Patrice Bergeron is one of the most complete centres in the NHL and someone every NHL team would love to have on its roster. Dawson Mercer wants to be the next Bergeron, and some scouts think he can do it.
Mercer took big strides in the QMJHL this season, both in his on-ice production and big-game experience. Now, the Newfoundlander is ready to bring his scoring touch and high hockey IQ to the next level.
Watch Round 1 of the NHL Draft on Sportsnet and SN NOW beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Then catch Rounds 2-7 on SN1 and SN NOW starting at from 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Here’s everything you need to know about the next hockey star from The Rock.
Age: 18 (Oct. 27, 2001) Height: Six-foot Weight: 179 pounds Position: C/RW Shoots: Right Current team: Chicoutimi Saguenéens (QMJHL)
Never takes a shift off
Mercer finished the season with 24 goals and 60 points in only 42 games — due to Team Canada commitments and a late-season injury — but he’s much more than just an offensive player. The 18-year-old can fill any role on his team, whether it be centre or right wing, and on the power play or penalty kill.
He credits his high hockey IQ and strong work ethic for allowing him to play that way. He can be the first player on the forecheck, wearing opponents down or he can create offence from the top of the circle with his hard shot and quick hands, depending on what his team needs.
In the first half of the season, as a member of the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Mercer was a top-line scorer on a rebuilding team. But after a trade to the championship-chasing Chicoutimi Saguenéens, Mercer joined stars like Raphaël Lavoie, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Félix Bibeau and was no longer relied on for his offence. While his production went down with the Saguenéens, he still found other ways to contribute by winning faceoffs and killing penalties.
“I’ve got a motor that I like to keep going,” Mercer said in an interview with NHL.com. “I don’t like to give anything up or give up on a play. I want to be at my best in all three zones. When you keep going to higher levels, there’s only a little difference between each player and you want to be on the right side of that. I feel like these little qualities I have will give me the extra boost, whether it’s having a positive attitude, giving 100 per cent and not taking a shift off, being hard on your checks. All those little things matter and I take pride in doing those things well.”
Models his game after Patrice Bergeron
As an average-sized right-shot centre, Mercer idolizes Bergeron and his ability to fill whatever role his team needs.
“He’s the type of guy that I’m sure every player would like to be like,” Mercer said on the BTS Hockey podcast.
NHL Central Scouting’s J-F Damphousse compared Mercer to Bergeron in an interview with the NHL Draft Class podcast, citing his reliability in all zones as the reasons.
“I really like Dawson’s game. He’s a true competitor, he’s passionate, he loves playing the game,” Damphousse said. “I don’t like comparing players but if I had to compare I think he could become a little bit like Patrice Bergeron. Someone that can bring a lot of offence but is also reliable in his own zone, winning faceoffs, battling down low for loose pucks.”
A magnetic personality
Mercer has shown this season that he can be a leader on his team and in the community. He was an assistant captain with the Voltigeurs and on Team Red at the CHL Top Prospects game and also a finalist for the QMJHL’s Personality of the Year award, which goes to “a player who had a positive media impact and helped improve the league’s image throughout the 2019-2020 season.”
Mercer had a busy year, playing games for two QMJHL teams as well as in the CHL Canada-Russia series, the World Juniors and the CHL Top Prospects game. But his coaches say he had no problem adjusting to any of his new situations.
“He jelled with the guys right away when he arrived,” Chicoutimi coach Yanick Jean told NHL.com. “He has a magnetic personality. Everybody likes to hang out with that kind of person. It is huge having a guy like him, for a coach. When you have a player who plays both ways like he does, when you can generate offence like he does, he plays extremely well on both special-teams units, as good on the wing as he does at centre, it’s huge for our team.”
With the NHL scouting combine cancelled, Mercer has been meeting with teams over video instead and making the most of the situation.
“Whether it’s FaceTime or Zoom, NHL teams are still getting a good insight into who I am,” he said in an interview with The Telegram. “I’m well-spoken and able to communicate with others, and I think that shows the qualities of maturity and leadership, on the ice and off the ice.”
From NL to the NHL
Mercer is proud of being from Newfoundland and is honoured to represent his province on the hockey stage.
He could be just the seventh player from Newfoundland selected in the first round of the NHL Draft and only 27 players from The Rock have skated in the NHL, the fewest of any Canadian province.
“I’m from a small town, Bay Roberts, just 7,000 people about. A small town (where) you’re very close with the community and my family and I’m proud to be from there,” Mercer said in an interview with Sportsnet earlier this season. “It’s a special moment for me to be one of the few Nefoundlanders away from the island playing and having an opportunity in the QMJHL.”
Newfoundlanders taken in first round of NHL Draft
Name
Year
Team
Pick
Alex Newhook
2019
Avalanche
16
Dan Cleary
1997
Blackhawks
13
Terry Ryan
1995
Canadiens
8
Brad Brown
1994
Canadiens
18
John Slaney
1990
Capitals
9
Keith Brown
1979
Blackhawks
7
Mercer grew up in a hockey-loving family. His brother, Riley, is a goalie who was selected by Drummondville in the QMJHL draft earlier this summer, while his sister Jessica plays triple-A bantam hockey in Newfoundland.
It’s clear from listening to him speak that hockey is more than just a job for him. It’s everything.
“We’ve been growing up and living it our whole life. It was something we were never forced to do but we just loved it,” he said on the BTS Hockey podcast. “We like to go put in the work and have fun because work and hockey don’t feel like actual work. It’s work that we love to do.”
When Mercer was 15 he moved away from home to Bishop’s College private school in Quebec to increase his level of competition and he’s been playing in that province for four seasons now. But during the pandemic, he’s gotten to spend an extended amount of time at home, where he’s using a Bowflex machine and a pair of Rollerblades to stay in shape.
Even though his season ended early and he can’t get on ice right now, his focus hasn’t wavered. He wants to get bigger and stronger so that he can challenge for an NHL roster spot next season.
“It is what it is. I can’t change it at all,” he told the Journal Pioneer. “You have to look at the positive side and one way of doing that is to realize I have a lot more time to get ready for the draft and what comes after that.
“For me, that’s working at getting stronger, getting even quicker. I want to be able to show up to my first NHL (training) camp being ready to play with these older, more experienced players. So I want to use this time wisely, and not worry about what I know isn’t going to happen this year, which is the playoffs, and concentrate on what I know is coming and that’s the draft and next season.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
