Niagara North Star hopes to shine in the OHL
Icedogs select Cayuga Secondary School student with the 71st overall selection in the draft
It isn’t even training camp and Andrew Vermeulen, the only player from a team in the region taken by the Niagara Icedogs in the Ontario Hockey League draft, already has aced his first assignment as a major junior prospect.
After a season playing triple-a with the under-16 Niagara North Stars, he doesn’t need any help getting from his home in Selkirk, Ont., outside of Cayuga, to Meridian Centre in St. Catharines. The downtown arena is several blocks east of Seymour-hannah Sport and
Entertainment Centre on St. Paul Street West, the home ice of the North Stars.
Heading into the 15-round draft, the Grade 10 student at Cayuga Secondary School thought he would go anywhere from the second to the fourth round. “I talked to a few teams but it wasn’t really clear where I was going to end up,” he said after being selected in the fourth round, 71st overall. “I thought I was going to go higher but it all worked out. I’m pretty excited where I went.”
While the Icedogs are close to home, just 81.4 kilometres away, the Hamilton Bulldogs are even closer, just 63.4 kilometres down the road.
But John and Sandy Vermeulen know the route to St. Catharines by heart. They’ve been driving their son to practices and games since he was seven years old.
That Niagara finished the regular season last in the league while Hamilton placed first overall also tipped the scales in favour of the Icedogs. On a rebuilding team, the six-foot-one, 179-pound left-handed shot has the chance of getting more ice time much sooner.
“Obviously, that gives me a bit of confidence but I’m going to work as hard as I can, regardless of whether