Shaw caps odd season with signing

By Sean Rooney on April 28, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

Mason Shaw may have signed an NHL contract but he’s still got work to do —starting with the family farm.

The 19-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers centre put ink to paper Thursday in Edmonton on a standard three-year deal with the Minnesota Wild, culminating a season in which he played exactly one game —with the AHL’s Iowa Wild April 10 — due to an injured knee.

On Friday he was back home in Wainwright tagging cows, who tried their best to get in on the conversation. They were probably just proud.

“There’s still work to be done out here as there is on the ice moving forward,” said Shaw, as the bovines mooed in the background. “Nothing really changes now that I’ve got this; it’s just a little more drive, a bit more determination to get the work boots on.”

It’s been a full year of hard work and not much payoff for the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Shaw, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament at the Traverse City, Michigan prospects tournament last September. The injury prognosis was initially season-long but once playoffs got near he desperately wanted to get back in the orange and black.

It simply wasn’t meant to be, as the Tigers were ousted in the first round by Brandon. Shaw was sent to Iowa with the intent of playing their final three regular season games, but that didn’t pan out as expected either.

“They said for some safety reasons there wasn’t a whole lot of purpose playing the final two games,” said Shaw. “They weren’t in a playoff spot or anything; I could’ve played the games but my knee didn’t quite respond how they would’ve liked it to.”

After putting up 94 points in the 2016-17 season Shaw was drafted in the fourth round, 97th overall by Minnesota. His untimely injury might have actually helped with regards to his contract, as Wild management and staff got to see him more in person than if he’d spent the year in Medicine Hat.

“That was one thing, as unfortunate as it was to be injured, I got to be around the organization a lot,” he said. “I got to stay longer in main camp, got to be more familiar with check-up and meetings and I got to be pretty familiar with all the staff which I think helped.”

Not that he’d have preferred things to have gone that way, of course.

“It’s been crazy. I mean, just the way from start to finish you couldn’t have scripted it this way, but everything happens for a reason,” he said. “Obviously it was disappointing I couldn’t play this year but like I said, it served its purpose and it definitely wasn’t a season backwards, I got a lot out of the season even though I wasn’t playing in it.”

The actual signing of the contract was a bit out of the blue. His agent called him Wednesday morning, and by that night the deal was done. Shaw drove to Edmonton Thursday to meet at the White Spot restaurant and sign.

“When I first got the call I was just getting ready to head out of town and my dad and my sister were in town, so I was just in shock, ran into the house and let them know,” said Shaw. “They were both very excited.”

And now it’s back to the grindstone. OK, first it’s calving season. Then the grindstone. Shaw still has to be careful about his knee but has every intention of playing pro this fall. If not, he’s in good position take one of the Tigers’ three 20-year-old spots.

“My goal is to be playing pro next year, I’m going to train for that,” he said. “Obviously whatever happens, Minnesota’s doing it for my best interest.

“You’ve just got to keep working.”

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