Ingram, Pilon had moments to remember on NHL Draft Day

By: Marty Hastings in Blazers, Sports - Kamloops This Week

June 26, 2016

Connor Ingram’s plane was grounded, but the goaltender was skating on Cloud 9.

The wheels were just about to go up on a flight to Calgary from Kamloops, a welcome end to a two-hour delay, and phones were meant to be turned off when Ingram heard life-changing news — he was drafted into the NHL.

“I was watching the Sportsnet coverage with my headphones on and I heard them say, ‘from the Kamloops Blazers . . .” and I got pretty excited, but it happened to be Garrett [Pilon] that went,” said 19-year-old Ingram, an Imperial, Sask., product.

“I don’t know if I was a little pouty or a little mad and I was folding my phone up because it was time to go, but I got a call from a number I didn’t have and I was like, ‘Ah, whatever, I got time,’ and it was my agent just yelling, ‘Tampa Bay!’ at me. It was crazy. There was nobody around me that I knew, so I was in my own little world for an hour until I could get into Calgary and turn my phone back on to see what was going on.”

The Washington Capitals used the 87th overall pick in Round 3 to select Pilon, a forward from Saskatoon, and the Lightning nabbed Ingram with the next pick in the draft.

Pilon, 18, was about 1,200 kilometres away from Ingram, in Saskatoon, when his once-in-a-lifetime moment arrived.

“I lost my car keys. My mom and I were looking for them through seat cushions,” Pilon said. “I looked up and saw my name on the top bar on the screen. I couldn’t believe it. My mom kind of went a little bit crazy and my sister ran upstairs to see what was going on. It was pretty surreal. I still haven’t found the keys yet. I’ll figure that out later.”

Pilon put himself on the junior-hockey map with a stellar rookie season in 2015-2016, racking up 15 goals and 47 points in 71 games with the Blazers, but the shifty forward was surprised to be picked so early on Saturday.

“It’s pretty crazy going from where you were and seeing how worried you were about certain stuff back then, and maybe you didn’t think things were going to go your way, so to keep plugging along and to be rewarded was pretty special,” said Pilon, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound forward from Saskatoon whose father, Rich, played more than 600 games in the NHL.

Ingram managed to sneak in a few text messages before lifting off from Fulton Field.

“I didn’t really get a chance to soak it all in, but I texted my dad and said ‘TAMPA BAY’ in all caps and, in classic Mr. Ingram fashion, I got ‘yahoo,’ back, no exclamation points, no capital letters,” said Ingram, who set a new franchise record last season by posting a .922 save percentage.

Ingram is an underdog story, having been passed over at the WHL Bantam Draft and forced to claw his way onto the Blazers’ roster in time for the 2014-2015 campaign.

“Ask me again [how I feel] in a week,” said Ingram, who was NHL draft eligible in 2015, but not picked. “It hasn’t really set in yet. I’m packing my stuff up to hop on a flight to Tampa Bay tomorrow. It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Ingram, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound backstop, is attending a development camp in Tampa Bay this week and is one of four goaltenders selected to attend Canada’s National Junior Team Sport Chek Summer Development Camp in July and August in Toronto.

Pilon, who will be in Washington at a development camp until Saturday, was picked by the Blazers in the seventh round of the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft and team brass decided it best he spend his 16-year-old season playing with the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts.

He led the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League in scoring in 2014-15, with 87 points in 44 games, and started with a bang when he arrived on Mark Rechi Way in 2015-2016.

“I got to gain confidence, home in on my skills and take that time to develop more into the player I wanted to be,” Pilon said. “Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten as much opportunity as a 16-year-old in the WHL, maybe not been able to develop as much.”

Ingram had planned to spend Saturday golfing with his father at The Willows Golf and Country Club in Saskatoon, but that plan was foiled by transportation issues.

When he was able to switch his phone on after touching down in Cowtown, it damn near blew up.

“It’s been nuts. I couldn’t keep up for a bit,” Ingram said. “The support coming in from people I haven’t talked to in a long time and numbers I don’t even have in my phone, it’s amazing. You get some special text messages and phone calls.”

Even more precious were hugs and kisses from family and friends upon arrival in Saskatoon.