'Nothing's Given to Me'

Dryden Hunt is feeling more at home these days.

And it’s easy to see why.

Unlike when he was acquired – and then assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers in March – the 27-year-old is back sleeping in his own quarters after lending the pad to good buddy and fellow ex-Panther MacKenzie Weegar last year.

“Weegs is a good buddy of mine, so I let him stay in the house while I was out in Toronto,” Hunt said. “But then I got traded here – and he’s lucky he didn’t get evicted.

“Honestly, if they made the playoffs, it would’ve been close. Some tough decisions would have to have been made,” he quipped.

“Fortunately, it all worked out and it’s good for me that he paid my mortgage for a year.”

With rising interest rates, you wonder if it would’ve been wise for Hunt to extend Weegar’s lease for another year or two. Alas, the tenant vacated the premises on his own terms and Hunt, who’s entering his first full year in the Flames organization, is now properly settling in.

On the ice, the Cranbrook, B.C. product has been one of the standouts at Flames Training Camp – and with a number of spots up for grabs in the bottom-six, Hunt is hellbent on making the club’s opening-night roster.

“I'm trying to build every day that I come to the rink,” Hunt said. “I was lucky to play in three of the first four games. When you’re in a situation like this, all you want is an opportunity and they’ve given me that.

“You obviously feel a bit anxious because you want to come and perform every day. But that’s the pressure I put on myself to come out and make a good impression.

“Nothing’s given to me.

“It has to be earned.

“And the only way I'm going to get that is by coming in and putting my best foot forward.”

‘Foot’ being the operative word here.

When Hunt was a 20-year-old plying his trade with the Moose Jaw Warriors, offence was never an issue. He led the WHL with an incredible 58 goals and finished second with 116 points during a magical 2015-16 season.

But Hunt was an undrafted commodity who admittedly found himself at something of a crossroads.

“Coming up through junior, I was never drafted and that was the knock against me,” Hunt said of his skating. “I had that scoring ability, I had the numbers – but for whatever reason, I couldn't get around the ice as well as I needed to.

“That final year, I just knew that if I was going to play and try to make the next level, it was something I really needed to focus on and get better at. So, I got to work. Everyone always talks about how fast the league is nowadays and if you can't skate, it's tough to get up and down the ice. It's definitely something that I've been trying to stay on top of, especially when it comes to my off-season training.

“It was definitely one of my weaknesses coming into the league and I think it's come a long way.

“That’s actually how I ended up in Calgary to begin with. When I first started playing in the Western League, I would come and train at Crash Conditioning. Usually, I would just stay at my uncle’s place – but I eventually met my wife here, so I started renting places on my own.

“Three or four years ago, we bought our house.

“It’s home now.”

In all, Hunt has 202 appearances at the game’s top level, which includes a career-high 76-game season as a member of the New York Rangers in 2021-22, when he played, he figures, “three-quarters” of the campaign on a unit with current camp linemate Kevin Rooney.

But there’s no doubting that Hunt – who’s amassed 15 snipes and 43 points in eight years of off-and-on duty – has done it the hard way.

His Cap Friendly page lists 37 separate transactions, beginning with his entry level contract with the Panthers back in March of 2016, to waiver claims, trades and everything in between. Last year was particularly hectic, with Hunt starting the season with the Rangers, before being claimed off waivers from the Avalanche, traded to the Maple Leafs, assigned to their AHL affiliate, and then dealt again … to Calgary.

He finished out the year with the Wranglers, notching five goals and adding 10 helpers in 17 regular-season games, before posting another six points (3G, 3A) in nine playoff outings.

Maybe, just maybe, it was meant to be this way.

This hard.

This much of a grind.

Maybe a return to the place that helped foster his career in the first place would be the right spot for him to land at this point in his career.

Whatever the reason, Hunt is certainly making a case for himself with three points (2G, 1A) in three games so far in the preseason.

“It’s all about doing something to stand out,” he said. “Guys like me have to earn it. There’s no grey area. I know everybody always talks ‘energy, energy, energy.’ But that’s who I am. I’m straight-line player that's hard on the forecheck. I hound pucks. And when you get that chance to get in the lineup, you've got to show that make the most of it.

“Any time your bottom-six guys can chip in, that's huge, so it's been nice to get a couple so far.

“I’m trying to do a little bit of that and be a reliable guy at both ends of the ice.”