Goncalves quickly goes from disappointment to excitement

Gage Goncalves was waiting in a Calgary airport hotel for a flight to take him back home to Mission, British Columbia, dejected after getting cut from Team Canada's World Juniors roster when he got a group FaceTime call from his parents and agent that would immediately lift his spirits.

Goncalves, a Second Round selection (62nd overall) of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, was one of 46 players competing for a roster spot at Team Canada's nearly month-long camp in Red Deer. That he was even in attendance was somewhat of a surprise considering he scored just one goal and played mostly a fourth-line role during his rookie season with the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League in 2018-19.
Defending champion Team Canada would select 25 players for the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship, which drops the puck Christmas day in Edmonton and lasts through January 5. Of those 25, three were goalies, leaving only 22 spots for forwards and defensemen.
Goncalves was competing against a multitude of First Round draft picks, players returning to Team Canada after helping win gold in 2020 and veterans in the Hockey Canada program. Yet, in the camp's final week, Goncalves, a center, was still around, having survived a round of cuts by impressing with his work ethic, his tenacious two-way game as well as his offensive skill.
On December 11, Team Canada made its final cuts, whittling its remaining 34 players down to the 25 who would compete in the prestigious international tournament.
Goncalves was not on that final roster.
He barely had time to feel the sting of being passed over, however.
Sitting in his Marriott room while waiting to return home, Goncalves received the call he'll remember for the rest of his life.
Tampa Bay had offered him a three-year, entry-level contract, his parents and agent told him excitedly. The deal had been worked out a couple days prior but they didn't want to distract him from his pursuit of a spot on Team Canada. Two days later at his home in Mission, he would put pen to paper and officially secure his place in the Lightning organization.
"It was insane, just to see the look on my parents' face, my sister, how proud they were," Goncalves said of that life-altering phone call. "It was absolutely incredible to have that experience."
Signing with the Lightning capped a whirlwind two months for Goncalves where he was taken in the NHL Draft's Second Round in his second year of draft eligibility after being passed over the year prior; invited to Team Canada's World Juniors camp, solidifying his standing as one of the top young players in the nation; and joined the defending Stanley Cup champions.
"Sometimes I've got to step back, take a breath and just kind of take it all in because everything's been happening so fast," Goncalves said. "I just thank Tampa so much for having that trust in me."
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Two years ago, Goncalves was an unheralded forward prospect playing limited minutes on Everett's fourth line and getting minimal special teams opportunities.
Going into his first year of draft eligibility, he wasn't ranked by NHL's Central Scouting. He recorded just one goal and 15 points in 67 regular season games with the Silvertips. He was an unknown, buried on a team with more high-profile players. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't drafted in 2019.
"He was an honest, hard-working guy but not really able to show too much," said Al Murray, Lightning assistant general manager, director of amateur scouting.
During Everett's playoff run that season, however, Goncalves started making more of an impact. His fourth line was receiving increased minutes. Goncalves saw some time on the Silvertips' third line. Everett, which topped the U.S. Division in the final regular season standings, advanced to the Western Conference semifinals before bowing out to Spokane.
"You could see the reports go from just a guy to a guy who was having a bit of impact," Murray said. "Not a player that we'd put on our draft list but a player that we had notes on to follow the next year and see what happens."
That offseason, Goncavles worked tirelessly with his trainers to improve his game and put on weight, which had been a struggle his whole life.
"I tried so many different protein shakes, all this stuff, and nothing was working," he said.
Listed at 5-foot-11 and 152 pounds in 2018-19, Goncalves tried to play a physical game but found it difficult to make an impact in that area.
"I threw hits when I was younger, but I don't think they did any damage," he said. "I wasn't able to win those wall battles as many times as I would have liked."
That summer, he grew a couple of inches. He was able to add weight. And keep it.
"It was nice to have everything finally kick in," Goncalves said. "I put on 10 to 15 pounds of muscle that summer. My trainers at home did an unbelievable job of helping me. And then I think that offseason, my mindset, I wasn't just vying to be in the lineup or be a third-line, fourth-line guy. I really wanted to push for that number one centerman role, and I knew I could do it."
In Everett's second game of the 2019-20 season, a 6-0 win over Victoria, Goncalves, now 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, assisted on four of the Silvertips' six goals for a four-point night.
From that point on, everything clicked.
"We were playing a really good Victoria team at the time," Goncalves said. "I was like, 'If we can do this against this team, we're going to have a good shot at putting up a lot of numbers and helping the team win this year.'"
Goncalves flourished in his second full season in the WHL. He scored 33 goals, second most on Everett and tied for 11th most in the league. His 71 points ranked third on the Silvertips. He continued to be a two-way force. He took on a bigger role as the team's number one center. He saw time on both the power play and the penalty kill. Goncalves scored 14 power-play goals, tied for the Everett team lead and ranked fifth in the WHL.
Hockey Canada started to take notice, as did a number of NHL scouts.
