OHA fills out Top Prospects team with two local blueliners
Two Belle River defencemen were named to the Ontario Hockey Association’s Top Prospects team on Tuesday.
Brendan Kennette and Logan Mailloux were named to the team, which features three forwards, two defencemen and a goaltender.
The 17-year-old Mailloux was a second-round pick by the London Knights in the 2019 OHL Draft, but spent much of the 2019-20 season playing for the junior B London Nationals.
The six-foot-three, 214-pound Mailloux topped all rookie defencemen in scoring in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Western Conference with 18 goals and 68 points in 48 games and was second in scoring among all rookies while being named the conference’s most outstanding rookie defenceman. Mailloux made his OHL debut with London on Dec. 15 in Windsor, and appeared in four games for the Knights last season.
The 17-year-old Kennette is a former ninth-round pick by the Sarnia Sting, who played for the junior A Burlington Cougars in the Ontario Junior Hockey League in 2019-20.
The six-foot-one, 190-pound Kennette won a silver medal with Canada East at the World Junior A Challenge in B.C. He was selected for the OJHL all-star prospect game and was picked to play in the Canadian Junior Hockey League prospects game.
Kennette, who had five goals and 24 points in 45 games for Burlington, has committed to play at NCAA Division I Sacred Heart University in Connecticut in 2021-22.
WEST ALABAMA CELEBRATES
The NCAA West Alabama University Tigers named its Team of the Decade baseball squad with two area players among the 18 players honoured.
Mitch Holgate, who played for the Tigers from 2013 to 2016, was named the third baseman of the decade. He was the Gulf South Conference freshman of the year in 2013 and was named ALL-GSC three times. Holgate is the only player in school history to hit for the cycle and finished with a .335 batting average in 195 career games.
Also named to the team was outfielder Brian Simone, who is an Amherstburg native that played for the Tigers 2008-11.
Simone hit .360 as a redshirt freshman and finished with a career .356 batting average. He topped the team in average twice. He was also named ALL-GSC three times while also earning all region honours in 2011, and was selected to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-canadian College team in 2010.
GURSOY TO RYERSON
After three seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Lasalle’s Kevin Gursoy is heading back to Ontario to play at Ryerson University.
Gursoy, 20, split last season between the Charlottetown Islanders and Halifax Mooseheads and had a combined 24 goals and 56 points in 65 games. The five-foot-11, 176-pound winger also spent time with the Saint John Sea Dogs.