(Owen Beck photo by Charles Warburton/Mississauga Steelheads, Dalyn Wakely photo by Tom Martineau/North Bay Battalion, Ethan Miedema photo by Remo Agostino/Windsor Spitfires)
By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
The Ontario Hockey League season kicks off Thursday night and the Northumberland region will be well represented during the 2021-22 campaign.
Port Hope’s Owen Beck (Mississauga Steelheads) and Dalyn Wakely (North Bay Battalion), drafted back-to-back in the second round of the 2020 OHL Priority Selection, finally get a chance to play for the teams that selected them while Cobourg’s Ethan Miedema, the fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft, is looking to make an impact for the Windsor Spitfires.
Thursday night, Miedema and the Spitfires will host the Sarnia Sting. The 16-year-old has settled into Windsor nicely and is excited to get the regular season started.
“I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot,” Miedema said. “I feel pretty fortunate and lucky that I’m here. Camp was great and going against all those older guys for the first time was definitely a transition, but it’s only going to make me better.”
Miedema scored three times and registered three assists in six exhibition games with the Spitfires, even showcasing his skill with a highlight-reel goal. As the pre-season rolled along, the challenges became more difficult as older teammates and opponents returned from NHL training camps, including Windsor’s Will Cuylle, Wyatt Johnston and Jean-Luc Foudy.
“It was still younger teams, but as guys are starting to come back in these last few exhibition games, you see the guys who stand out. You can tell, there’s some guys who were drafted and are going to be really good hockey players in the NHL one day,” Miedema said. “Just to be teammates with some of those guys to see what they’re doing in practice, their rituals, their work ethic, what they do after practice to make them better and who they are, it’s awesome to watch.
“All those guys are older and we’re trying to make each other better. I really feel that’s helping me both physically and mentally playing against those bigger guys.”
At the time Miedema was drafted in June, Trevor Letowski was the Spitfires head coach, but he was hired the following month to become an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens. In August, Windsor named Marc Savard its new head coach.
Miedema has made a great early impression on his new coach, a former OHL champion with the Oshawa Generals who went on to play more than 800 NHL games and spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues.
“I think he’s going to have a big year, if he’s healthy, knock on wood,” Savard said of Miedema. “He can push for rookie of the year very possibly, he’s that talented. I’m really looking forward to working with him this season.”
Miedema, at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, brings a lot of size and skill into his first OHL season as he continues his development as a player. Savard said he needs to “just keep working hard, work on the little things” as first-year player in the league.
“He’s obviously got the talent and the skill level and there’s no question about it he’s a big boy,” Savard said. “Just working on the little things, the defensive things and just being in the right position and understanding the game more. I think that’s probably what I’m going to help him most with and just being consistent night in, night out. I know it’s tough even through pre-season he’s had a good couple nights and maybe one bad one so just trying to keep it consistent and then you’ve got to make him a better overall player.”
Miedema spent the summer training with Belleville Senators strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Benoit and was on the ice three times a week with skills coach Chris Longo, who works with players in the Quinte area, but is also an assistant coach with the Kingston Frontenacs.
“I wanted to work really hard in the summer to set myself up for hopeful success here in my first year,” Miedema said.
Playing hockey at the OHL level isn’t the only challenge as Miedema also moved away from parents Jeremy and Amy and younger brothers Colby and Zachary to live with a billet family. His first day of Grade 11 felt like his first day of high school all over again. He only knew a few teammates there as he walked the unfamiliar hallways.
“It’s not easy, but I know school is important to me and it’s just part of growing up and moving away from home to do something that you’ve always wanted to,” Miedema said. “Overall the transition has been pretty smooth. My billets are great, the coaching staff is amazing, all the guys are really inclusive…so I’m really happy.”
It’s a little quieter, he acknowledges, without younger brothers at home, but he passes the time with homework, watching movies with his billets and spending time with teammates.
Miedema did get a taste of home on Oct. 3 when the Spitfires played a pre-season game in Oshawa against the Generals.
“I had lots of my friends that I grew up with there and lots of family as well and some of my brothers’ friends even just coming out to see an OHL game because it’s been awhile,” Miedema said. “There were a lot of fans from Oshawa as well. Finally it was the first game we could have over 50 per cent capacity so it was pretty cool playing in front of that many people.”
He appreciates that opportunity and to see family because the closest to home the Spitfires will play during the regular season this year will be Guelph and Kitchener.
“Whenever I have the chance to come home, even just to see my parents for 10 to 15 minutes after the game, means a lot,” Miedema said. “Those are moments I’ll never forget, just seeing them for a few minutes.”
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Owen Beck also worked with Benoit and Longo this past summer. He had also been on the ice last season helping with the Quinte Red Devils U16 team, which included Miedema, as they prepared for the OHL draft without playing actual games.
“They had a great set-up going for all their draft-eligible guys this year,” Beck said, noting he knew Tyler Longo, who was the Red Devils coach at the time, through his brother Chris Longo. “Ty Longo said it helped having me out there to pick up the pace a little bit for the guys. It was a great experience for me because I got a bit of game action and some game-paced practices going which was definitely refreshing.”
Beck was the 29th overall pick of the 2020 draft and can’t wait to officially get his OHL career underway with the Steelheads Saturday in Kingston, even if a year later than expected.
“I’m super excited,” Beck said. “We got a little bit of a taste of it in the pre-season and it’s been a long time coming. Just that little taste has really got the energy and excitement up for myself and I’m sure my teammates for the regular season to start and to get back to some normalcy.”
