When NHL scouts asked Andrew Basha what his biggest motivation was before the 2024 NHL Draft, he would tell them a story about being cut from his Calgary Royals Bantam AAA team.
If you ask Nick Symon, the head coach of that team, about that same story, he sighs. He also talked to a few NHL scouts as part of last year’s draft process, and they all brought it up to him.
Fortunately, after spending his first year of Bantam back in AA, Symon did not make the same mistake twice and Basha was on his Bantam AAA team as a second year player. At the end of that season, his 57 points in 33 games were second on the Royals and Basha was selected by the Medicine Hat Tigers in the fifth round of the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft.
“It’s fun to be the coach that cuts him and the coach that helps him get to the next level,” Symon said during a phone call last week.
A few years later, the Calgary Flames eventually called his name in the second round of the NHL Draft.
His journey from that cut at nearly 14 to a second-round NHL Draft pick at 18 is a testament, Symon and all those who have worked with him along the way say, to the ultimate competitor.
Those around Andrew Basha know he is the ultimate competitor. (Courtesy of RFJ Productions)
There were reasons that Basha was not in that team. Limits to the number of first-year players and a talented age group that also included Aiden Oiring, who was in the team as a first year, then commanded and led it in scoring as a second year before being selected ahead of Basha in. the WHL draft. A lack of physical maturity and stoicism that just needed a little growth spurt.
“He just wasn’t quite there,” Symon said.
There were reasons he was a fifth-round pick in the WHL, too. Questions from WHL scouts about why he was cut in his first year and “Is this his peak?” Concerns about whether he would consider the NCAA route.
“Talking to scouts that year was just that little bit of uncertainty,” Symon said. “From a scouting perspective, he made such a big jump that there was uncertainty about whether he was over. He has come a long way.”
But one by one, Basha simply answered each of the questions that had come up around him over the years.
At the NHL Scouting Combine shortly before the draft, the scouts and managers who asked the questions noticed a kid with a chip on his shoulder. When you talk to him, it shows.
His agent Allain Roy of Roy Sports Group, who began working with him after RSG’s Shane Corston drafted him in that WHL draft year, talks about a player who was shaped by adversity.
“He is who he is because of what he faced,” Roy said. “Everything that didn’t happen for him made him better. He finds a way and continues to find a way. … He never gives up. He never gives up.”
It started, according to Symon, when Basha had that growth spurt between his first Bantam year and second, taking him from small to “mid-sized” in AAA for his WHL draft year: “Strength-wise he definitely matured and his body. matured and he kind of got rid of that baby fat that you can’t do anything about except time.”
His skating “improved dramatically” from freshman Bantam to sophomore, too.
“He went from a very average skater to a higher end in the entire league skater,” Symon said. “He got past tons of guys just with his skating. And once he had that skating, the skill was always there, he thought the game really well.”
Symon could see it coming when he showed up to a summer skate before that Bantam sophomore year. Immediately afterward, he texted his assistant coach, “You won’t believe Basha, he’s a different player.”
But more than anything else, there was a determination about him that was palpable. In practices in his WHL draft year, Basha regularly “pissed off teammates” with how hard he was going — “And he wasn’t trying to be a——, he was just competing,” Symon said.
“He obviously used (being cut) as motivation and I think the biggest thing I can say about Andrew: he’s motivated,” Symon added. “His skating, his tenacity, his competitiveness, all of that, he just took it to another level. And that’s what sets him apart. We had a really good team with some really good players who also moved on, but nobody got to the point where Andre has and I think that tenacity and that competitiveness is what sets him apart.”
Years later, that reputation now precedes him in Medicine Hat and in Doug Crashley’s gym at Crash Conditioning as well.
Before the draft, Crashley, who coaches many of the local NHL players and prospects in Calgary, felt that Basha was a late first- or second-round pick specifically because of who he is as a person as much as what he is as a player.
As scouts filtered through Medicine Hat, initially to look at top prospects Gavin McKenna and Cayden Lindstrom, Basha began to catch their eye more and more as well.
“Guys who like him like him a lot and I think it’s because of that competitiveness and that obsession with getting better. There are a lot of people who appreciate that and it makes up for things,” said Crashley.
He thinks that Basha “can overcome his natural physical genetics by being so super competitive and intelligent.”
In his time at Crashley’s gym, he had already done so.
“He’s come a long way. He was one of the worst movers on Day 1 and he’s actually become a pretty good mover since then in the gym, and I think it’s translated to his skating,” Crashley said. “Bash (is) competitive almost to the point where he’s OCD competitive. He’s got a bit of Jordan Eberle where you look at a man and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re going to poke someone to win.’ .He will get under your skin.”
