Vukojevic is in his second year with the Devils American Hockey League affiliate. In 54 AHL games over those two seasons, he's scored four goals and has 19 assists. A meat and potatoes player with size (6-foot-3, 215 pounds), he was taken in the third round (82nd overall) at the 2019 Draft in Vancouver. The two-plus seasons that followed has been quite a journey. His junior team had an up-and-down season, fired its coach, then had the playoffs cancelled at the outset of the pandemic.
Vukojevic avoided some of the strife of the 2020-21 "pandemic season" that followed by being able to play in the AHL as a 19-year-old. The first year of his three-year NHL contract kicked in this season.
"I don't really like to look back (because) it's better to look forward but for sure it helped me," he said, of suiting up last year for the Binghamton Devils.
An interesting sidenote to Vukojevic is that he was originally supposed to attend the University of Michigan. But he grew uncomfortable with the wait to get there, as well as the situation with his USHL team, so he instead left for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League. He was playing with the Rangers when the Devils drafted him.
Vukojevic has twice attended Devils training camp, including last fall, and appeared in a winning exhibition appearance against the Rangers.
Understandably, Devils fans tend to notice the higher draft picks before depth selections such as Vukojevic. Recent high picks Luke Hughes and Alexander Holtz, along with Jack Hughes and Dawson Mercer, are why the Devils were cited as having among the best crop of young players in the NHL by The Hockey News.
But the development of later selections are what creates vital organizational depth. It can be a long process but it's important to embrace the grind. To wit, as a recent AP wire story pointed out, the average age of an NHL player is almost 28 years old. That's the second oldest of the five major team sports behind only baseball. And yet hockey players are drafted typically at 18, a 10-year gestation period before prospects who make the NHL hit that mid-level mark.
It can be a long haul. Vukojevic was hesitant to speak in clichés but said it's important to just keep his head down and continue to get better every day.
"It's really about taking care of the small details every day, every game," he said.
For now, the Comets are in the midst of their busiest clutch of games in the condensed AHL schedule down the stretch. After that, the playoffs lurk for a team that is hoping for a long run well into June.
Vukojevic plans to return home to the Toronto area and see his family during the tightened summer break. He is the son of two educators and has a brother and sister.
The family dog, an Aussie Doodle cross named Ella, patiently awaits her two-legged brother's return.
"I miss my family…and the dog," he said.
Vukojevic had been taking university courses while playing for the Rangers. Though he's now being educated in the nuances of pro hockey, he wants to return to his formal economics studies someday relatively soon.
"It's something I want to do," he explains, "it will also make my Mom really happy."
