Seravalli: ‘Persistent’ Sean Durzi makes NHL debut against his hometown former team
Sometimes, life writes a script better than Hollywood could have penned.
Sean Durzi is a believer.
The Los Angeles Kings defenseman was called up from AHL Ontario on Friday, wondering if he might make his NHL debut over the weekend against Carolina or Arizona.
But the moment never materialized.
Rather than wallow in disappointment, Durzi realized he was closer than ever to achieving his dream. He went back to Ontario and casually collected three assists on Monday night, nudging him north of a point-per-game on the blue line this season in the AHL with 16 in 13 games.
“That was a big game for me,” Durzi said Wednesday, via phone. “I had to be fully engaged, 100 percent focused on that game, not anything else that might happen.”
That led him to this: Kings coach Todd McLellan confirmed Durzi was expected to make his debut and take the customary solo lap at Staples Center on Wednesday night.
More meaningful than the Hurricanes or Coyotes, the Kings just happen to be facing his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs – the team that also drafted and then traded Durzi.
“Now for it to be the Leafs? You can’t make it up,” Durzi said. “It’s kind of wild. It all comes around full circle for me.”
Durzi, 23, was selected by the Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft with the 52nd overall pick. The Mississauga, Ont., native was then traded to the Kings on Jan. 29, 2018, with Carl Grundstrom and a first-round pick in exchange for defenseman Jake Muzzin.
He grew up cheering for the Leafs, like so many hockey-crazed kids in Toronto’s southern Ontario sprawl. Durzi admitted the trade – even though he was still playing in the OHL – was overwhelming at the time.
“The whole situation was new,” Durzi said. “It was weird not knowing what happened behind the scenes. Did the Leafs offer me up or did the Kings want me? That’s what you ask yourself. I think the Kings had people that were rooting for me. It has been great. The Kings invested in me. The development staff, management, coaches – they have given me every tool I needed to succeed.”
Ask Durzi to describe his journey to the NHL, to summarize his story and his answer is simple.
“Pure persistence,” Durzi said. “I’m really persistent.”
Durzi did not make a Greater Toronto Hockey League “AAA” team until Midget. He played Bantam “AA” but set his sights on being drafted in the OHL. The Owen Sound Attack made him a 12th-round selection. He didn’t become an OHL regular in the lineup until a few months into the 2015-16 season. He’s never looked back.
After collecting 38 points in 60 games in his sophomore season, Durzi traveled to Chicago for the 2017 Draft hoping to hear his name called.
He sat through all seven rounds in the United Center and NHL teams passed him over 217 times. Durzi told his parents then he was “going to show 31 GMs they were wrong.”
“I think the big word I come back to is ‘adversity,’ and learning how to handle adversity,” Durzi said. “There were times I’d ask myself ‘Why is this happening to me?’ It’s happening for a reason. All of the things I went through – injuries, cut by teams, you name it – I was lucky enough to meet great people along the way who helped me.
“No matter how far you think you are, you have to keep going. I just kept telling myself: I know I’m going to make it, I know I’m going to make it.”
After the trade, Kings GM Rob Blake described Durzi as a “right-shot, power play anchor.”
That didn’t mean Durzi’s path to the NHL would be simple or straight forward. When Durzi was made a healthy scratch during his first pro season in Ontario in 2019-20, he said he channeled his experience from Owen Sound as a healthy scratch, vowing to plow through.
In parts of three pro seasons, Durzi has shown solid progression on the ice – in both point production and decision making. He arrives in the NHL with two goals and five assists for seven points in just his last two AHL games.
What is his ceiling? An NHL pro scout said this week Durzi is a classic “transitional defenseman.”
“He’s smart, can move the puck well. He’s alert. A little light defensively and can get pushed [around] but he competes,” the scout wrote. “If he gets the proper support, he can be effective.”
Durzi entered training camp this past September with significant expectations. His missed his chance to make a mark on McLellan and the coaching staff.
“I’d be the first to tell you that I didn’t have the camp I wanted,” Durzi said. “I had to show I’m going to be better.”
Durzi’s proud parents, Sue and Ramey, will be in attendance alongside his two brothers, Ryan and Drew. Wednesday’s timing was also serendipitous: Drew was drafted by the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads and otherwise would have been unable to make the trip due to hockey commitments, but is currently rehabbing an injury that’s kept him out of action. (Also a defenseman, Drew grew six inches in the last year and now towers over his 6-foot tall brother.)
His mother, Sue, gladly cut a girls trip vacation short to make it to Los Angeles in time. She wouldn’t have missed a night more than a decade in the making – a dream that Durzi believed was real the entire time.
“It’s pretty great to have them here. My family, my best friends, they’ve helped me so much along the way. It’s not like this happened overnight,” Durzi said. “I’m thrilled. I can’t wait for tonight. It’s exciting, a great first step. But it’s really just the beginning for me.”