Josh Wilkins’ hockey homecoming brings Raleigh prospect one stop closer to NHL
So many miles led Josh Wilkins back to this point, too many to count, the long and winding journey that just about anyone trying to get from here to the NHL has to follow. There’s no easy path from Raleigh back to Raleigh, but Wilkins got at least one step closer than anyone else has Friday night.
The Nashville Predators called back eight players who already had been sent down to the AHL to fill out their roster against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday in the Predators’ final preseason game, Nashville coach Peter Laviolette having decided enough of this was enough after Wednesday’s win over the Hurricanes in Nashville.
For seven of the eight, it was a second chance to make a first impression. For Wilkins, it was so much more, a long-awaited trip back home after a journey that took him so far away, only to lead him back here, even if it was only preseason.
Wilkins left home at 15, first to California, then to Minnesota, then to three years of college hockey at Providence. Passed over in the NHL Draft, he’s getting his shot now with the Predators.
“It’s been a long road,” Wilkins said, “but it’s been worth it.”
And he had a chance.
Craig Smith found Wilkins cutting down the slot with a backhand pass out of the right corner. Wilkins, the trailer, had a wide-open look at the net and tried to sneak it inside Petr Mrazek’s left post. There was daylight there, a little opening, but Mrazek was able to seal it with his glove, perhaps his best save in two periods of work.
It may only have been preseason, but it would have been an amazing moment, and it came and went. Years of childhood dreams condensed into an instant, wiped away by the flick of a glove.
Wilkins had a chance at a partial breakaway in the third, but was disarmed from behind by Gustav Forsling, and that was it in what turned out to be a 2-1 overtime win for the Predators.
In the race to be the first Raleigh-trained player to make the NHL, Wilkins may be the clubhouse leader, coming off a distinguished career at Providence that earned him a spot in the Hobey Baker conversation last season (along with, among others, former Hurricanes prospect Adam Fox and current Hurricanes prospect Chase Priskie.)
Wilkins grew up in the Junior Hurricanes program, and his teammates included Riley Stillman, who while not raised here, became the first member of a Hurricanes-sponsored team in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Tournament to make the NHL. Another one of his teammates: Peter Laviolette Jr.
“He was a good player,” Laviolette Sr. said of Wilkins on Friday. “Probably one of the more skilled players on that team.”
His size — 5-foot-11, 181 pounds — will work against him as an NHL prospect, but his skill will give him a chance. He may someday get to play here in a game that matters. For now, this will have to do.
“To play at home, that doesn’t happen often,” Wilkins said. “It’s pretty cool.”
Friday was a homecoming of sorts, but even more than that, a stopping point on a journey with some miles left to run.
This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Josh Wilkins’ hockey homecoming brings Raleigh prospect one stop closer to NHL."