"He wasn't a secret anymore," Murray said.
The extra size and strength, combined with his unwavering work ethic, helped fuel Goncalves' dramatic turnaround.
"I think it really helped me just in the corners and in front of the net," he said. "I think that in years past, those bigger guys never really had to use a lot of strength to push me out from in front of the net or off the puck. They didn't really have to work for it, so now that I got the extra weight, the extra strength and stuff like that, yeah, they're really going to have to start putting in a little more effort and start using a little more energy to knock me off those pucks. It's helped that way."
Lightning assistant director of amateur scouting Brad Whelen and amateur scout Grant Armstrong identified Goncalves and kept close tabs on him. The Silvertips drafted and signed Austin Roest, son of Bolts assistant GM, director of player development Stacy Roest. The elder Roest saw Goncalves performing during training camp and sent positive reports back to Tampa. Murray and former assistant director of amateur scouting Darryl Plandowski, now with Arizona, also went to see Goncalves for themselves.
They all came away impressed.
When the Lightning were on the clock with the 62nd pick in the 2020 Draft -- the second of their two Second Round selections after moving up to take Jack Finley with the 57th pick - they decided to pull the trigger on Goncalves.
"Initially, we thought you could take him in the Third or Fourth round, but by the end of the season when the season shut down in early March, it was pretty clear that if you wanted Gage we thought you were going to have to take him at the end of the Second Round or very early in the Third Round," Murray said. "We were lucky enough to be able to trade for another pick, so we had two Second Round picks and we were able to get Jack Finley and also Gage."
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Following a season that had been halted due to COVID-19 and soon after getting drafted as a 19 year old, Goncalves had just finished a workout when he got another phone call that brought good news: he'd been invited to Team Canada's camp for the World Juniors.
"I don't know, these past couple of months, everything's kind of been going in my favor right now," Goncalves marveled. "It was crazy. I ripped home and told my parents. They were just so proud. I was so pumped to throw on that maple leaf for the first time."
Goncalves knew it would be an uphill climb to make the final roster. But he'd been playing the underdog role his entire life. He was prepared for the challenge.
Through the first two intra-squad scrimmages, Goncalves was one of the top scorers. Covid forced the camp to temporarily shut down, however, cancelling a slew of exhibitions that would have allowed Goncalves to further make his case.
"They were going to have about a half a dozen exhibition games against Canadian University teams, and because of that lack of opportunity, you tend to probably go with the players you know better and have been around the program longer," Murray said. "I know the general manager for the team communicated to (Lightning GM) Julien (BriseBois) how well Gage had played and I saw Andre Tourigny the coach talked a couple times in interviews about how well certain players had played and he mentioned Gage a couple of times. So, had he had a real opportunity with all the exhibition games, I think he might have been able to work his way into a spot. But Canada's got a really strong team this year with no NHL. Of the 22 skaters, 20 of them were First Round draft choices. And the other two were defensemen. So, it was a really tough team to crack. I think they either cut or didn't invite seven or eight forwards that were First Round picks. For Gage to go in and show against that level of competition how good he was, I think he should feel real proud of himself. I think he was on their radar for a good reason, and I think he's going to be, if the season starts up and gets going, one of the better players in major junior hockey this year."
Goncalves walked away impressed with how professionally Hockey Canada ran its camp, from the on-ice tutelage to the off-ice video sessions, training table, recovery methods, guest speakers and team bonding activities.
"It's the best camp you could ever go to in the world," he said.
Goncalves left everything he had out on the ice he said. The Team Canada camp experience should be a boost of confidence as he enters his third year in Everett poised to make an even greater impact as one of the team's top returners.
"Those are the best kids in Canada and to play against them, you kind of know where you're at on the ladder," he said. "I definitely took some stuff away from other players, talked to them, talked to a lot of guys about their experiences in different leagues. And obviously with (Chicago Blackhawks center) Kirby (Dach) playing in the NHL, kind of picked his brain a little bit. It was fun to see how everybody else sees the ice and plays and take some habits away from them."
Added Murray: "When you get that confidence to know that you're good enough and know that you can play, I think it takes your game to another level because you're more prepared to be an impactful player as opposed to just a support player."
Goncalves is currently at home in Mission, training and preparing for the start of the WHL season, whenever that might be. He said right now the plan is to head to Everett in early January. When, or if, the season does start, Goncalves can expect to see more attention from opposing teams now that he's no longer an unknown commodity.
If history holds, he'll be more than ready for the challenge.
"In his case, a lot of it is just gaining physical strength, working on some skating technique and learning how to create offense against the other team's best players because no longer will he see the second or third defense pair," Murray said. "He'll be on the first line playing against the best defensive line if not the best offensive line on the other team, getting the best defensemen out against him because the coaches will do those matchups. So now when you're no longer a secret and when you're that go-to guy, now you have to do it and show you can do it against all the best players shift after shift every game against the other team, and we certainly think he's going to do that and rise to that occasion."