THREE THINGS: Dawson Mercer

Dawson Mercer was one of three players drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the 2020 Entry Draft, taken 18th overall in a moment shared with his family. His family had traveled from their home in Newfoundland, Canada to be with their son for the monumental moment. But it was right back to work with his Quebec Major Junior Hockey team immediately after the dust had settled on the draft. Wearing an 'A' on his jersey, Mercer enters his fourth season in the CHL, where he's accumulated 157 points in 176 career games.
There's more to know about Mercer, and we bring it to you in Three Things: Dawson Mercer, presented by Wawa.

1. THE (OTHER) ROCK

Mercer is a native of Newfoundland, Canada, an island off the east coast of the Canadian mainland.
The list isn't particularly long when you look up NHL players who are from Newfoundland, in fact only 22 people from The Rock have played in the NHL. Only fourteen Newfoundlanders have played over 100 games, 11 have played 50-plus games. Only one player born after 1995 has played in the league, Clark Bishop ('96) who has played 25 games with the San Jose Sharks.
Daniel Cleary, who played with the Detroit Red Wings from 2005 to 2015, has the most games played by a Newfoundlander, with 938 games. When Cleary won the Stanley Cup with Detroit in 2008, he became the first person from Newfoundland and Labrador to win the Cup. When he brought the Cup to The Rock for his Day with the Cup, Mercer was there.
"He only lived about 15 minutes for me," Mercer has said, "one of my dad's friends lives down on the street where he's from, he knows him, my dad played in the same organization as Cleary when he was growing up, but my dad's a couple of years older. I was down there on my dad's friend's lawn, where I was there this summer. And you're watching the parade go by, he was bringing the Cup down through the road. That's just a little vision that you can kind of imagine how it felt."

2. WORLD JUNIORS

Mercer played on Canada's World Junior team last year which won the gold medal and he's hoping for the opportunity to go back-to-back with a gold medal. Mercer is among the 46 players invited to Canada's National Junior Selection Camp, which will run nearly an entire month leading up to the opening of the tournament on December 25th.
Camp runs from November 16th through to December 13th in Red Deer Alberta, where the tournament will be held.
Mercer is one of six players at Canada's camp who is a returning member of last year's team. He's also not the only Devils prospect at camp, Ottawa 67s forward and 2019 New Jersey draft pick Graeme Clarke will also attend camp.

3. AMONG THE TEAM LEADERS

The Quebec Major Junior league is the only league in Canada and the Canadian Hockey League to have started up their 2020-21 season. There have been several pauses since the league started up in early October, limiting Mercer's Chicoutimi Saguenéens to just five games so far this season, with nine postponed.
In those five games, Mercer already has had an impressive year. His four goals are tied for first on the team, with teammate Christophe Farmer. Mercer's seven points in five games are ranked second on team scoring, behind Farmer and Hendrix Lapierre who have one more point than the Devils draft pick.