Color of Hockey: Spence on path to becoming 1st-round pick in 2025 NHL Draft

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Black History Month, he profiles Malcolm Spence, a 17-year-old forward for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League, who several hockey observers believe has the potential to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Malcolm Spence figures he has watched video of Sidney Crosby’s overtime gold medal-winning goal for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at least 1,000 times.

Then he scored a Golden Goal of his own.

The 17-year-old forward for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League scored on a breakaway with seven seconds remaining in overtime to propel Canada to a 3-2 win against Czechia in the championship game of the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup on Aug. 5.

“I was more thinking about how we just won gold and really happy to celebrate with the guys but then after, I was thinking I’ve done something that Crosby has done,” Spence said. “Obviously, I didn’t do it to his magnitude, but it was just cool to way to wear the (maple) leaf like him.”

Spence’s Hlinka Gretzky Golden Goal is part of a resume several hockey observers believe could lead him to become a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and develop into a solid two-way player in the League.

Chosen with the second pick in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection Draft, Spence is second on Erie in points with 45 (11 goals, 34 assists) in 44 games and second in assists. He has already eclipsed the 42 points (16 goals, 26 assists) he had in 64 OHL games as a rookie last season. 

Erie, where Edmonton Oilers Center Connor McDavid played from 2012-15, selected Spence after he had 56 points (29 goals, 27 assists) in 28 games in his final season for Mississauga of the Greater Toronto Hockey League in 2020-21.

“His value is he’s going to be a good 200-foot player,” said Erie coach Stan Butler, a former Canadian junior national team coach who also coached a young Crosby. “He’s going to go up and down the ice. He’s going to be able to play against the best players on the best teams.”

The Hlinka Gretzky tournament highlighted Spence’s versatility, Butler said. 

“All those world junior teams, and I’ve been lucky enough to coach a couple of them, they’re always short on guys who kill penalties,” Butler said. “He took that role and ran with it. But at the same time, when they were in overtime, he made the big play and got the winning goal for them to win the championship. He’s a total team guy who’ll do whatever it takes. He’s really about the team.”

Spence is also about making hockey more diverse and welcoming. He is a mentor to young players as a volunteer for Hockey Equality, a nonprofit organization chaired by retired NHL forward Anthony Stewart.

The organization seeks to grow the sport by lowering financial and other barriers that impact BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and female youth.

Spence said his involvement is his way of paying forward to Black NHL trailblazers like Stewart, Willie O’Ree, Jarome Iginla and Grant Fuhr, and a more recent generation that includes Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield and Kings center prospect Akil Thomas.

Thomas, selected by Los Angeles in the second round (No. 51) of the 2018 NHL Draft, became part of Canadian hockey history when he scored the winning goal in Canada’s 4-3 victory against Russia in the gold medal game at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ostrava, Czechia.

“They’re only a few years older than me, but when you go through hardships and see guys who have persevered through it and say, ‘You can do anything you set your mind to,’ it really helps you get through those hard times,” Spence said of Thomas and Byfield. “I know I just want to be that role model. Obviously, I can do more, and I think I’m going to continue to do more to give that younger generation that look.”

Stewart, a hockey analyst for Sportsnet in Canada, said Spence is “carrying the torch for the next generation of leadership” on and off the ice.

“He’s been great in helping some of the kids who are up-and-coming, going above and beyond that mentorship,” said Stewart, who had 71 points (27 goals, 44 assists) in 262 NHL games for the Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and Carolina Hurricanes from 2005-12, after being selected by the Panthers with the No. 25 pick in the 2003 NHL Draft. “He does weekly check-ins with some of the other players throughout the leagues as well.”

Spence comes from a hockey family. His late maternal grandfather, Ronald Carrigan, was a forward for Colgate University from 1970-73. His uncle, Ryan Carrigan, was a defenseman for Northern Michigan University from 2000-02 and Niagara University from 2003-05 and went on to play 82 games professionally for Rockford of the United Hockey League from 2005-06 and 62 games for Rio Grande Valley of the Central Hockey League in 2006-07.

“Those are the two guys that influenced me to play hockey,” Spence said. “I played basketball as a kid and played competitively until I had to make a decision between basketball and hockey. It was a no-brainer. I just like the feeling of going on the ice, stick-handling, passing, shooting, and I just love skating.”

Spence said he’s looking forward to his draft year and playing in the NHL someday, but it’s not his major focus.

“I just go out and play my game, to be honest, and then everything else kind of figures itself out,” he said. “I think the draft is something you look at, for sure, it’s in the back of your head. But I’m more locked in on what’s going on now.”