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Kailer Yamamoto is embracing altered expectations with Utah Hockey Club
Russ Yamamoto gave his boys an oft-repeated choice this summer.
“‘You could go to work with me and do construction, or you can do what you love,'” he told them. “‘It’s up to you.'”
To nobody’s surprise, both boys chose hockey. Keanu is in his first season with Scotland’s Dundee Stars in the UK’s Elite Ice Hockey League. Kailer is in his first season with the Utah Hockey Club after signing a one-year, two-way, $775,000 contract off a PTO in training camp.
Neither boy has anything but respect for their father’s work, and Russ was not trying to diminish his own work as a flooring expert. He was, however, trying to drive home a point.
“I don’t like them taking the NHL or hockey for granted just because you can make a lot of money,” he said. “When they do come back to Spokane, I do have them come work with me so they know what it’s really like out there in the real world.
“But what LeAnne and I keep pushing to Kailer and his brother is, ‘You guys have got to train. You’re not the biggest guys out there. Train harder than the next guy.'”
(Photo courtesy of LeAnne Yamamoto)
Kailer took that message to heart this summer when he worked on everything from his corner battles and shooting to getting stronger physically and mentally. He brought that entire package to Utah training camp this summer and earned a contract with his play in the preseason.
“I feel like I’ve gotten back to my roots,” he said. “I’m just winning puck battles, using my speed to get in first on pucks and then being able to make plays in the offensive zone and just playing good defense along with it.”
Yamamoto, 26, is taking nothing for granted in what is technically his fourth NHL stop. He can’t afford to after his home state Seattle Kraken opted to set him free rather than tendering him a qualifying offer this summer as a restricted free agent. The blow was one in a series of confidence hits for the Edmonton Oilers’ 2017 first-round (No. 22) pick.
On June 29, 2023, the Oilers traded him to Detroit along with Klim Kostin. Shortly after the trade, the Red Wings waived him for purposes of terminating his contract. He signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with Seattle in free agency, but he appeared in just 59 games, totaling eight goals and 16 points.
Two seasons after playing on a line with the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Yamamoto was left scrambling for any kind of NHL opportunity with training camps fast approaching.
(Getty Images)
“Not getting a contract after last year was tough on me,” he said. “I didn’t get a lot of [playing] time. I was scratched a lot and it was obviously tough going into the offseason. I really thought I was gonna get a contract but it didn’t end up that way, so going into a PTO definitely was nerve-racking.”
Yamamoto’s agent, JP Barry was working the phones on the first day of free agency, but he knew the reality of the situation.
“When you go to the market, they’re going to try and hit you with two-way [contracts],” Barry said. “That’s sort of the way the market moves downward. We did not take the two-way contracts that were offered on July 1 so that’s why it stretched out to the summer.
“But you get to the point where I’ve got to place him in a camp and I’ve got to put him in one where I think he has a chance. The call isn’t just about a training camp opportunity. Is there a real opportunity here? Is there a job at the end of the line? And in talking to [GM] Bill [Armstrong], he said, ‘We’re looking for a guy to challenge and grab a contract. We have one contract here to give.'”
One of the narratives that surfaced from Yamamoto’s past NHL stops was that his early NHL experiences created a level of expectation out of sync with the current state of his game.
“The worst thing that ever happened to him was that he played with McDavid,” one source said. “It’s all mental now. If he would just accept a bottom-six role, he could play 10 years.”
Yamamoto was already beginning that transition last season in Seattle. He had help from an expert on the topic.
Pierre-Édouard Bellemare played more than a decade in France and Sweden before earning his first NHL opportunity at the age of 29. Ten NHL seasons and two Stanley Cup Final appearances later, Bellemare, 39, is hoping for one more kick at the can after a PTO in Colorado did not produce a contract.
“I had to make some sacrifices to be able to stick all that time,” said Bellemare, who played last season in Seattle. “I had to learn to play better defense and learn kind of what I could do to help the team. It’s always been kind of my core mentality because I’ve never been the top, shining guy on any other team that I played with, and coming from France, I’ve always been the underdog, regardless of the team that I go to.
“But I’ve always found a way to become important by making sure I’m finding a role that will help the team. It’s not about me looking better. It’s about me finding a place to help the team. That was pretty much our situation last year in Seattle.”
Bellemare missed 10 weeks with a broken leg, but he and Yamamoto played on a line together for a good chunk of last season. Yamamoto absorbed a lot of ideas in that span.
“He’s kind of a role model for me,” Yamamoto said. “There were games where we were getting seven, eight minutes, and he would just be on the bench, very positive the whole time. Just being able to talk to him and understand our role and what we needed to do and just teaching me the mentality of staying in the game and being able to execute that bottom-six role — I really think he helped out my career.
“He helped me change my mindset. I feel like I can play a lot of different roles now. I think I showed I can play on a top line in Edmonton, but playing on the bottom line in Seattle definitely opened my eyes to a different way of looking at things.”
Bellemare understands how difficult that shift can be for younger players who are used to being offensive stars.
“He was a little bit spoiled,” Bellemare said. “You come into the league and you play with some of the best players in the world so you think that’s something that’s supposed to happen now. When that doesn’t happen, you can easily get stuck in your own self, stuck in your own mind, thinking ‘It’s about me.’
“But if you sit there whining and complaining, do you really think that you’re gonna make a good thing out of that? I’ve been known to be annoyingly positive, but at the end of the day, we are all NHL players. You make a tremendous amount of money so even on a bad day, come to the rink and enjoy what you do because there are people every single day who are struggling way more than you.”
(Getty Images)
Yamamoto had to wait six games for his first opportunity with Utah. He was a healthy scratch for the first five, but it wasn’t because coach André Tourigny wasn’t seeing what he needed from Yamamoto. It was just a numbers game in the bottom six with Josh Doan still on the NHL roster, and Michael Carcone and Liam O’Brien needing time.
“He is a good player,” Tourigny said. “We will have to find a spot for him. He can help us.”
Yamamoto did on Saturday against Boston. If he hadn’t entered the zone a fraction of a second ahead of the puck, he might have scored the tying goal late.
“Yammy was a guy on the loose pucks, recovering a lot of pucks, made plays,” Tourigny said. “He had a lot of energy, brought a lot of speed. He played a solid game.”
The hard truth for Yamamoto, however, was that he logged just 11:01 of ice time; last among Utah’s 12 forwards. Given the roster gymnastics that Tourigny and his staff must manage, along with the imminent return of Nick Bjugstad to the lineup, this may be Yamamoto’s reality for a while if he sticks with the NHL team.
Outwardly, he insists that is fine with him.
“Whatever it takes to stay in the NHL,” he said. “I’ll fill that role.”
Top photo of Kailer Yamamoto via Getty Images
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