If Drury doesn’t sign between the end of the SHL season and the start of another SHL season, then I’ll start to worry. The Canes still hold his rights until August 2022. If they can’t entice him to come back stateside to play in his backyard (likely for Chicago in the AHL and him being from IL) then I imagine he ain’t signing. Who knows, if he keeps it up, he may be looking at challenging for an NHL spot next year versus a year in the minors.
On a Ponomarev note, he seems like a Drury-esque guy in playing style, maybe a little more offensive skill, but Drury is showing he’s no
slouch offensively with his last year at Harvard and now in Sweden. So at least they already have one of the two locked up.
I think Drury signs this spring. I bet they tried to sign him after the Covid break, but maybe he was hesitant to do so and hoped Harvard could start back up. He doesn’t seem like a guy who’d pull a modified “Adam Fox” maneuver.
Drury is really the only prospect I am slightly concerned about CAR getting signed. Getting Rees under contract last week was excellent news as they only had a few more months on him.