Vincent Desharnais' dream start is the payoff for a decade of dedication
The most surprising aspect of this player’s game log is that he has one at all. He’s the underdog’s underdog, a “21st round draft choice” selected in 2016 by the Oilers in the seventh and final round in his third and final year of eligibility. Already age 20, he’d finished his freshman season at Providence College with the princely total of 1 goal and 1 assist.
By then it had already been 3 long years since he left home in Laval, QC at 17 to learn English and play prep school hockey in Lake Placid, NY (undrafted); another season way out west with Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL (undrafted again); and then across the continent to Providence, RI for his freshman campaign with the Friars (drafted very late on Day 2).
It would take nearly 7 more years of crisscrossing the continent before the NHL dream finally materialized.
Local blogger, radio host and new author Allan “Lowetide” Mitchell wrote this thumbnail in his crackerjack book “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Edmonton Oilers at the NHL Draft”:
No. 183 overall: RD Vincent Deshrnais, Providence (NCAA)Desharnais was 6’7, 228 pounds on draft day and coming off his freshman (19, 1-1-2) college season. He was an awkward skater who was mostly about the defensive game but did make a good first pass. He played four seasons with Providence, the best his senior year at age 22. He’s been a solid player for Edmonton’s AHL affiliate since turning pro…
How long a shot was he? That summer of 2016 we at the Cult of Hockey ranked him 33rd among 36 eligible Oilers prospects, my then-colleague Jonathan Willis summarizing his outlook thusly:
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