’16 Draft: Parsons surrounded by 90 of closest friends, family when the Flames came calling
By @MichaelCaples –
Tyler Parsons’ grandmother had quite the party at her place for the NHL Draft.
An estimated 90 people accompanied Parsons while he watched the Calgary Flames call his name in the second round.
“I had a party over in Chesterfield at my grandma’s house,” Parsons told MiHockey shortly after the draft. “Had probably about 80 or 90 people – close friends and family. Everybody I knew was there, everybody that wanted to be there was there, so we sat down, had the draft going on the projector screen so everyone could see.
“Watching it in the second round, there were a couple teams that were really interested in me, and watching them pick other players, I was thinking, ‘alright, it’s kind of starting to narrow down a little bit.’ Calgary popped up on the board – they had three second-round picks, and they were one of the teams really interested. I had a gut feeling that 54th pick was going to be me, and it ended up being me. Everyone started cheering, it was a pretty cool moment and one that will definitely never happen again.”
The London Knights goaltender wasn’t surprised by the turnout – he certainly hasn’t had any complaints about his support system throughout his young hockey career. His biggest fans even made the drive from Michigan to Red Deer, Alberta for the 2016 Memorial Cup.
“My mom, my stepdad, my girlfriend, they’ve all supported me,” Parsons said. “Those three, they drove all the way to Alberta from Michigan, I think it’s about 36 hours to get there. Really big supportive family, my aunt, my grandma – I had a draft party and there was 90 people there. Pretty much my whole family has been down to London to watch me more than once. They all support and they’re always sharing stuff on Facebook. My family is really supportive, and I think that’s the biggest thing that’s helped me get through this. They’re probably going to be supporting me even more, now that I’m drafted to Calgary.
“My family’s been great, and they’ve really taken care of me.”
Parsons’ family have had the opportunity to watch the young goaltender reach the pinnacle of Canadian junior hockey over the last few months, as the 18-year-old backstopped the Knights to a Memorial Cup championship before being the second goaltender picked in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
The Chesterfield native posted a 4-0 record with a .942 save percentage and 1.78 goals-against average in the Memorial Cup, following up a regular season that saw him post numbers of 37-9-3, 2.33 and .921. He was presented with the Hap Emms Memorial Trophy – given to the tournament’s top goalie – for his efforts in the Memorial Cup run for the Knights.
“It’s been a crazy couple of months,” Parsons said. “Winning the Memorial Cup, it’s probably the hardest cup to win – they say it’s harder to win that than the Stanley Cup. That was a great season and something I’ll never forget. A month later down the road, you get drafted – I think if you ask any of the Michigan guys who did the same thing as me, I think they’ll tell you that it’s pretty crazy and pretty awesome to experience it. It was just crazy, that’s all I can say about it.
“Having that much of an accomplishment in that little bit of time, it’s pretty unreal. You can’t really go it through your mind because they’re such big accomplishments and it’s hard for it to feel real.”
It’s been quite the journey for the goaltender who started out as a forward and defenseman playing roller hockey at Joe Dumars Fieldhouse.
“I started off playing forward and defense, and one day we needed a goalie,” Parsons said. “I strapped them on, and kind of stood out. Figured I wasn’t scoring as many goals as I wanted to, so why not try to stop those goals? I stuck with that from there, won a national championship at NARCh and then moved to ice hockey from there.”
Parsons embarked on a tour through travel teams in ice hockey. He didn’t even play AAA hockey until he reached midgets.
“I started off in AA hockey, I played for the Mount Clemens Wolves, that was the first time I ever played ice hockey. After that, I went and played for the Fraser Falcons at Fraser Ice Arena. Played a couple years there, then went and played one year with the Michigan Ice Hawks. That’s kind of right where my career, I kind of knew I had something with my speed and as you get older you know the game a little better.
“From there, I went to Little Caesars, and the Little Caesars guys on our team, the coaches, they were scouts and they all pointed me in the right direction and helped me out. That was my midget minor year, and then my midget major year was the same thing, I knew if I wanted to keep playing hockey I needed to play good and do whatever it takes to get better, and I knew it would be my last year in AAA hockey. I worked hard and got some looks from teams in the USHL and London in the OHL and I ended up going to London. I think all my coaches that I ever played for, even on Mount Clemens, Fraser, Ice Hawks, Little Caesars, they’ve all helped me.”
Parsons also credits his longtime goalie coach – Rob Liddell – for his success on the ice.
“I’ve had a goalie coach the whole time, Rob Liddell, he was my goalie coach ever since I started ice hockey,” Parsons said. “He came with me, probably since I was about 11, so right when I started playing with the Fraser Falcons, he was my goalie coach and he was a young guy, he was in his 20s, still in university, and he took time, drove like an hour to every practice every day to be with me. He still works with me to this day. I actually skate with him tomorrow at Hazel Park. All my coaches have helped me along the way.”
Parsons will work with Liddell until he heads out for his first development camp with the Flames. That begins on the Fourth of July, which gives Parsons just a few more days to wrap his head around the fact that he’s now property of a NHL franchise.
“It was pretty crazy, just knowing that’s your future and that’s where you’re going to play if you play in the NHL, and that’s who your career is going to be with, it was pretty crazy just knowing that’s the team that you’re going to play for if you play in the NHL.”
