long road in front of Scott to reach the NHL. The draft works differently in hockey than virtually any other sport: A team can select you, but you can continue your amateur career if they don’t sign you, which often happens for younger players.

In Scott’s case, the Red Wings will own his professional rights for at least two years. But in the meantime, he’ll join another Roaring Fork Valley native in Colorado Springs, playing at the rising Colorado College.

As a defenseman, he’ll be tasked with keeping the puck off of Kaidan Mbereko, a former Team USA goaltender who was born in Aspen. In fact, the two played together in their youth on a travel team. However, Scott said he hasn’t spoken to Mbereko since signing with the Tigers in 2022.

Scott figures he’ll be in college for the next three years, joining a Tigers program that narrowly missed the national tournament after going 20-11-3 and climbing to No. 10 in the national rankings. It was CC’s best season since 2007-08, and Mbereko was unanimously named the goaltender of the year in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, renowned as the top conference in college hockey, and was a finalist for the NCAA’s goaltender of the year.

“Where they are now versus where they were two or three years ago, it’s a huge difference,” Scott said. “One of the reasons I committed there is the coaching staff. They’ve done a great job in bringing in the right guys and creating a program that isn’t the laughing stock of college hockey and is hopefully going to turn into a powerhouse in the next few years.”

Mbereko also has Michigan ties: he moved there after leaving Aspen around age 10 to continue his development, and he played for the Detroit Little Caesars 16U team in 2018-19. He left Aspen at a much younger age than Scott, who said he is proud to have come up through the AJH ranks for as long as he did.

“The resources up there are great, but it’s definitely not the ideal place to raise a hockey player and have that guy get drafted to the NHL,” Scott said. “Coming from nothing really, in terms of hockey, is pretty cool and I think I proved a lot of people wrong — or right, in some cases.”

And as far as Scott or Pratt could tell, it’s blazing a new trail for Leafs athletes. Neither could recall another AJH alumni that went on to be selected in the NHL draft. A good number have gone on to developmental leagues like the NAHL and USHL, and around 10 players in the past few years have played into the age 13-14 team with AJH and gone on to AAA programs.

Many have gone on to college and the pros, including Fisher’s older sister, Stella, who had 31 points in 12 regular season games and 10 points in five playoff games for CHH Txuri Urdin in the women’s Spanish national league this year.

Stella Scott also has a Detroit connection, playing AAA hockey for Belle Tire, based out of the Motor City, in her U16 season.

But even Mbereko has not yet been drafted, though that call could certainly come after his time at CC comes to an end. 

“It’s massive (for Aspen Junior Hockey),” Pratt said. “We know how hard it is to reach even the college levels. … I think it kind of gives kids hope that if they’re truly passionate about it, it doesn’t necessarily matter where you start your career. It’s getting those opportunities because you love it, you work hard and you believe.”

In most cases, a seventh-round draft pick is considered a long shot or a lottery ticket to make it to the bigs. A study by DobberProspects.com in 2020 using data from 2000-2009 showed that only 5.5% of the league’s players came out of the seventh round, and the odds of a seventh rounder reaching the NHL was at 10%.

But even with those odds, Scott’s stock has seemingly been rising from the obscurity of Aspen to the main stage in Las Vegas — and his former coach likes his chances.

“F—ing right I do,” MacDonald said when asked if thinks Scott could be an NHL player one day. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Fish can play. … I think he’s going to go into CC this year and make an immediate impact this year, no doubt in my mind he’s going to be great for them for as long as he’s there. And hopefully when the time is right, he makes that transition to pro hockey and he’s just going to continue to grow.

“I think he’s going to make Detroit look really smart a few years down the road.”