Man of the week: Taylor Beck
KHL.ru continues its weekly column with Taylor Beck. The Canadian forward is having his best season in his career, and Sibir is traveling on the top of the Eastern Conference.
If having Sibir topping the Eastern Conference standings could be considered a surprise for many, not such a sensation is seeing Taylor Beck high on the scoring race. The Canadian forward is known for his offensive competence and has recently surpassed his career-high for points and assists, having produced so far 47 (12+35) points for Sibir. On its hand, the Novosibirsk franchise is reaching heights like it did only in the period between 2013-2016, when Sibir three times in a row made it past the playoffs first round, even reaching the Eastern Conference finals in 2015, losing 1-4 to Ak Bars, who eventually lost to SKA in the Gagarin Cup rendezvous.
However, Beck is currently leading the league with 35 assists – tied with SKA’s Alexander Nikishin – being above and beyond other renowned puck movers like Alexei Kruchinin, Stephane Da Costa, Vladimir Tkachyov, and all-time leader Vadim Shipachyov. He’s also in full-swing to beat Jori Lehtera’s 38 helpers in the 2013-2014 campaign, which make the best ever for a Sibir player in the KHL. Surpassing Dmitry Kugryshev’s 54-point performance in 2014-2015 is not out of the equation. In fact, he has already established a record for the most single-season points in the regular season, beating that same campaign by Kugryshev.
Early years
Taylor Beck was born on May 13, 1991, in St. Catharines, Ontario, some 30 miles south of Toronto and close to the border with the US. Just as most of his peers, he played in the Ontario Hockey League, for the Guelph Storm. In the 2009-2010 campaign, just after being drafted by the Nashville Predators in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft, he scored a career-high 93 (42+53) points in 62 games as an alternate captain for the Storm, participating in the OHL All-Star Game and being awarded the Jim Mahon Trophy as the league’s top right winger.
Moving up the ranks
It was evident that Beck overgrew OHL hockey, and already that season he had his debut in the AHL with the Predators’ affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, lining up for 12 games in 2011. After a full season with the Admirals, in the 2012-13 season, Beck made his NHL debut with the Predators in a game against the Blue Jackets on Mar 19th, and scored his first goal in his third game with Nashville, also against the Blue Jackets, on Mar 23rd.
In 2014-2015, the St. Catharines’ native spent the whole season with the Predators, accumulating 16 (8+8) points in 62 regular season games and failing to appear in the scoresheet in five postseason appearances. That season would be the only full one for Beck with the big boys, as he then moved to the New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers spending most of the next seasons in the AHL. In five seasons, Beck collected 97 total appearances in the National Hockey League.
Move to the KHL
As an impending free agent in the 2017 offseason, Beck decided to move overseas after a strong season in the AHL, when he was selected to the First All-Star team after the season. He consequently signed a one-year deal with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. However, his tenure on the Urals would reveal itself to be a short one, as he was traded to Kunlun Red Star after a mere twenty games. During the 2018–2019 season, while in his second season with the Dragons, Beck continued his scoring pace with the club in notching nine goals and 22 points through 39 games before he was traded again, this time to Avangard, in exchange for the rights to Axel Holmstrom on the 2018 KHL transfer deadline. In his first season with the Hawks, Beck was excellent, helping the franchise reaching its second appearance at the Gagarin Cup playoffs final stage. The Canadian forward had a league-leading sixteen assists, but the Hawks surrendered to CSKA in just four games.
After a second, less successful year with Avangard, in the 2020 offseason, Beck was traded to Metallurg Magnitogorsk in exchange for Ilya Kablukov and Alexei Bereglazov. In the 2020-2021 season, Beck quickly adapted to his new team and posted new KHL personal highs of 16 goals, 27 assists and 43 points in 56 regular-season games. He also contributed 10 points in 12 playoff contests. In the next season, however, the forward lined up with Dinamo Minsk, helping the Belarusians reaching the playoffs for the second consecutive time.
And now with Sibir at one of its best seasons ever, Beck’s history within the KHL playoffs is yet to be done.
