Kole Sherwood has had one interesting career as a prospect. He went from being undrafted, to joining the London Knights and then being traded to the Flint Firebirds, an organization that was in complete disarray. After all of that, he was named the CHL player of the week this week.
Just how far has Sherwood come in his development?
#CHL Player of the Week is @BlueJacketsNHL prospect Kole Sherwood (@92KSherwood) of #OHL @FlintFirebirds with 11PTS (7G 4A) +7 in 3GP pic.twitter.com/NrmTNy18p0
— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) January 17, 2017
As you can see in the graphic above, Sherwood had 11 points in three games. One game also had Sherwood score five goals. Tying a franchise record. How did he go from a regular healthy scratch to a scoring dynamo in one season?
It all centers around more opportunity. Playing on a talented London Knights team is all well and good but he needed time to find his game. The Jackets knew that he could score a little after watching him play, but getting put in a checking role as he was in London was never going to help someone that was going to be a long term project.
He still has holes in his game defensively but he is starting to make up for it with his prowess on offense. He is able to use his size as an advantage and is getting first line minutes on a team needing some fire power. It remains to be seen if this will help his development long term but it definitely can’t hurt it.
It is tough seeing where Sherwood fits in at the professional level. Is he going to need – or even get – a lot of minutes in the AHL? Either way, as far as projects go, he is developing just fine, he is well on his way to doubling his season total in points last year. He is going to take a while but the Jackets have plenty of players developing, so they can be patient with him. It’s a luxury that they didn’t use to have, they may be able to reap those rewards sooner than you think.
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