Burlington's Shane Wright poised to take next step on long road at Thursday's NHL draft

Shane Wright was doing his best to stay in shape.

He also figured it was time to branch out in the face of so much downtime.

As the COVID-19 pandemic chipped away and eventually stole his entire 2020-21 season, the teenage hockey star was home in Burlington, Ont., working on his strength, speed and skating — at least as much as was allowed against the backdrop of strict health and safety restrictions.

Between those long, lonely workouts sessions, Wright also picked up a hobby in the family's two-car garage.

"He would be in there almost every single day hitting golf balls," said Shane's dad, Simon Wright. "It's a frustrating game … it was irritating him. We actually set up a net. It was like -20 C outside. He was literally trying to learn and master golf during the pandemic at the same time as trying to keep fit.

"He's actually got quite good ... kicks my butt, anyway."

A gifted, playmaking centre, Shane Wright has been an overachiever — and demanding of both himself and others — since first being introduced to sports.

Even at age three on community fields.

"He'd have utter tantrums when people didn't know the rules or the other kids didn't play properly," Tanya Wright, Shane's mom, said with a laugh in an interview with her husband for The Canadian Press. "I'd have to literally haul him off and plunk him down on the grass for a timeout.

"It was actually really embarrassing."

That drive, that passion, that desire might have rubbed some the wrong way in Shane Wright's early years.

It's also helped propel the Kingston Frontenacs forward to the cusp of having his name called early, and quite possibly first, inside the Bell Centre on Thursday when NHL teams begin making selections at the league's first in-person draft since