Meet Landon DuPont: WHL exceptional status star, top 2027 NHL Draft prospect and ‘Grouchy Bear’
Edge School's U18 prep team had just made it 7-0. It was their first exhibition game of the 2023-24 season, a meaningless matchup against a provincial league team they were sure to rout. One of the team's 17-year-olds had just celebrated scoring a Michigan goal like it was a big deal. When he returned to the bench, a voice from its far end shouted down at him.
"Hey, what the f— are you doing in a 7-0 game!? That's not the way we do things!"
The voice was 14-year-old Landon DuPont's.
He was the youngest player on arguably the top U18 team in Western Canada, a 2009 on a roster full of 2006s and 2007s.
At season's end, he'd lead the Calgary school's prep team in scoring by 21 points with 62 in 30 games, win the league's top defenseman award, and then lead his team to a CSSHL championship as playoffs MVP with 16 points in five games. Not long after that, the Western Hockey League (WHL) would make him the second player — following Connor Bedard — and first defenseman to be granted exceptional status into the league as a 15-year-old.
Moments like those had as much to do with him joining the exclusive group of exceptional-status players (a fraternity that includes names like Connor McDavid and John Tavares ) as the points did.
About a year out from that moment, DuPont is off to an unheard-of start to his exceptional status season with the Everett Silvertips. His 16 points in 14 games match McDavid's production through the same number of games and is supported by a plus-15 rating.
Last week, he was again the only 2009 on either of Canada's rosters at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Sarnia, Ont. Still, he was named captain of Team Canada Red and led them to the gold medal game, registering a team-leading four points in four games.
And though he doesn't turn 16 until the end of May, when his first season in the WHL will already be long over, and isn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2027, you'd never know it.
That story from the bench isn't the only one of its kind Doug Crashley has about DuPont. Crashley, who owns and runs Crash Conditioning, a Calgary gym that works with NHL players like Jordan Eberle and Josh Morrissey , began training DuPont during the pandemic as a favor to his dad, Micki, who was trying to keep him and his brother Nolan busy. Last season, Crashley's son, Nate, also played with Landon at Edge School.
Crashley had seen that bark in his gym before he'd seen it on the ice.
At Crash Conditioning, they used to call him "Grouchy Bear." They even thought about buying him a shirt from the popular children's television series "Care Bears" after one of the show's characters, the "Grumpy Bear."
"It was like, 'Man, you're miserable,' because he'd get pissy with his brother and push back on his dad. He's just got a lot of personality," Crashley said. "I've seen some things (between Landon and Nolan). (Landon's) got a little bit of Nate MacKinnon, his competitiveness and when they talk about how Nate's got a dog in him. He's got that dog in him. I love that."
Asked about the nickname, Landon chuckled.
"I'm a very outgoing kid. I'm a people person, I like to see how people are doing and check up on people. But I can get sometimes grouchy when things don't go my way," he confessed.
James Poole was the head coach of that Edge School team and has an equal number of stories about Landon the kid as he does Landon the player.
Among the most indelible are his memories of bringing his kids around the dressing room. During one of those locker room visits, Poole was talking about an opponent when his 8-year-old son squeaked out: "You mean they're better than DuPont?"
He still remembers how red DuPont's face got.
"He's just that personality who never likes the spotlight and doesn't want to be treated special. He doesn't want the extra attention, he just wants to be one of the 20 kids," Poole said. "He's just a great teammate that loves being a part of that team dynamic and as a coach, he's just one of those players that you love coaching because he'll do anything for his teammates and anything for his team and just treats everyone the right way."
Both Poole and Crashley credit his parents, Micki and Erin, who Poole said "brought him up exceptionally."
Micki is a former NHL defenseman who was a draft pick of the Flames and played briefly in Calgary, St. Louis and Pittsburgh before finishing his professional career in Switzerland and Germany. (Landon lived in both countries for twice as long as he's lived in Canada, playing his minor hockey in Kloten and Berlin until the age of 10, often with Nolan's 2006 age group three years older than him, and spending Christmases in Davos at the Spengler Cup.) Micki won a Calder Cup and represented Canada at men's worlds before retiring in 2019 and becoming a player representative and development coach for Titan Sports Management
"His parents are so great. (And Landon's) such a good dude," Crashley said. "The kid's always been extremely mature and focused and advanced mind-wise, and clearly as a player, he's pretty special."
Before Hockey Canada and the WHL granted him exceptional status, DuPont had to write an essay, staff came to his games and spoke with coaches and teachers, and he sat down for an hour with a sports psychologist (who also spoke with Micki and Erin).
"(He's) a really, really good person who can handle what's about to happen and handle the pressure of being elevated onto a pedestal," Poole said. "(And) the competitive aspect to him is top end. He competes at both ends of the rink. And that's why when people asked about exceptional status at the start of the year, once I saw that aspect of his game, I knew that it was a no-brainer because I think he's got the intangibles that are going to allow him to have success over and above the skill level that he obviously has."
At Edge School, that skill level always seemed to show up when it was most needed, too.
"It was kind of crazy to think that in the biggest events of the year, a 14-year-old was able to somehow find another level," Poole said. "All year long he was the player that whenever he was on the ice, the game changed."
