Shane Wright And Family Deal With Social Media Scrutiny

Sadly, top NHL Draft prospect Shane Wright and his family have found out that part of being even an amateur athlete in today’s world is dealing with the constant scrutiny and negativity from keyboard warriors.

With Wright’s slow start to the 2021-22 OHL season, the troll critics began to emerge from their caves and build the narrative that Wright wasn’t living up to his top ranking for the 2022 NHL Draft. Despite Wright finishing the 2021-22 season with 35 goals and 73 assists for 108 points in 74 regular-season and playoff games with the Kingston Frontenacs, that narrative has grown even louder. A late surge by fellow top prospect Juraj Slafkovsky in international competition at the Olympics and World Championships has only increased that same narrative to the point where Wright and his family have had to deal with baseless insults and accusations (Hi there Grant McCagg!) questioning his work ethic and potential.

“It was hard, there’s no question,” Wright’s Mom Tanya Wright told the Canadian Press recently, who teaches high school. “As parents, we probably felt (the stress) earlier than Shane because you always want the best for your kid. And then eventually he starts feeling it.”

“He hadn’t forgotten how to play the game,” his father Simon added. “He had to overcome a lot. He just found a way to say, ‘Screw this. Screw that. I’m going to get this thing done.”‘

Wright persevered and decided to become a stronger person and player from the negativity.

“Definitely some disappointments,” Wright said. “You have to find the positives from those experiences. “I’m still the player I am. Just because I had a year off playing games doesn’t mean I’m not skating, doesn’t mean I’m getting worse.”

In his latest and final Montreal Hockey Now 2022 NHL Draft Rankings, my partner-in-scribe, Marco D’Amico, still had Wright ranked first overall and Slafkovsky second.