Last year was frustrating as players got their hopes up a few times for the 2020-21 season to potentially start, Beck said, before it was ultimately cancelled.
“Training was obviously just a constant and trying to stay on the ice was key,” he said.
Steelheads head coach and general manager James Richmond expects Beck will make a smooth transition to the OHL, despite the lengthy layoff from competitive hockey prior to reporting to training camp in Mississauga.
“Owen had a super training camp and has been really strong through the exhibition schedule. He plays a complete 200-foot game and is strong at both ends of the ice,” Richmond said, noting Beck will have room to develop as a player in his rookie campaign. “I’m not sure it’s fair to have expectations on any of these young guys that haven’t played a game in more than 18 months.”
All three current Northumberland players in the OHL developed locally first before joining the Quinte Red Devils AAA organization. Beck hopes it inspires younger players who aspire to play in the OHL.
“I think it’s fantastic for all of the kids playing hockey in small towns,” he said. “Obviously you hear about the big names in Toronto and Ottawa, the big cities like that, but you don’t hear about a lot of guys from small towns who make it and I think with all the representation that we have in Port Hope and Cobourg these past few years it’s been really good for anybody who knows us personally or has just heard our names and are maybe just looking to do the same thing in a few years. I think it’s fantastic and I’m really looking forward to what the future of Northumberland hockey has to come.”
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Dalyn Wakely, who will suit up for his first regular season game with the Battalion on Thursday evening when they host the Peterborough Petes, is thrilled to share OHL ice with Miedema and is longtime friend and teammate Beck. They’ll faceoff for the first time on Oct. 15 when the Battalion host the Steelheads in North Bay.
“It’s obviously really exciting and I’m happy to see all the success for guys out of Port Hope and Cobourg,” Wakely said. “I know we’ve all played together or trained together and push each other to keep improving so to come up together and now see some of our work paying off, it’s great.”
The Battalion selected Wakely with the 30th pick of the 2020 draft after taking Ty Nelson first overall.
They are part of a group of 10 rookies, including 2021 first-rounder Owen Outwater, suiting up for the Battalion this season, and join some key veterans including the leadership group of captain Liam Arnsby and alternates Brandon Coe, Mitchell Russell and Avery Winslow.
“The group is really exciting,” Wakely said. “Everyone is bought in to the goal of winning a championship and we believe we can do it. I think we’ve got a great mix of experienced guys who’ve been to NHL camps and young guys who are eager to learn and win.”
Battalion general manager Adam Dennis said it’s been a long time coming to get this group of players together on the ice. Beyond selecting Nelson with the top pick, Dennis said there was great depth in the club’s other draft picks the past two years and heaped plenty of praise when discussing the addition of Wakely to the lineup, a player they didn’t expect to have the opportunity to select at No. 30.
“Dalyn was a guy that we definitely figured was going to be long gone by the time that pick came around and as it got a little bit closer it looked like it might become a reality and it became an obvious choice from our end,” Dennis said. “Coming in Dalyn has just reinforced that he should’ve been a first-round pick, he should’ve been a guy that was taken in the top-10 and I think it’s something he’s going to continue to use as motivation to prove himself for this next upcoming (2022 NHL) draft. By all accounts he’s shown that he can be a top prospect from what we’ve seen in training camp and the pre-season. What most people won’t be able to see when you’re just watching him on the ice is how good of a person he is, just the leadership role he’s taken in his first year has been impressive. He wants that role even though it is his first year and he’s a guy that I think is really going to be a leader in our dressing room and in the community.”
Dennis believes the way Wakely plays the game, “his smarts and his skill,” will translate into success for him on the ice in the OHL.
“He’s a guy that’s not afraid to go to the hard areas to get accomplished what he needs to, but he’s smart enough to know where to be at the right times. That will create scoring opportunities and with his skillset he’s able to complete those opportunities and cash them in for goals and points in a lot of different ways,” Dennis said. “Those smarts can be used in a lot of different ways throughout the game, not just in the offensive zone. He’s a 200-foot player, a guy that as he gets to know our systems and our coaching staff a little bit more I think will get better and better as the year goes on.”
There was no downtime for Wakely during the cancelled OHL season last year. He considered every day another opportunity to improve with countless hours in the gym and on the ice and felt prepared heading to training camp with the Battalion.
“I think there was a lot of gain with a year-and-a-half off of games to really focus on weaknesses and turn them into strengths,” Wakely said, adding he’s “super excited” to return to regular season action. “It’s been a long time coming and being back in the room with my teammates gets me amped up. I’m focusing on one game at a time and just enjoying every second of it as I’ve obviously missed it a ton.”
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Port Hope native Graham Dickerson, 20, was released Wednesday by the Kitchener Rangers, which had to narrow its overage players from five to three. One spot was locked up when defenceman Arber Xhekaj was returned to Kitchener after signing an entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Dickerson was a 14th round pick by the Rangers in 2017. He played one year with the junior C Port Hope Panthers and 17 games during the 2018-19 season with Whitby Fury before getting called up to play in Kitchener for the rest of the season and the 2019-20 campaign. He was not available for comment.
“Graham is a player that we would have loved to keep on our team but unfortunately with the three -overager rule we couldn’t do so,” Rangers head coach and general manager Mike McKenzie told Today’s Northumberland. “He is a great teammate, hard worker and was likely poised for a breakout season. Graham worked hard as a 14th round pick to crack our roster and we wish him nothing but the best now and in the future.”