That included the Mac's Tournament and the CSSHL playoffs when Poole said he was the best player on the ice "by far."
"I've never seen anything like it, let alone that a 15-year-old could be that much of a driver but a 14-year-old being the best player out there where everything just revolves around him when he's on the ice," Poole said.
In some games, they almost ran him into the ground, playing him 40 minutes a night. The next day, so tired he "could barely move," he'd still be the best player on the ice.
"He's so smart and so competitive that he willed not only his team but also himself. It was the most obscenely impressive thing individually that I've ever seen," Crashley said.
Crashley's first introduction to Landon was when he and Nolan came to Crashley's facility to use a skating treadmill someone else operated out of the building and word of mouth started to spread about him. The first time he saw him play, Micki, a buddy of his, invited him to a peewee game between Landon's team and former NHLer Fernando Pisani's son Jaxon's. After one of the first games of last season, Crashley called client Morgan Klimchuk to wax poetic about the way he controls the game and defends for his age and size (Hockey Canada lists him at 5-foot-10 and 172 pounds and the WHL has him at 5-foot-11 and 177 pounds).
Crashley says Landon is strong physically and has always been muscular for his age, with "really big legs." He's also, Crashley said, "one of the springiest guys I've ever seen. When they first began working together, Landon reminded Crashley of a 17-year-old Oliver Ekman-Larsson , the most springy teenager he'd seen to that point.
"And that's how Landon was at 11," Crashley said. "It was off the charts. Like a cloud bouncer just running cloud to cloud with these light, beautiful springs. And when you watch him skate, he's able to produce any movement at any time with such great control of his edges but he also has a ton of really dynamic explosiveness."
As last year went on, Crashley started showing some of his NHL players clips from DuPont's games and it wasn't uncommon for him to get a "holy crap is he good" answer back.
Though Crashley felt it was important to keep DuPont with his peers in the gym and on the ice last summer, he skated with the pro group a couple of times after all of his NHL guys asked about him.
Once he landed in Everett, though outgoing head coach and general manager Dennis Williams had drafted him before taking a job at Bowling Green State University, the Silvertips' new head coach happened to be Steve Hamilton, who'd been behind the local Calgary Hitmen bench for the six previous seasons and whose son is the same age as DuPont.
While he already knew a lot about him, Hamilton said he has still surpassed his expectations.
"My greatest appreciation for him has come in just who he is as a person and as a teammate and how driven he is. That part of it you don't really get to know until you have a chance to work together on a day-to-day basis and Landon has been awesome in every sense of the word. (He's) all of the things that you'd want from a player on your team," Hamilton said.
Going into the year, when people asked him where DuPont was going to fit into the lineup, Hamilton told them he'd play where he belonged. It didn't take long for him to realize that was 20-25 minutes a night.
He describes him as fearless and laughs about his "next level" skating and edge work, but also talks about his awareness and his "elite" ability to close off time and space and kill plays defensively.
"It's crazy to believe that he is 15 at times because of the impact that he has on the game," Hamilton said, laughing. "I mean, he's going to be a dominating force and I think everything he does is to have an impact on the outcome of the game. As his game continues to get better, he's such a good student of the game that I don't see there being a whole lot of limitations as to where he could take things. I would hate to project numbers but I think that it would be pretty impressive if you're looking down the road."
A "remarkable" ability to play defense (DuPont said he has always been defense first, despite the gaudy numbers) surprised Canada Red head coach Travis Crickard the most at U17 worlds, too.
"It's difficult for guys who want to be such a part of the offense to be able to defend so well but I think because of his intelligence and his skating he's able to pair both together. It's pretty impressive," Crickard said.
Once Crickard got to know him, he saw the "exceptional" in his composure in big moments both on the ice and the bench. He was named their captain for his maturity — a maturity Crickard called "a pretty special thing to have when you're a year younger than everyone else" — and not for his status.
"Not too many young men possess those kinds of traits where you can be a leader when you're a year younger. A year younger at this level is a pretty significant thing in comparison to being a year younger as a pro," Crickard said.
Micki, Erin and Crashley each recognize the importance of protecting that. "He's special," Crashley will tell you, but it's also important those around him "let him be normal."
"It's a lot for Landon obviously, so we're pretty cognizant of that and we're almost trying to downplay it all. We realize he's still young and it's just about moving ahead," Micki said. "I don't like to pump his tires and sound like a dad who is tooting his own kid's horn so I've left that to other people."
Starting with the Kloten Flyers youth hockey program and growing up playing hockey in Switzerland and Germany until 2019 allowed Landon to preserve that for a while.
DuPont said the different view of life and hockey in Switzerland and Germany shaped him, and that memories on outdoor rinks with 60 kids — one of whom was his brother — on the ice at a time were the "funnest times of my life." He has talked with his parents for years about a trip back, but they haven't found a time.
Though life has been too busy the last few months to think about anything but hockey (after Canada Red's semifinal win over Team USA, he checked Everett's score), he's happiest when he's around family, or playing golf, or in the gym with his buddies.
"I just like to be where my feet are and stay grounded," DuPont said. "Sometimes it's not all about hockey, it's about life too. You only play hockey so long."
With reporting in Sarnia, Ont.
(Top photo: Andy Glass / Everett Silvertips)
