We’re almost there. Hockey season is almost upon us! The last few hockey-less weeks of the year mean that football season is here as well. With that, an interesting clip popped up on our hockey following newsfeeds.
The Chicago Blackhawks used one of their three first round picks last draft on Mason West, a high schooler from Minnesota that played in the USHL. West is a two sport athlete and plays as his high school’s quarterback on the football team as well. In his football season opener he threw for four touchdowns.
It’s a cool story, but should the Blackhawks and their fans be worried? We’re not talking about injuries as much as commitment. That’s not to say playing high school football demonstrates a lack of commitment to the NHL team that drafted him. Well, at least not yet, is what we’re getting at.
Any NFL fans know who Kyler Murray is. He’s the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. Any NFL fans with more than a passing knowledge of his development know that before being a Cardinal he was drafted by the Oakland A’s of Major League Baseball. Murray was a two sport athlete, much like West, and was selected by Oakland with a top ten pick in 2018 and signed a contract with a $2.88 million signing bonus.
Murray’s original plan was to join the A’s for their 2019 spring training and begin a professional baseball career after finishing his last year of college football as the Oklahoma Sooners quarterback. After Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy (given to the best division one college football player, for our readers who only pay attention to what happens on the ice) there was speculation Murray might say “thanks, but no thanks” to the A’s.
He did just that when he declared for the 2019 NFL draft and went first overall. West, like Murray back in 2018, said he’s just playing “one more year”. If a meteoric rise continues on the gridiron could we see West hang up his skates and try his hand at college football?
For a variety of reasons that might not happen. This is also where Murray and West’s paths begin to differ. Murray was already a college football player, and his rise as an NFL prospect happened when he was draft eligible. The pipeline of him to enter the NFL was clear and quick. Even if all went right for West’s hypothetical football career he would still be years away at this point.
More importantly West already has a college commitment to play hockey at Michigan. If West wanted to change course and go the football route, there are still pathways available for him, such as going to a smaller college or trying to be a walk on for Michigan, but both seem unlikely considering the time commitment hockey has and will continue to take. It is worth noting a pre-draft tweet from NHL PR referred to him as a “DI football prospect” as well.
When Murray chose football over baseball it was speculated he did so for financial reasons. Being drafted, playing in the NFL, and making big NFL money is a much faster process than being drafted by an MLB team and going through their minor league system. In short the NFL gave Kyler Murray a chance to make more money quicker, and we mean much quicker.
Like we said before West has no set place on a college football team and years away from being draft eligible. Even if he was tempted by “NFL money” his road to reaching that is a lot less immediate than Murray’s was. Don’t forget West has a potentially busy schedule of the USHL, college hockey and national team camps and tryouts, and Blackhawks prospect camp potentially coming up over the next year and a half. With all that considered it seems West is just a well-rounded high school athlete for the time being.