Sean Farrell thought about going to Vancouver for the 2019 National Hockey League draft. Instead, the Hopkinton, Mass., native opted to watch it at home.
And even though the Chicago Steel forward who spent the past two seasons plying his craft in the USA Hockey National Team Development Program wasn’t there at Rogers Arena, he was happy nonetheless.
“It was awesome to see all those guys I played with the past couple of years get drafted,” the 17-year-old said. “All of their dreams came true, and it was really cool for me, especially after seeing all that they went through last season.”
Farrell will have a tougher decision to make next year as far as whether or not he attends the draft, which will be held at Bell Centre in Montreal. The reason is because he is on pace to be plucked by an NHL organization.
When asked if he gave any thought to that notion while watching this year’s draft, Farrell replied, “Yeah, a little bit.”
But the left-handed shooter quickly shot the idea down.
“I just saw how all my teammates who were drafted took everything a day at a time, tried not to worry about it too much and just played their game,” Farrell added. “I can take a lot of what they did last year and just try to use that this year, and try to block out that extra noise.”
Farrell totaled 40 points (9-31-40) in 61 games in 2017-18 with the NTDP Under-17 team and 38 points (11-27-38) in 64 contests last season with the Under-18 club.
Farrell’s coach both seasons, John Wroblewski, who’s coaching the Under-17 squad this campaign, said the 5-foot-9, 174-pounder “couldn’t be any different as a player and a person.”
“Off the ice, Sean is very quiet,” Wroblewski explained. “It takes a special situation to get him up and out of his chair and show any type of emotion. But on the ice, his game is extremely loud because of his compete level and his skating ability. He’s also got a very versatile skill-set; he’s very skilled at making plays in tight, and he’s got a great shot. He barely has hit the cusp of what he could be as a point-producing player.”
Farrell played both wings during his time in the NTDP, and although he never suited up at center, Wroblewski bets he would excel at that position, too.
“He’s a very efficient skater, smart, competes and is a very good athlete as well, so you wouldn’t have to worry about him burning out through the middle,” the bench boss said. “He’s versatile and you can put him anywhere on the power play. He’ll stick his nose in at the net front, and he’s got enough skill and patience to play on your half walls. His versatility, but with a much higher than average skill-set, will prove to be a valuable asset at every level he plays.”
Wroblewski also praised Farrell’s maturity level, which he labeled outstanding.
“He really came to the rink like a pro,” Wroblewski said. “We didn’t have to talk to him one time in two years about any type of behavioral issue or his work ethic. It was always in the upper echelon of a very talented and hardworking team.
“The one thing that he needed to improve on was realizing how good he was and how good he can be, and that came with being the youngest player on the team. Now that he’s going to have more of a leadership role at the junior level and is going into his draft year and will be a focal point in the locker room with guys looking at him as a leader, his game will go to another level. I’m really excited to see what kind of year he puts up.”
Farrell was “super excited” when he was named to the NTDP 2½ years ago, calling that one of his goals when he first learned about it.
“When I got the invitation to play there, I accepted right away,” he remembered. “I knew that it might be tough living away from home, but I knew it was an opportunity that you can’t pass up.”
Farrell said moving away from home and having to do more things by himself was the toughest challenge of the entire experience. The good news is he wasn’t alone in that department.
“I overcame it by sticking together with our group of guys,” Farrell said. “We all were going through the same thing and we helped each other through it. In the long run, it made me a much better person and player.”
Being a member of such a highly talented team that featured so many players getting drafted into the NHL also upgraded his game.
“Getting to compete against the best players in the country every day at practice was the most important part of those two years,” Farrell said. “Off the ice, we were all best buddies, so we loved practicing with each other. We had a really good group that made it fun and easy for us all to work and get better every day.”
Farrell feels his defensive game improved the most during his two seasons in Michigan.
“I’m still an offensive player,” he asserted, “but I became much better at penalty kill and getting pucks out of our zone.”
But just because Farrell is focused on fine-tuning his defense doesn’t mean he’s abandoning his work at the other end of the rink.
“This season, I’m looking to work on my goal-scoring ability and shooting more,” he said. “I’m a pass-first player, but this year I’m going to try to make better decisions and shoot more and finish more of my opportunities.”
While Farrell experienced many memorable moments in the NTDP that he’ll never forget, the one that stands out for him was the 2017 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
“That was our first international tournament,” he said. “We won gold. We played one of the Canada teams (Canada Red) in Canada in the gold-medal game. It was a full crowd, and we ended up winning that. It was an awesome experience.”
Farrell added another memory to his bank last season when he got to compete against Harvard, the school he’ll attend starting next fall.
“Playing against them was pretty cool for me,” he said. “I had friends and family in the stands, so it was one of the few games when a bunch of people I knew could come out. It was awesome to see them. And playing at Harvard, I just love that rink. It was good to see the coaches again in person. I hadn’t seen them in a while. That Boston trip and getting to see my family and playing at Harvard was one of my highlights of my U-18 year.”
Farrell’s path to the NTDP started nearly 30 miles west of his future Harvard home in Hopkinton, where he was born, raised and quickly fell in love with hockey.
“My cousins played growing up on their local town team,” he recalled. “When I was 3 years old, they gave me all their old gear and I started skating on my grandparents’ lake in Milford, a town over from me. My cousins got me into it and got me to love it. My parents never played; it was all my cousins.”
Farrell’s first skating coach was his cousin Alex. Said Farrell: “He was in high school at the time, playing for the Milford team, and he helped me out a lot.”
Farrell played for the Minuteman Flames for eight years from when he started until his U-16 year.
“We had a good group, and I’m still best friends with a bunch of guys from that team,” he said. “We had a great coach who made us all love hockey.”
Farrell then skated with the Junior Bruins for one campaign before going to St. Mark’s School, where he suited up for one season.
“Playing prep school hockey as a freshman is difficult at first because there are a lot of kids who are 18, 19 years old,” Farrell explained. “You have to adapt your game so you’re not getting beat up physically. I learned to play a little bit smarter and made better decisions because I couldn’t get away with as much at that level as I could have in previous years.”
Farrell continued to use those lessons in the NTDP and will utilize them again next fall at Harvard. Until then, though, the senior has one more year of school to finish, which he’ll do at Geneva High School, and one more season of hockey to complete, which he’ll do with the Steel.
And the young man who might hear his name called at the 2020 NHL draft couldn’t be more excited.
“We have a really skilled team this year,” Farrell concluded. “We definitely have a chance to make it far and hopefully compete for the Clark Cup at the end of it. I’m psyched about that.”
