TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Whether it was with head coach John Dean or assistant Jamie Tardif, a day rarely went by during Tye Kartye’s three seasons with the Soo Greyhounds in which the inquisitive forward didn’t pop into a coach’s office.
Kartye’s thirst for feedback was never-ending, and his response was always the same.
“Thank you very much.”
“It didn’t matter if I was nice, if I was a bully, if I was hard on him, or we gave him some information he didn’t like, it was always, ‘Thank you,’” Dean recalled on a recent phone call with The Athletic. “He sees everything as an opportunity to get better. That’s who Tye is. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it.”
That explains how Kartye, whom Dean referred to as “one of my favorite players I have ever coached,” has climbed the ladder from undrafted prospect with no standout physical features all the way to the NHL.
The 24-year-old is still fending off those doubts. The latest adversity came when the Seattle Kraken placed him on waivers on Feb. 26, but that quickly led to a new opportunity. The New York Rangers jumped at the chance to claim Kartye — presumably with the recommendation of Tardif, who is now an assistant coach for AHL Hartford — and have been thrilled with the doggedness he’s brought to their lineup. (The Rangers declined an interview request for Tardif, citing an organizational policy.)
“He’s made a difference in every game he’s played,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said.
Kartye being waived could be viewed as a wake-up call, but the Kingston, Ontario native finds the suggestion of complacency offensive. He pushed back on that notion, describing his Kraken exit as “more circumstantial.” Whatever the reason, Seattle’s loss appears to be New York’s gain.
“I think this year, honestly, I’ve been playing the best hockey that I’ve played in the NHL, and so that’s why it was a little more disappointing,” said Kartye, who’s under contract through next season for an annual cap hit of $1.25 million. “But I’m here now, and I’m super excited to be here. I’m glad with the way things turned out.”
Some might see Kartye as a late bloomer, but those who have witnessed his journey up close see it differently. They point to a methodical process, with an emphasis on stacking incremental improvements. That tireless pursuit of progress has been his distinguishing trait.
“The biggest thing that jumps out at me is how much he loves the game,” Sullivan said. “He loves to practice, he loves to play, he wants to be on the ice. In my experience, those are the types of players that continue to grow and improve. You have to love what you do. There has to be an element of passion associated with what you do every day. And it’s not forced with Tye. That’s natural, and you can see that when he walks through the door every day.”
One of Kartye’s earliest disappointments came at the age of 16, when he was cut in his first attempt to make Soo’s OHL roster. Greyhounds GM Kyle Raftis told him he’d need to add strength to have a better chance the following season.
“In true Tye Kartye form, he came back a Mack truck,” Dean recalled.
A bulked-up Kartye made the team at 17, which was also his first year of NHL draft eligibility, but he wasn’t considered a legitimate prospect. So he got to work.
“Tye was wise beyond his years,” Dean said. “He’d ask, ‘Hey, give me one thing, most bang for my buck, that’s going to help improve my game?’ And we’d give him one thing and no more. He would crush that one attribute for 15 minutes before practice, 15 minutes after, and he’d really have tunnel vision with it. He wouldn’t try to spread too wide and end up being a jack of all trades, master of none. He just really took his time mastering each individual piece. And all of a sudden, at 18, 19, 20, we had this machine of a player who had all these tools at his disposal just because of his patience.”
After registering only 24 points as an OHL rookie, Kartye jumped to 53 points in year two while displaying the high motor and attention to detail that coaches like Dean have lauded him for. That inspired hope for the 2020 draft, but it came and went without hearing his name called.
“That was disappointing, because I thought maybe I had a chance that year,” he said.
The draft occurred at a time when Kartye and the rest of his generation were dealing with a developmental hurdle no one saw coming: the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020-21 OHL season was ultimately canceled, forcing Kartye and many of his peers to go a year and a half without competitive, organized hockey.
“It was extremely disruptive,” Dean said. “I do think these young men, unfortunately, all took a step back.”
Dean attempted to coach via Zoom calls, but as they realized the stoppage would linger, the onus fell on individual players to push themselves and keep up a routine. Kartye embraced the challenge.
“I can’t tell you what Tye did,” Dean said. “But I didn’t need to ask.”
Kartye spent much of that time working out, but it was hard to find open rinks during Canada’s lengthy shutdown. So he improvised.
“I was lucky,” he said, smiling. “My parents live on a river, and the river froze.”
He recruited friends to skate with him and used that time to hone skills his Soo coaches had emphasized.
“Having that much time to really analyze yourself and realize what you need to get better at, I think it helped me a lot,” Kartye said. “I took advantage of that.”
