Stephen Halliday's winding road to NHL debut offers lessons for development

Stephen Halliday will make his NHL debut for the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, according to Bruce Gariochi of the Ottawa Sun. Halliday’s story is about the value of patience, perseverance, and how development isn’t always linear.

Halliday’s story is also one about expectations, perceptions, and how these change over time.

Consider the fact that he was the No. 1 pick in the 2018 USHL Futures Draft, committed to the University of North Dakota early, and was widely regarded as a high-end NHL prospect at a young age as a skilled, long center.

After being undrafted in two NHL drafts over three middling seasons in the USHL, Halliday's early predictions appear to be inaccurate, to say the least.

Maybe this is the beginning of the story, and for many players this may be the end of the story. That’s not the case with Halliday.

After his first year in the USHL with a team that no longer exists, the Central Illinois Aces, Halliday played three more USHL games with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. Most NHL players don't spend four years in their junior years. Typically, players are pulled out of whatever school they commit to, but North Dakota State doesn't think Halliday is ready to commit, and they're right.

For Halliday, not being on time for school might be the best thing that could happen. That year, while many were struggling with their freshman seasons, Halliday was emerging in the USHL with Dubuque.

In his final season as a junior, everything clicked. His career high before that season was 48 points. In the 2021-22 season, Halliday scored an astonishing 95 points in Dubuque, including 35 goals and 60 assists. He became Dubuque's all-time leading scorer.

The Ottawa Senators selected him in the fourth round, his third and final year of eligibility for the NHL draft. Halliday has decommitted from North Dakota State and signed with Ohio State. After two very successful college seasons, he signed with Ottawa and was assigned to the Belleville Senators of the AHL.

Halliday played 96 games for Belleville in his career, scoring 72 points. He averaged over a point per game with the B-Sens and is now making his NHL debut.

A good lesson from Halliday is that early perceptions and expectations don't always have to be met as planned. There are many players who have received all the honors in youth hockey but have lived up to them and never received them.

It would have been easy for Halliday to go through three years of average (at best) production and fade into the background. It's a huge credit to him that he stuck with the process and let development and his own efforts take their course.

Stories like his are rare. Players are always misjudged at 15 and 16 years old because there are so many options available at that time. Sometimes they are unnecessarily overhyped, and sometimes they may be correctly evaluated, but long-term predictions take longer to materialize.

To further illustrate this point, we can look at Halliday and say, “Wow, it took him longer to get going!” Well, he's still only 23 and has a lot of room to grow.

It's a good reminder that development doesn't happen in a straight line and that peaks and valleys are part of every player's development. Some valleys will be deeper than others, but those who find their way out should probably get more credit for achieving their ultimate goal.

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