Estrien's Jacob Dion will play his first professional hockey game tonight. He'll be in Pascal Vincent's lineup when the Laval Rocket open their regular season in Winnipeg against the Manitoba Moose.
“I want to take my chance and demonstrate that I have a place here to stay for the whole year,” the 23-year-old said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles on the eve of the first match of the regular calendar of the Montreal Canadiens farm club.
On Tuesday, Dion signed a trial contract with the Rocket. “Like me, my partner and his sister, we are very proud to have him there,” commented his father Stefan upon learning his son would be in the squad on Friday night. We can’t wait to see how he does at such a high level.”
The young man's journey from Stoke to Estrie is unusual. After his first season with the Cantoniers Magog, he was not drafted into the QMJHL. And despite the success he had with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, he was ignored by every National League team. So he turned to university hockey in Moncton, where he earned a bachelor's degree in criminology: “I had some disappointments, I know what that is, but I always kept moving forward. I think it was the fact that I never gave up that allowed me to get here.”
“Some are on the highway and others are on the gravel road. That’s what Jacob did and he managed to get into the American League, I’m very happy for him,” comments Steve Hartley, who managed Jacob in the Voltigeurs. There is a place for small attacking defensemen like him in modern hockey and Jacob will have to take advantage of the opportunity that comes his way, just like he did with us in Drummondville.
