FEATURE: Commesso Forges Path Through Adversity to Olympic Stage

In early January, Drew Commesso was home in Boston getting ready for his first weekend of games back with Boston University teammates when his phone rang.
A week prior, COVID-19 prematurely ended his World Juniors hopes for the second straight year. Now, with the NHL withdrawing participation from the Winter Olympics amid their own COVID concerns, the Blackhawks goalie prospect listened intently to news from the other end of the line. The pandemic that put a halt to Commesso's shot on the national stage not once, but twice over the last year and a half, was now giving him the opportunity of a lifetime, named one of 25 players named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Men's National Team.

"I think my mom started crying on FaceTime," Commesso said of telling his family soon after.
"I've been a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason," he added.

Within minutes of hearing Commesso speak, you'll quickly realize the 19-year-old is mature beyond his years. It's part of the reason why the Blackhawks were thrilled to select him in the 2020 NHL Draft with their second-round pick at 46th overall.
"He's pretty mature and, with that, I think there's certainly a well-roundedness to him as a person," said Peter Aubry, the Blackhawks developmental goaltending coach. "I was out there earlier this year at BU watching him and I got to have a couple meals with him, spend some time. The one game (I saw), it was a barn-burner, a lot of goals both ways scored. (But) his demeanor and attitude after the game, he was able to separate Drew the goalie, the Drew involved in the game, and Drew the person. He seemed to have a real nice balance to be able to put things in perspective and move forward… You can see how he's well-liked by his teammates and coaches."
"I really pride myself on being an overall good person," Commesso said. "Hockey is a big part of my life, but I don't want it to submerge me. I pride myself on being a good kid and a good student as well."
That ability to focus solely on the task at hand was exactly what Commesso did right after receiving the call of a lifetime -- something not a lot of people would likely be able to do minutes after being named to an Olympic roster.
"I called my advisor right away and kind of told him that we could talk about it on Sunday because in my mind I had two important games to play for BU," he said. "When I'm at school, I like focusing on school and on our games. I kind of wanted to brush that aside."
The sophomore then backstopped the Terriers to a 6-1-0 record with a .946 save percentage and a 1.70 goals-against average in seven games before leaving to join Team USA, earning Hockey East goaltender of the month honors in January for the second straight month. The performance helped vault BU into third place in Hockey East with a 13-10-3 record overall.
"He's been playing his best hockey over that stretch most recently," Aubry added. "I think he's put himself in a good position to be as prepared as possible for Beijing."

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected so much of the world over the last two years and Commesso's experience, particularly as it relates to hockey, has been no different.
"The (last) 18 months for a lot of people has been very different. But for him, when you put it (in context of) hockey career, hockey path… the stops and starts have been incredible," Aubry said. "We get accustomed to things being canceled or put off, but he truly is living it with his career."
His second season in the National Team Development Program was cut short at the onset of the pandemic. Hearing his name called at the NHL Draft months later -- a moment young hockey players dream about -- took place in his living room with a few family members rather than the traditional walk across a grand stage inside an NHL arena. And his freshman year at BU was delayed, then shortened to just 14 regular-season games, often scheduled week by week on an ad hoc basis as teams combatted the ever-changing landscape.
"Really every time I go on the ice, whether at World Juniors or whether it's a random Tuesday night game, I kind of have the same approach," Commesso said. "I'm just going to go out there and stop the puck and have fun and be grateful that I get to go on the ice because there was a time during COVID where I couldn't go on the ice and I couldn't go skate and I couldn't be with my friends.
"Any day at the rink is a good day and that's kind of how I've been viewing it."

Nearly 14 months ago, the then-freshman had his bags packed in his Boston dorm room. He was ready to leave for World Juniors the very next morning when he got a phone call from a BU staffer. He learned he'd been a close contact of someone who had just tested positive and, instead of taking his bags to Edmonton, he was headed to mandatory isolation instead. His first World Juniors experience was over before it ever started.
"Instead I was heading into a quarantine room," he said, the pain still permeating in his voice more than a year later. "That was really tough."
Commesso likely would've backstopped Spencer Knight as the U.S. team won gold that year.
When the tournament was over, though, the program set their eyes on 2021. Commesso, still age-eligible for a second shot, became their presumed starter in waiting and the 12 months that followed became about preparing the teenager for that spotlight.
He was the guy the Americans turned to in the middle of last year's IIHF World Championship in Latvia when the U.S. needed a third-string netminder to replace an injured Anthony Stolarz on the roster. On a team of nearly all NHL-experienced players, Commesso didn't play a game, but was part of the American group that captured bronze.
"While he didn't get in to play," explained Aubry, "in talking with their goalie coach Kevin Reiter, he said day one it took Drew some time to adjust, but every day thereafter, he was able to take steps and improve. And by the end of the tournament, he was right up to speed and had made some significant progress there."

Later in the summer, Commesso was the go-to guy during the World Junior Summer Showcase, playing in all five games, including the entirety of the final three contests, as the U.S. roster for the 2021 tournament started to take shape.
Commesso got his redemption bid this past December and backstopped the Americans to a tournament-opening win over Slovakia. But then COVID-19 reared it's ugly head once again. Team USA was forced to forfeit their next game due to positive tests among the roster. Then, the entire tournament was canceled a day later as the positive results popped up across several teams. His last shot to be part of a World Juniors title was over, just like that.
"I know deep down that it was all part of the plan and it allowed me to have a great opportunity like this," the level-headed netminder said. "As much as it really stinks in that (moment), I'm really grateful for everything that did happen because it's allowed me to have such a great opportunity to play in the Olympics this year."

Commesso and the U.S. men's Olympic squad boarded an overnight flight from L.A. to Beijing on Wednesday night after a few days of practices as a team in California. He's pulled on the red, white and blue at nearly every level of his career, but the opportunity to do so in an Olympic setting carries a different meaning.
"It's going to mean so much," he said. "Even at World Juniors, even though it was real short, I remember going over to the bench in our first preliminary game and talking to our trainer. I was just telling him, 'Man, this really doesn't get old.' Putting these colors on and representing this country, it truly doesn't get old.
"Every time that I do it, it's just so cool and I always cherish it and I'm always very thankful that I get to do it. To get to do it at the Olympics stage, I'm kind of at a loss for words. It hasn't totally sunk in yet."
He's the youngest of the team's goalie trio, alongside Pat Nagle, a 34-year-old veteran of 11 pro seasons in the AHL and ECHL, and Strauss Mann, who has played this season in the Swedish Hockey League after three years at the University of Michigan. With the last-minute nature of the team's selection and limited time together on the ice before the games, it remains to be seen where the 19 year old falls in the net depth chart, but the experience alone will last a lifetime.
"We have the Stanley Cup, and those are high stakes, but when we talk about athletes in the vast majority of sports, the Olympics is the pinnacle," Aubry said. "Drew's getting an opportunity to learn from not only other hockey players or teammates, but there could be some valuable lessons that he learns from other competitors or Team USA teammates as well."
"The hockey part is going to take care of itself," Commesso said. "I'm going to work as hard as I can when I'm at the rink and stuff like that, but my dad has been telling me, my parents have been telling me that it's the Olympics and it's just a great lifelong experience. I'm really going to soak everything in and really just enjoy everything. You never know when you're going to get another opportunity to make the Olympics and play again. I'm very fortunate that I get the opportunity to do so."