Top 5 This Week

More articles

Wiikwemkoong’s Jack Nesbitt Pick No. 12by Philadelphia in NHL’s first round draft

WIIKWEMKOONG—Jack Nesbitt, a Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory band member has been drafted by the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers. Philadelphia obviously thought very highly of Mr. Nesbitt, trading its 22 and 31 picks to move up in the draft and take the Windsor Spitfires centre in the NHL hockey draft held Friday. He was the 12th pick overall in the first round of the draft.

“He looks like a Flyer to me,” Flyers president Keith Jones told ESPN after drafting Mr. Nesbitt. “We’re fired up about it. We love the way he plays the game (with grit) and he’s got some high-end skills to go with that and we think he’s just going to develop into an outstanding player for us.”

“We try not to show our hand and didn’t want anybody to know, but you were our guy all along,” stated Flyers general manager Daniel Briere on the national broadcast of the draft. “This is really, really exciting for us,” he told the 18-year-old Nesbitt.

The 6’5” centre was one of the most improved players in the OHL this past season. He celebrated his Indigenous heritage (his mother is from Wiikwemkoong) as a member of Wiikwemkoong at his recent high school graduation. He told the Sarnia Star that, “I think I’m around 50 percent Indigenous. It’s pretty important to me. At graduation, they let my grandma give me my diploma and a blanket.”
Mr. Nesbitt struggled in his OHL rookie season with the Windsor Spitfires recording 18 points in 58 games. He told the Windsor Star he had wondered at the time if he should ask for a trade. However, after notching 64 points in 65 games this past season he was voted the OHL’s most improved player in the Western Conference by the league’s coaches.

Mr. Nesbitt said on the national broadcast of the draft, “It’s very exciting, and I feel very honoured to have that opportunity. I’m just excited to get going.”

Article written by

Expositor Staff
Expositor Staffhttps://www.manitoulin.com
Published online by The Manitoulin Expositor web staff