Dylan Ferguson may have been the last man added to the Vancouver Canucks training camp roster, but the veteran goalie in Penticton on a professional tryout hopes to prove he has staying power.
The week has been a whirlwind after the 26-year-old accepted the invitation to Canucks camp on Sunday. Fortunately for him, he didn’t have far to go to meet up with his new teammates at Rogers Arena for physicals and fitness testing before heading to the South Okanagan. Ferguson lives in Vancouver and was considering a few options for the season ahead when the team he grew up watching needed an additional goalie to round out its training camp roster.
“I had a couple of offers overseas, I just really wanted to stay in North America,” Ferguson told CanucksArmy on Friday. “I spent the summer in Vancouver and every day I just made sure I put in the work to be prepared for whatever came my way. When I heard of the opportunity here, I was ecstatic. I was born in Vancouver, I grew up on the Island, and I used to come to games. I’ve got a few pictures of young me with Dan Cloutier and when I was 13, I got to lead the Canucks on the ice with Roberto Luongo. So this is a pretty special moment for me. I’m really grateful and honoured to be here.”
Ferguson, who has three games of NHL experience on his resume (one with Vegas and two with Ottawa), has spent his first two days at camp as part of Group B along with fellow goalie Nikita Tolopilo, facing the like of JT Miller, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes. His day started by facing shots from Daniel and Henrik Sedin as part of the goalie warm-up session.
The former Kamloops Blazer may have been a late addition to camp and is certainly a longshot to earn a contract of any kind with the Canucks, but he believes he belongs on an NHL roster and is doing everything he can to prove it.
“I feel like I know what I can do,” he said. “I feel like I’ve proved myself before and I’m here to prove myself again. It’s kind of up to me and I’m here to make the most of it. I’m a gritty guy, I have no quit in me. My goal is to get back to the NHL. That’s my mindset and I’ve got nothing else in my head. That’s where I see myself. I know I can play there. And each day I’m on the ice I feel like I’m one step closer to that.”
In the past six seasons, Ferguson has made the rounds playing in the Western Hockey League, the East Coast League, the American League and the National Hockey League. Last season, he appeared in 23 games for Dynamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League.
He admits he had some reservations about packing up his life and heading for Belarus, but that’s where his hockey journey took him, and he tried to make the most of the life experience halfway around the world.
“It was really interesting and a lot of fun,” he explained. “I had a great group of imports there. There were six of us there and actually most of the (other) guys spoke English. Really cool experience. I got to spend Christmas in Dubai. The K is the second best league in the world and I played against some big-name players there. It was a great experience for me, I just feel North America is my home and that’s where I want to play.”
With Thatcher Demko’s health concerns, the Canucks are thin when it comes to experienced goaltenders. Ferguson’s three games of NHL action are third among the goalies on the ice in Penticton behind Arturs Silovs with nine regular season games and 10 playoff starts and Jiri Patera, who has appeared in eight NHL games.
There is a strong chance Ferguson will remain on the Canucks roster well into the preseason, and he could also very well see some exhibition action next week as the Canucks play five games in seven nights.
They can’t run the risk of overplaying any of their goalies – particularly Silovs – early in the preseason. So a player like Ferguson will probably get some preseason minutes to showcase himself.
Where things go from there, he’s not sure. But at this time last week, he didn’t have a job. And now he’s getting the chance of a lifetime to tend the net for the team he grew up watching.
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