Former NHL draft prospect, WHL veteran D-man Comrie commits to Griffins for 2021-22 season
Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – One mock had him projected as a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, another had him in the fifth and yet another predicted he'd go in the seventh.
Officially, Sean Comrie was ranked 108th among North American skaters on the NHL Central Scouting's final rankings list.
No NHL team ever did call his name, but the fact he was in the conversation speaks to the sublime talent of the Edmonton defenceman, who has committed to the MacEwan Griffins for the 2021-22 Canada West season, head coach Michael Ringrose announced Wednesday.
"Sean is a local guy who is excited to help push our program to the next level," said Ringrose. "We're really, really excited about not only bringing Sean in but also what this means for the program, that we're starting to attract this type of talent."
Currently a member of the WHL's Kelowna Rockets, Comrie has a solid resume, highlighted by playing for Team Canada Black during the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge where his teammates were future NHL first round picks Ty Smith (New Jersey) and Nolan Foote (Tampa Bay).
Last season in Kelowna, Comrie had 17 points in 35 games and is also a key part of the team during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.
Not only is joining MacEwan a chance for Comrie to play at home, it's a perfect fit playing for a coach he knows well. Ringrose coached him in the AJHL on the 2016-17 Spruce Grove Saints.
"He's a reliable 200-foot guy who can add some offence from the blueline," said Ringrose of the former CAC Canadians and Delta Hockey Academy product. "He played in Spruce Grove for me while I was there, so I had him as a 16-year-old in his first year of junior. He stepped in and played in an impact role right off the get-go, which is something we're going to be looking for him to do at MacEwan as well.
"He's shown that he has the ability to step up. If you go across his career, every time he's taken a bit of a step, he seems to have found success. His first season in Spruce Grove, he was able to come in and put up pretty good numbers. Then, his first season in Kelowna he did the same. Obviously, he's a huge addition for us and someone we're pretty excited to add to the mix."
Comrie also played for the Saints in 2017-18, helping them win an AJHL championship, and then joined the University of Denver for one season before deciding to return to the WHL. The Rockets acquired his rights from the Brandon Wheat Kings, who originally drafted Comrie in the second round of the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft.
Sean Comrie is finishing his junior career with the WHL's Kelowna Rockets in this pandemic-shortened season (Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).
Although he was going the NCAA route, which made him a longshot to play for the Griffins, Ringrose held out hope for that possibility.
"Knowing what he's capable of having coached him before, I knew if there was ever an opportunity to bring him to MacEwan it would be an easy decision on my end," said Ringrose, who has been bench boss of the Griffins since 2017. "When he went to the University of Denver, I thought that was his chosen path, but when he made the decision to jump to the Western Hockey League, for sure it was in the back of mind.
"Now that he's 20, in that graduating year, the conversations were pretty simple and straight-forward. He liked what he saw at MacEwan and he knew me as a coach from our history together, so it was a good fit, I think, on both sides."
