Making the Jump

Making the Jump

It all started with a dream, watching all the older boys going off to hockey prep schools, junior hockey, and even seeing some fellow Newfoundlanders get drafted to the NHL. For years I had attended the Atlantic Hockey Showcase hosted by Andrews Hockey in PEI and I was always intrigued by all the scouts and recruiters who would be there, watching the games and practices, looking to discover the next Sidney Crosby. Even at a young age, I would approach the recruiter's tables, strike up conversations and make myself known to the scouts. Allen Andrews was a great motivator and he was very big on the positive results of setting goals. I decided that my goal would be to do my high school at a prep school, developing my game and getting a good education at the same time. Finally, at the age of 15, I decided I that the time was right – I was going to pack my bags and take my hockey career to the next level. It was off to Bishops College School in Sherbrooke, Quebec to play for the BCS Bears.

I was going into my Grade 10 year and I was only fifteen years old. That is a very young age to leave home. However, unlike some people, I lucked out and I ended up getting a roommate that played hockey with me back home for years. This made things a little easier for me considering I was in a new province away from my family at 15. Having him there made it feel more like home. As the year went on, my game developed a lot and our team was doing very well, sitting pretty in first place. Personally, I was doing also doing well. I was third in scoring in the prep school hockey federation (PSHF), with 35 points in 28 games. We ended up winning the PSHF U16 league title, upsetting a team we hadn’t been able to beat all year. The feeling was surreal!

It was a very successful run with the U16 team, but then came time for bigger things. One night I was sitting in my dorm room and the coach of the U18 team texted me and told me to come to his office which was right under our dorm rooms. I knocked on the door and got the news that I was called up to play with the U18 team in the National tournament. I was so excited, it was a new opportunity for me to play at a higher level and showcase my game to all the scouts who would attend. As the tournament went on, we put up a record of two wins and a loss. We went into the semis in second place and would play against the third-place team, a team that were ranked as the best prep school team in Canada going into the tournament. We knew we had to fight to beat that team, they were very strong and if we lost then that would be our last game of the season. It wasn't meant to be, and we ended up losing a 2-0 heart breaker. For some of our players, that was the last competitive game of hockey they would ever play. It was tough, but we had a great group and all the boys were there for each other. I had an awesome year at BCS and I owe a lot of my success in hockey to that school. It really helped to mold me into the person I have become today.

It was tough having my season at BCS come to an end by losing in the semis, but it was on to the next step now for me. I wasn’t ranked on the QMJHL radar at Christmas time after half a season at BCS and I was pretty disappointed. We didn’t get seen by many Q scouts because we played a lot of our games in America, so we were more heavily scouted by the NCAA. I had one last chance to prove myself before the draft which would be held in Charlottetown, PEI in June - that was the QMJHL combine with team Newfoundland U16. The Combine was a tournament with the top prospects from Newfoundland, PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and two teams from Quebec. I knew that this would be the last chance this season to show myself before the Q draft. I had to show up and be at the top of my game. I ended up having a great showing with 1 goal and 2 assists in four games and our team ended up taking 3rd place right behind the two Quebec teams, the best ever ranking for a Newfoundland team at the event. I ended up in the top 75 rankings coming out of the tournament, being listed at 68th among draft eligible players. I met many scouts and had interviews with a lot of teams after the tournament and there was a lot of interest. It was at this point I knew I could take my game to a whole other level!

Although it seemed like an eternity, the time finally rolled around, and it was June 4th, the day of the official Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft. I flew down from Montreal because I was still at BCS, met my Dad at the airport in Halifax and we drove to Charlottetown. It was special having my Dad there with me to live this moment. We sat there for a long time listening to the first 5 rounds go by and I was getting nervous because I was supposed to be taken in the 5th round. The nerves were building up, but it was only shortly after my name was called in the sixth round by the Quebec Remparts. The feeling was amazing! I was sitting there with my Dad and my agent Chad Levitt and they were both just as happy as I was. It was absolutely a special feeling to have been drafted by such a well-known organization in the hockey world and it was even more special to share it with my Dad and with Chad as well. I walked down the stairs and pulled the jersey over my head and was greeted by the whole staff as well as a couple players of the Remparts. The feeling was indescribable! At this point I really knew things were getting serious in my hockey career and I knew I was capable of taking it to yet another level!!

Following the draft, I trained all summer in Montreal, working out and eating healthy. I stayed at my agent's house with a couple of my buddies who were also getting ready for their first Q camps as well. We trained five days a week and were on the ice four days a week for the whole summer. The time rolled around for the Remparts camp in mid-august and I was in the best possible shape that I could be in and I knew was ready. I realized that I had to work hard in order to earn a spot, considering there was only one spot open for a sixteen-year-old to make it. In Junior hockey, the way it works with age is you can play anywhere from 16-21 and as a sixteen-year-old it’s hard to make it and I wasn’t taking anything for granted. Camp starts with a rookie tournament in Chicoutimi and only so many rookies make it through to main camp, so I had to go in and outplay the other rookies. I had a good rookie camp, scoring two points in 3 games and also adding a game winning shootout goal for the Quebec Remparts. When we arrived back in the Quebec City, they started calling players out individually and I was shaking, worried that my time in Quebec would be coming to an end. My name