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theScore NHL Draft Series - Mitchell Stephens: Hockey Canada's unlikely underdog

Dennis Pajot / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Mitchell Stephens has lagged behind, following in Connor McDavid's path to the NHL. But while the previous experience on his resume exceeds the skills section, he's managed to carve out a position in the Hockey Canada bureau as well.

Connor McDavid didn't have trouble attracting attention north of the border in his draft season; 169 points in 67 games is production well beyond international boundary.

He will be a fixture with Hockey Canada for the next few decades, and will have the torch passed to him before Sidney Crosby is willing to relinquish it. But the Erie Otters superstar and future No. 1-overall selection isn't the only Ontario kid assembling an impressive national portfolio from small-town USA.

Mitchell Stephens scored 22 goals and 48 points last season as part of the leadership core for the Saginaw Spirit. His output is nearly two points per game less than McDavid's, but some pundits believe the pair belong to the same round of Friday's NHL Entry Draft.

For Stephens, it's not about point production, but those contentious, borderline-taboo, qualitative traits: leadership, attitude, compete.

"A hard competitor is going to go a long way, maybe even further than a guy who can put up 100 points in junior," Mitchell told theScore.

"An NHL player competes every shift. It's an aspect that I take seriously, and one that I will bring into being a pro," he added.

"With me, it's about competing every shift."

Stephens rolled the campaign bus to the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo earlier this month, promoting himself to team executives, and really, anyone willing to listen.

But he already has a believer in Hockey Canada.

Stephens represented his country and province in U-17 competition before earning an invite, and playing a crucial role, in Canada winning gold at last summer's Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Following his draft season with Saginaw, he was upgraded to captain, wearing the letter for Canada at the U-18 World Championship in Switzerland this spring.

There, Stephens provided a necessary jolt to his draft stock. He scored five goals and 10 points in seven games, showcasing more than intangibles in arguably his best stretch of the season. But maybe more important than his sudden offensive surge, Stephens proved something to himself.

"I learned that my game can be a lot better than what I have shown. With the right mindset, and the right attitude, I think that every aspect of my game can rise," he said.

It hasn't always been this underdog story.

Stephens took his budding talent 90 minutes west from his hometown of Peterborough, Ontario to join the famed Toronto Marlboros Hockey Club (the organization that just happened to be overseeing McDavid's development) at age 14.

Even then, Stephens was a step, or three, behind McDavid, who had been granted exceptional status by the OHL, but was a star in his own right. He scored 44 goals and 84 points while captaining one of the strongest minor hockey programs on the planet, and earned the eighth-overall selection in the OHL Draft from the Spirit.

At the same time, though, Stephens was feeling a pinch, and learning the consequence associated with elite talent pools converging at an early age.

Save for the generational likes of McDavid and Crosby, once-dominant players will reach a point in their careers where they must either accept their standing, or adapt to continue pushing onward by harnessing ancillary strengths.

It's how Stephens has willingly met this plight head on that has his country, and now NHL clubs, on notice.

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