The Philadelphia Flyers’ 2020 4th-round pick was the first prospect to be signed to an entry level contract from this year’s draft class. 5’10, 205-pound Zayde Wisdom exemplifies what his fellow Toronto-area native rapper Drake meant when he wrote the song “Started from the Bottom.”
Click here to shop for our latest sporting apparel from our store Flyers Nitty Gritty
From an exceedingly early time in his life, Zayde was forced to deal with immense hardships that he had to learn how to persevere through and overcome. Wisdom’s dad left the family when he was in his most developmental years: This sudden departure left the family in an obvious financial hardship which forced Zayde’s mother Mairri to have work three and four jobs just to keep food on the table and skates on Zayde’s feet. This still was no easy task though; a memory that will always motivate Wisdom in his pursuit to make the NHL was the day that he came home from school to a house without electricity. Zayde’s mom tried to hide the fact that she didn’t have the money to pay that month’s electric bill by telling her son a little white lie saying that the whole block did not have electric at the current time, when this in fact was not the case. With that being said, Wisdom did not always have the luxury of getting ice time at the best rinks Westin (a suburb outside of Toronto where Zayde lived) had to offer. Rather, Wisdom was forced to take to the local ponds and lakes around town to hone his skills.
As Wisdom continued to grow so did his talents while on the ice. With most coaches (including Derrell Levi, to whom Zayde credits a lot of his success) now reassuring the family that Wisdom was indeed a special player and needed to be on a team that would showcase those talents, Zayde became more motivated than ever to advance his play. This made Mairri (his mother) have to work that much harder- because, as you know (if you have ever played any developmental hockey), the higher you go the higher the cost is to play. This is where it got interesting: Wisdom’s family could not afford the steep prices of AAA Hockey on their own so Zayde’s teammates’ parents began to help with the financial burden of Wisdom’s journey to the NHL. With his mom now working around the clock, his grandmother Kitty was now gifted the role as Zayde’s taxi service- taking him to most practices and games.
By the time he was eligible to be selected by the OHL Wisdom looked more like an NFL tailback then a hockey player- Zayde was just 15-years-old and was already a solid 225 pounds. So, Wisdom decided to slim down and was later taken by the Kingston Frontenacs.
After his first season with Kingston Zayde showed that he was a hard worker who would get in the dirty areas and do all the things a “role player” would do, but ultimately was written off as doing not much else.
Wisdom took this as “constructive” criticism and turned it into pure motivation, using it to drive him in the off-season to hit the gym to try and get stronger and faster. Zayde’s determination not only did just that, but also showed the Frontenacs that Wisdom was indeed deserving of top line minutes alongside the talented Shane Wright (who most have penciled in as the 2022 top overall NHL draft selection). Once Wisdom reached the pinnacle in Kingston the duo of him and Wright could do no wrong!
Wisdom amassed 29 goals and 30 assists this past season, totaling 59 points in just 62 games played. This sudden massive increase in point production was enough to vault Zayde to new heights in the draft rankings.
An example of Wisdom’s determination can be found in a quote from an interview that he did before the draft, when he was asked about what it would mean to him if he were to be drafted. Wisdom stated:
“It would mean a future to me. I look it as a need, not a want. I need to get drafted. That’s what I need to do. This isn’t an option for me. It needs to happen because I need to be able to help my mom out and get through this with my family. It’s one word to sum it up NEED!…I’m going to make it one day and I’m going to make sure our power never gets shut off again!”
Now graced with this knowledge, you can see why the Flyers sought out the first selection in the 4th round when they noticed that a player of his caliber and drive was still on the board. Wisdom has faced the kind of adversity few of us have ever known and has overcome those battles only to be faced with a new set of challenges (making the Flyers’ roster). This is where Zayde’s perseverance will come in handy as he prepares to emerge victorious over the stiff competition already within the Flyers’ system.
Great story! A young man like Wisdom will become a great player, which every team need a lot! And with a hard childhood growing up, will have much better attitude training and improving his game to next level! Opposed to Wisdom, Ruben Rafkin has been upper class child hole his life(not his own fold), and thus surprisingly did not get drafted at all, and maybe that people thought, that Ruben”s attitude is a problem or something, just because he is a rich kid!
But anyway, Wisdom is great to have in our system, and i will be monitoring his progress closely in following seasons with great hope and interest!
We should still try to invite Ruben Rafkin, Victor Mancini and Simon Kubicek to our prospect camp, in order to maybe sign some of them to ELC”s, like Hextall did with Myers and Zamula! All those above mentioned players are right shot defenders, which our prospect pool currently lacks, and they surprisingly went undrafted! So try to invite even some of those defenders, and you might find a hidden gem, because you have nothing to lose, just gain! So it would be stupid not to! We could even explain those young defenders, that our draft went differently than expected, and we are seriously interested of them!