Tye Kartye played 180 games with the Seattle Kraken, plus another 10 in the 2022-23 postseason. (Olivia Vanni / Getty Images)
As the world slowly got back to normal in 2021, Kartye accepted an invitation to attend rookie camp for the NHL’s newest team: the Seattle Kraken.
He was struck by how good the other players were — “It made me realize that I just need to keep working, because I wasn’t at that level yet,” he said — but made enough of an impression to stay on Seattle’s radar when he returned to Soo.
“They said they’d keep an eye on me and see how my year went,” he said. “I ended up having a really good year.”
Kartye exploded for 45 goals and 79 points in 63 games that season — “He can absolutely rip a puck,” Dean said — prompting the Kraken to offer a three-year entry-level contract and assign him to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. He carried that momentum into 2022-23, registering 28 goals and 57 points in 72 AHL games.
“Even when I got to the AHL and I started to have a really good year there and get opportunities there and play well, I never really thought I was going to play in the NHL,” Kartye said. “I kind of just wanted to see how far I could go, see how good I could get.”
To Kartye’s surprise, Seattle recalled him during its 2023 first-round series against the defending champion Colorado Avalanche. An injury to Jared McCann opened a top-six spot for a pivotal Game 5, with Kartye getting tapped for his NHL debut in the midst of a 2-2 series.
“I slid right into Jared’s spot there, playing with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle, so they made it pretty easy for me,” he recalled. “Obviously, they’re really good players. And I knew that sliding into that line, I was gonna get an opportunity. I was gonna get to play. I wasn’t gonna play like six minutes of sheltered hockey. I was actually gonna be a part of the game, and so I think that gave me a little confidence.”
It showed. With the score tied at 1-1 midway through the second period, Eberle came wheeling behind the Colorado net and pushed a pass toward Kartye in the right circle. The rookie left-winger didn’t hesitate, unleashing a one-timer to become the eighth player since 1927 to score a goal while making his debut in the playoffs and propel the Kraken to a 3-2 win.
“When the first one went in, it kind of took off from there,” Kartye said.
When Dean sits down with current Soo players, he often finds himself pointing to Kartye as an example to follow.
“Here’s a young man that wants to be coached, that wants feedback, that wants to consistently improve, that never had his guard up,” Dean said. “He was always looking for opportunities to be better. But also, we learned from him. Listen, we have 16- to 20-year-olds here. There’s five, six, seven, eight, nine different things each of these young men need to work on at any given time. And since we’ve had Tye, it’s always been, ‘Hey, let’s do one at a time here.’”
It reminds Sullivan of another forward who made it to the league through commitment and determination, then continued to evolve once he got there: Pittsburgh Penguins veteran Bryan Rust.
Rangers forward Conor Sheary, who came up with the Penguins around the same time as Rust, concurred.
“Rusty never really scored early on in his career, and then at some point, it clicked,” Sheary said. “He became such a proficient offensive player. He started to score close to 30 (goals) every year, which was a marvel. But I think the things that make him good are his speed and his work ethic, and I think Tye definitely has those attributes. Positionally, he’s sound, he’s responsible. He seems to be in the right spot a lot of times, and it makes it easy to play with a guy like that when you kind of know what their instincts are and where they’re going to be.”
Kartye has a long way to go to be compared to Rust, who recently eclipsed 25 goals in a season for the fourth time in his career, but he’s showcased a comparable skill set through his first 16 games with New York. The 5-foot-11, 202-pounder has collected nine points (three goals and six assists) in that span while averaging 14:26 time on ice per game. He’s quickly become a go-to penalty-killer and found a home on a middle-six trio with Sheary and captain J.T. Miller, which Sullivan recently called “our best line the past few games, without question.”
His swarming puck-pursuit style and dependable defense match what Sullivan referred to as “the game we’re trying to play here.”
“He’s fit in well,” added Sullivan. “And I think there’s an opportunity for his game to get to another level.”
It remains to be seen if Kartye can build on the offensive jolt he’s provided this past month, but no one will question his effort in chasing that goal. He’s what Dean calls “a coach’s dream” — and an undeniably worthwhile waiver claim.
The Rangers have thrown a couple no-risk darts in Kartye and defenseman Vincent Iorio, and while the latter has yet to pan out, it’s sure looking like they found something in the relentless winger who keeps outworking the odds.
“I see him being a really, really good piece,” Dean said. “He’s not the elite of the elite by any means. He knows that, but he’s a guy that can play with the best, complement those guys and be super effective inside any coach’s system.”