That’s because if everything goes according to plan, he’ll be one of the 217 players who will hear their name called during the virtual event on Oct. 6 and 7.
The ninth-ranked goaltender in the final NHL Draft Prospect rankings, Gould has been on scouts’ radar for quite some time, and was ranked as high as fourth in the draft rankings at the start of the season.
All that’s left now is to see how things shake out.
“I’m excited for it, it’s something to look forward too and we’ll see what happens,” Gould said Tuesday from his home in Colorado Springs, Col. “I’m pretty confident with where I’m at and I’ve talked to a decent amount of teams, so we’ll see what happens.”
The off-season has gone well for the 18-year-old netminder, in spite of everything that has happened since the Western Hockey League season ended a week early due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March. Since then it’s been a matter of spending time in the gym and on the ice honing his game for the coming season.
“The work has been interesting with COVID, but since about May things have been pretty much the same as they usually are, we just have to wear masks when we work out and all the protocols in the locker room before you skate,” Gould said. “But it’s been good. I’ve been skating four or five times and working out four or five times a week, so it’s been a pretty good summer.”
Gould is fortunate enough to live in a part of the United States that has managed to keep the virus relatively in check, and that’s made life a bit easier as he gears up for the 2020-21 season.
“We’re not one of the worse hotspots in the U.S., so that’s been good,” he said. “Fortunately I haven’t come in contact with the virus, all the places I train have good protocols and everyone has been trying to stay safe… I’m lucky I haven’t experienced it but it’s definitely been a bit of a work-around, you can only have a certain amount of guys in the locker rooms and in gyms, social distancing is in effect and a lot of wearing masks.”
Gould started last season with the Victoria Royals and joined the Warriors as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Brayden Tracey and Adam Evanoff to Victoria. He would go on to record a 4.29 goals against average over 31 games, along with a .884 save percentage.
That performance was enough to keep NHL scouts interested and teams calling him on a regular basis. Those calls didn’t come with bog-standard boilerplate questions, either.
“They’re all different actually, some of them try and test you with some strange questions,” he said. “I had Calgary ask me about a bunch of different shooters around our league and what hand they were, which way they shot the puck, so that was interesting. Other than that, they’re asking you everything about your hockey history, what your goals are, what you do to train in the off-season and what your strengths and weaknesses are, how you see yourself as a goalie, your NHL comparables, that sort of thing.”
Based on his ranking and previous NHL drafts, Gould will likely find himself landing in the later rounds. Last season, Cole Brady from Fargo of the USHL was ranked ninth and went in the fifth round to New Jersey; two seasons ago Maxim Zhukov from the USHL’s Green Bay went in the fourth round to Las Vegas.
“You have to wait and see what happens. I realize I’m probably not going to be a selection until later, but it’s still exciting to get drafted,” Gould said. “If I don’t get drafted this year, I have to put together a good body of work next year to get another chance. That’s kind of my mindset.”
Regardless of what happens next week, Gould is looking forward to the coming WHL campaign with the Warriors and a season filled with wholesale improvement.
“Personally, I’m really excited for next season,” he said. “It’s going to be a big year for me and a big year for a lot of guys. We definitely aren’t looking to repeat last year, we want to be a really good team that has a chance to win and we’re going to be able to do that for sure.”