When the Flames drafted him with the 41st pick in the 2024 draft, director of amateur scouting Tod Button talked about his hockey sense, skill and speed, but he also described the 5-foot-11, 187-pound forward as “a worker ” who “plays in the tough areas”, saying that Basha ranked in their top 25 and was the top-ranked player they hoped would be available when it was their turn in the second round.
Craig Conroy, the team’s general manager, talked about similar traits — speed, skill, hockey sense — but added “he has it all” and insisted he thought Basha would go a little earlier.
In Medicine Hat, he proved himself one season at a time to head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins. Desjardins, like everyone else, starts with his wish.
“I think he can be really good. … And I really think he wants to be good. I think that’s the biggest driver he has is that he really wants to be good,” Desjardins said The Athletics. “And he’s smart enough and he’s talented enough to do that. I think he’s a guy who can get better over time — and will.”
After recording 14 points in 48 games as a 15- and 16-year-old, Basha recorded 56 points in 67 games at 16/17 and then 85 of 63 in his draft year at 17/18.
He finished the year as NHL Central Scouting’s 26th-ranked North American skater, despite not being 100 percent in the second half after a skate tear on Jan. 7 left him shaky — “That really affected him more than people know, said Roy. . “And again, that’s his character, exactly. Instead of saying ‘OK, I’ll sit it out,’ it was ‘No, I’m going to play this.’”
The NHL Central Scouting report described him as follows: “Skillful prospect who has consistently produced offensively. Possesses advanced puck skills and can both make plays and score. Has impressive skating and ability to shake off and beat defenders. Moves smart and smooth with and without off the puck. Always looks to get into scoring areas and can finish with an accurate shot. Has great vision and can make tough moves look easy.”
Ask Basha to describe his game and he will describe it as fast, smart, agile, tenacious and competitive.
“I play with a lot of speed, I’m very creative and I probably find passing routes that others can’t. I try to use my brain as my biggest attribute and I will continue to do that,” said Basha. “(And I take pride in) my play-driving and control. I’m able to control things and was definitely better (last year) driving plays and taking over games.”
Basha describes his game as fast, smart, agile, tenacious and competitive. (Courtesy of RFJ Productions)
About six kilometers southwest of Scotiabank Saddledome, there is a restaurant called The Garrison Pub & Eatery. It is an institution and gathering place for hockey fans in Calgary, and it is owned by Richard Basha, Andrew’s father.
Richard is originally from Newfoundland via Lebanon. Andrew’s mom, Ronda, is a psychologist from the predominantly French community of Janeville, NB But Andrew was born and raised in Calgary. There are hints of his parents in him: he speaks fluent French and went to a French-language school until the 8th grade. At the combine, he conducted some of his interviews with teams and the media in his second language.
But Calgary is home and he grew up in the Garrison. He enjoys cooking for the Garrison. After the draft, when WestJet canceled all flights out of Vegas, he and his family made the 21-hour drive home to the Garrison, where friends and family awaited them decked out in Flames gear.
His favorite players growing up were Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. He wears number 34 because of Auston Matthews and Miikka Kiprusoff. “I loved Kip,” he said.
Button called his Calgary roots a bonus post-draft and it is. Going forward, although he will continue to train with Crashley, he will also have access to the Flames staff during the offseason. Since being elected, Symon and Basha have been exchanging texts about how cool it is the Flames.
“He’s a wonderful kid and he has a wonderful family. He is so grateful for everything, thank you, and all those things. He’s just a great kid,” Symon said. “He’s just been grateful for what we’ve done for him, and at the end of the day it’s up to him, and he’s the type of kid that has it in him.”
Before the Flames, however, he has more questions he plans to answer. After not receiving an invite to play for Canada at August’s world junior summer showcase, Basha will try to prove people wrong and earn an invite to December’s selection camp.
He’s also aiming for a WHL championship and then a Memorial Cup with the Tigers, who recently added Wild second-rounder Ryder Ritchie via trade and Utah’s Veeti Väisänen and Dallas’ Niilopekka Muhonen via the import draft.
“We have a pretty special group. It will be fun. I’d say we’re probably the top dog in the WHL coming into this year and it’s going to be important that we don’t get too ahead of ourselves and make sure we work hard. I am sure if we do that then good things will come,” said Basha.
Even when talking about it, though, the chip on his shoulder shows itself again. The Tigers aren’t just Gavin McKenna or Cayden Lindstrom’s team, he’ll let you know.
“Anytime you share the ice with other good players, you know you’re going to get some looks. And I knew coming into (last) year that they would also come to see me,” Basha said. “You’re always lucky to play with some special players but at the end of the day I think the scouts also came out to watch me and see what I could do there.”
(Top photo of Andrew Basha, center, at the 2024 CHL Top Prospects Game: Dale Preston/Getty Images)
