By Sam Laskaris /
Dustin Walsh’s final Junior hockey campaign was certainly a rags-to-riches story.
The 18-year-old centre began the season with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Trenton Hercs.
But the Hercs didn’t make it through the year and folded with 12 games remaining in their regular season schedule.
Walsh, however, was able to continue playing hockey as another nearby OJHL franchise, the Kingston Voyageurs, acquired his rights.
No doubt the move was one of the savviest ones of the season for the Voyageurs’ first-year director of hockey operations Kory Cooper.
“We knew he was one of the top players in the league,” Cooper said. “And just before they folded we were aware of their situation and we picked up his rights.”
When the Trenton organization called it quits, Walsh was leading his team in scoring. He had picked up 42 points (22 goals, 20 assists) in 32 games on a rather weak team.
His production then increased when he went to the Voyageurs. Walsh racked up 21 points, including 10 goals, in Kingston’s final 12 regular season matches.
And he averaged almost a point per game during the Voyageurs’ rather successful league playoff run, which culminated with the OJHL championship.
Walsh had 13 goals and a total of 25 points in Kingston’s 24 post-season contests.
Walsh, who’s 6-3 and 175 pounds, isn’t surprised with the numbers he put up with the Voyageurs.
“I knew I was going to play with some pretty good players,” he said.
But after he joined the Kingston franchise, Walsh admitted he still had no idea of the possibilities that lay ahead for his new club.
After winning the OJHL crown, the Voyageurs travelled to Schreiber in northern Ontario where they participated in the Dudley Hewitt Cup. After capturing that four-team tourney, Kingston earned a berth in the national Royal Bank Cup championships.
“I hadn’t even heard of [the RBC Cup] and didn’t realize the different places that we could go to until we kept winning games,” Walsh said.
At the nationals, the Voyageurs won just one of their five matches. Kingston was eliminated following its 6-3 semi-final loss to British Columbia’s Vernon Vipers, the eventual tournament champs.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more,” Walsh said of his experience at the nationals. “It was disappointing because I don’t think our team played as well as it could. But I don’t have any regrets.”
Now that his Junior career is over, Walsh, who lives in Shannonville, Ont., can eagerly look forward to the future.
For starters, Walsh will be waiting patiently to see if he is selected in next month’s National Hockey League Draft.
In the final release of draft-eligible players, Walsh was listed as the 156th best North American prospect available.
“He’s definitely a potential pro,” Cooper said. “He’s a big kid, he’s a lanky kid and he’s got tons of potential. He’s generating tons of interest from the NHL.”
Regardless of what happens in the draft, Walsh also knows where he will be spending this coming season, and in all likelihood the next few years after that.
He’s off to an Ivy League school, Dartmouth College, where he’ll play for its Big Green hockey team. |