The pipeline between Stanstead College boarding school in south-eastern Quebec and the Victoria Grizzlies continues to flow.
For the third year in a row, Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon has dipped into the Stanstead College Spartans hockey program, and, after hitting home runs with his first two Stanstead recruits 鈥� Nashville Predators draft pick Alex Campbell in 2018 and big winger Andrew Amousse who had an impressive rookie sa国际传媒 Hockey League campaign last season with 13 goals in 51 games 鈥� who can blame him.
Devon de Vries is the latest Stanstead star to come west, and he too, has an impressive resum茅. The 18-year-old de Vries captained the Spartans last season while racking up 35 goals and 46 assists for 81 points in 58 games.
And now the 5-foot-10, 175-pound centre is looking forward to making the jump to the BCHL, and he鈥檚 got a couple of buddies to help ease the transition.
鈥淚鈥檓 good friends with Andrew and [Grizzlies defenceman] Isack [Bandu], we played together growing up,鈥� said de Vries, who, like Amousse and Bandu, hails from Quebec and speaks fluent French after growing up in St.-Lazare, just west of Montreal.
鈥淎nd when I came out to visit Victoria about a month ago, I fell in love with the city and the beaches and surroundings so I鈥檓 really excited to get things started with the Grizzlies.鈥�
Didmon鈥檚 2020-21 Grizzlies will be minus high-scoring forwards Marty Westhaver and Henri Schreifels as the two graduate to the NCAA and the University of Alabama-Huntsville and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively. So the addition of de聽Vries brings more youth, speed and skill to Victoria鈥檚 lineup.
鈥淗e鈥檚 another of the good, strong first-year forwards we have coming in who has a history of putting up strong offensive numbers at each level he鈥檚 played,鈥� said Didmon.
鈥淗e鈥檚 also a right-handed shot, which we need, and we expect him to be around for at least a couple of seasons and help our club a great deal.鈥�
As he comes to sa国际传媒 looking to chase down an NCAA scholarship himself, de Vries, like everyone else, has been holed up in his house thanks to social-distancing.
鈥淵a, it has been tough,鈥� he said. 鈥淟uckily I have a lot of gym equipment at home and can do some pretty good workouts here, but hopefully all this doesn鈥檛 last too much longer.鈥�
Meanwhile, Didmon was also busy adding to the Grizzlies鈥� blue line.
Defenceman Aleksa Babic will be in training camp after agreeing to come west from the Chatham Maroons of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Babic, who hails from Tecumseh, Ont., and turns 18 in August, is 6-foot-1, 175 pounds and had three goals and 21 assists in 49 games last season for Chatham.
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