For Prince George Cougars defenceman Michael Mylchreest, attention is not something he craves.
"I don't like to get too flashy," said the product of Gilroy, Calif. "I like to keep things pretty simple and I want to move the puck. As a defenceman, if you're flying under the radar you're probably doing your job."
Prior to Tuesday night's game at CN Centre against the Medicine Hat Tigers, the WHL rookie had played in 53 of the Cougars' 61 games this season and was still waiting for his first goal. Mylchreest recently turned 17 but is among nine players, a third of the Cougars' team, under 18, which makes playing against some of the 19- and 20-year-olds in the league a tough task.
"[Some teams] have a lot of guys that have been in this league for two or three years and are a lot more mature physically and they know the game really well," said the fan of the NHL's San Jose Sharks. "Our young guys know the game just as well but they're maturing athletes and maturing hockey players.
"I think two or three years down the line we could be that team with older guys to really do some damage," he added, after the Cougars dropped two games at CN Centre against the Victoria Royals on the weekend and fell four points in arrears of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Tigers feature fellow Californian Emerson Etem, who was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2010.
"There's a lot of elite players, especially in the '95 age group, that made the jump to the WHL because they thought it was the best path to get to where they want to get," said Mylchreest, mentioning Tri-City Americans' goaltender Eric Comrie as another post-Wayne Gretzky era hockey player from California. "It's a really special thing to be able to represent California because it's not a mainstream hockey place at all. In 10 years time there could be a lot more players coming from there and going to the NHL."
After the arrival of Gretzky in Los Angeles in 1988, the Kings made it to the Stanley Cup final in 1993, losing to the Montreal Canadiens, which likely created many new wannabe future NHLers.
Mylchreest said he was five years old when he started skating and was trying to figure out how to shoot the puck while keeping his feet moving. He tried other sports -- soccer, basketball and a forgettable season of T-ball -- but none held the same allure.
"Hockey was always the passion and the love," he said.
The six-foot-two, 188-pound defenceman began his career at forward where he played until his second season of bantam when he realized because of his size he'd have more opportunities on the back end.
"I played a couple tournaments in the summer and played as a defenceman just because of numbers and ended up finding out I was a better defenceman and could have more potential," he said. "So far I've done pretty well. I got here and, hopefully, further."
If Mylchreest has his way he'll follow a similar path to Sharks' defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
"He came into the NHL when he was 19 and he's been there ever since," said Mylchreest about the former QMJHL Quebec Remparts player. "He's one of those guys that you really have to watch to understand. When he's playing out there he almost flies under the radar. He's just so smart and so smooth and doesn't make a mistake."
Vlasic was a second-round draft pick (35th overall) of the Sharks in 2005 and is in his sixth season in the NHL where he's a plus-15, putting him 34th among players in the league.
Mylchreest said he already has "big things" planned for the summer to get stronger for next season.
"It's going to be a tough summer; hockey isn't an easy sport," he said. "The way I'm setting things up right now I've got a lot of things planned for the summer and I'm looking forward to it.
"We have a lot of young guys and like I said it's a big thing this summer if we can come back and be just that much better we can have more of an impact on this team," added Mylchreest.
