BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Patience has been a virtue for Devon Toews for a few years now. He went undrafted in 2012 and 2013, his first two years of eligibility, while playing for Surrey in the British Columbia Junior League. He was already committed to attend Quinnipiac, across the continent from his Abbotsford, B.C. home, and his future coach thought every NHL team was making a mistake.



“I told about 10 friends who are NHL scouts to take this kid, he’d be a steal in the sixth or seventh round,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “They felt he was too small, I guess. He had the height (6-foot-1), but he was really skinny back then. Even when the Islanders took him in 2014, it was the fourth round. I really felt like he had all the tools, even back then.”



Now in his third pro season, Toews does indeed seem to be ready to make the leap from the AHL to the NHL. He didn’t look a bit out of place in Islanders training camp, handling...