It was summer 2018 when John Leonard first heard the news.
What began as a fairly ordinary June day away from the rink changed in the blink of an eye when the Amherst, Mass., native received an unexpected phone call. On the other line? The San Jose Sharks — his name had just been called in the sixth round of the NHL Entry Draft.
Unlike most players who were taken in the two-day event, either glued to their TVs or awaiting the announcement in person, Leonard was out golfing, enjoying the weather and taking a much-needed day off with a group of teammates and friends. Fresh off his freshman season with the University of Massachusetts — in which he led his hometown Minutemen to their most successful season in 11 years, pacing the team in scoring with 28 points — Leonard was selected with the 182nd overall pick.
He knew the draft was going on that day, but still, the call came as a bit of a shock.
“I was extremely excited and speechless,” Leonard said afterward. “I don’t want to look too far forward. I still have a long way to go, but it’s definitely pretty special.”
At the time, the sixth-round draft pick didn’t seem like much to write home about. But for those that knew him — and knew what he was capable of — it was easy to see why the Sharks drafted him, and the type of player that they would be getting.
“My first thought was someone got a steal of a player,” Brian Foley, Leonard’s high school coach at Springfield Cathedral, said after the draft. “He has a chance to be a dynamic player at every level. … I think he will reach the next level, and I think the Sharks saw that.”
At UMass, one teammate in particular who was drafted by the Sharks in 2017 and doubled as his roommate, Mario Ferraro, was especially excited to hear the news.
“I was fired up,” Ferraro said ahead of the 2018-19 campaign. “I was so happy for him, because I knew he deserved it and he’s worked so hard. Like everyone on our team, his goal is to play in the NHL — and now, his goal is to someday play for the Sharks. The thought of us potentially playing there someday, it’s pretty awesome.”
Three years later, the duo is doing just that.
After the untimely arrival of COVID-19, which led to the abrupt cancellation of the rest of the 2019-20 NCAA season, Leonard decided to forgo his final year of eligibility, signing his first professional contract with the Sharks in late March.
Nine months later, he got his first taste of pro action in the Sharks’ season opener, skating next to Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane. Since then, he’s appeared in more than half their games, notching a handful of NHL goals and assists along the way.
But, like anything in life, a lot had to happen for Leonard to get where he is today.
With the draft complete, Leonard returned for his sophomore year at UMass alongside Ferraro and Cale Makar, the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft (Colorado Avalanche), looking to build up on the improvements of a promising freshman campaign.
In year two, Leonard solidified his role as the team’s go-to scorer, notching 40 points and 16 goals in 40 games, while helping lift the program to new heights — its most wins, its first Hockey East title and first appearance in the Frozen Four.
The rest of the world might have just been opening its eyes to the talent developing in western Mass., on the national stage, but that wasn’t a secret to Carvel and Co.
“It was early on,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said of when he realized Leonard had real NHL potential. “The first weekend we played at Arizona State his freshman year he was on the fourth line, I think he scored the second game of that weekend, and it was obvious. When he scored that goal, I remember (thinking) he needs to be higher up in the lineup, so he was bumped up to the top six and he, obviously, never left that.”
While his numbers were on a steady rise, Carvel and his assistants knew there was more to his game. They worked to improve his tendencies away from the puck.
“That developed a lot, and you don’t play in the NHL if you can’t do that,” Carvel said. “Ben Barr, specifically, spent a lot of time with him one-on-one doing a lot of the video breakdowns and going through that stuff. So he definitely developed his game without the puck, and at times became a very good player without the puck.”
After both Makar and Ferraro left UMass in the spring after the national title game in 2019, Leonard stuck around for his third and final season in his native Amherst.
Many questioned what the team would look like after losing two of its best players, one of them being Makar, the 2019 Honey Baker Award winner, but Leonard didn’t back down from the challenge. In 33 games as a junior, he led the country in goals (27) and helped keep the Minutemen in the conversation as one of the nation’s best all season, right until it was cut short on the eve of the Hockey East postseason.
After finishing the year as a Hobey Baker finalist, Leonard bid farewell as well. While some were skeptical of his departure from the NCAA a year earlier than expected, Carvel and those around him had no doubt, he was ready for the jump.
“When you’re leading the country in goals and you’re a first-team All-American, I think you’ve proven you’re ready to move on,” Carvel said. “I think if we would have kept keep playing, he would have kept scoring and he might have had a shot at the Hobey Baker. He was trending that way, but I think it was obviously the right move for him. He’s stepped in and he’s been an effective player in San Jose.”
As the star of his hometown team, the same one he grew up watching as a kid, it wasn’t easy to leave the program behind, Leonard agreed, but it was a decision he had to make. It’s not every day you get “the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.
“Obviously, that was a tough decision, especially with the way everything ended, but after talking it over with my family, with my agents and my coaches, we just thought it was the best thing for me and for my development, and for my career.”
While there have been plenty of adjustments Leonard’s had to make since arriving in San Jose, such as the enhanced speed, skill and overall strength of the NHL, one thing that hasn’t taken too much getting used to is rooming with his old pal, Mario.
“It’s been awesome,” Leonard said. “We got our apartment set up and everything and it’s really a nice spot. We have a good time together, so it’s definitely a blast.”
Safe to say, Ferraro is pretty happy to have his old UMass roommate back as well.
“It’s sweet, it feels really good,” Ferraro, from King City, Ont., said. “I missed him both on and off the ice, so it’s real cool that we’re living together over here and to be back on the ice with him is really special. It’s not something that I doubted for a second, either. I knew he would do well; it was really only just a matter of time.”
After San Jose coach Bob Boughner referred to Leonard as “the best young guy in camp” in the offseason, he earned the nod to appear in the season opener line chart.
In his NHL debut, Leonard picked up two assists as the Sharks got the win at home. While fans weren’t allowed to attend, his family stayed up and watched from the East Coast.
“I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet,” Leonard said, “but that was obviously a real cool first game, and it was even better that we got the win, so it was a special moment.”
Two weeks later, he potted his first NHL goal, with Ferraro picking up the primary assist.
“That was obviously a really special moment, too,” Leonard said. “As a kid, you dream about scoring goals in the NHL, and to have it be at home and on a pass from one of your really good friends, obviously, made it even more special.”
With quite a bit of his “NHL firsts” out of the way, it now comes down to finding consistency for Leonard, and remaining the elite scorer he’s always been through his time at Springfield Cathedral (now Pope Francis), in the USHL and at UMass.
And while he made stark improvements in his game away from the puck in college, there’s always room to grow as he gets acclimated to the pro stage.
“It looks to me like when he gets the puck on his stick, it’s just natural for him,” said Carvel, who spent several years as an assistant coach with Anaheim and Ottawa. “The game comes to him and he understands it. It’s an easy game when he has the puck on his stick, and without it, he’s getting comfortable and realizing how he needs to play and what his responsibilities are. He looks like an NHL player with the puck on his stick. Without it on his stick, he looks like a young guy just still learning his way around the league.”
On a team in dire need of offense — the Sharks are 25th in the league in total goals — the hidden gem has a chance to show just how much a sixth-round pick is worth.
“Elite skill,” Ferraro said of what Leonard brings to the table on any given night. “Just a lot of energy and positive emotions to the locker room, a lot of passion in his game. I think everything he did in college is finally starting to transfer over to the NHL. You can see it in the way he controls the puck, gets pucks to the net and, obviously, he’s got wheels. So he’s doing well. I believe there’s a lot in his future and a lot more growing that he will do to be an even better player than he is today.
“He’s a special player, a special talent and a future star, for sure.”
