Rock solid up in Timmins

Multiple, major acquisitions have been made to get the Timmins Rock to where it is currently at. And with the lineup seemingly set as the midway mark of the 2022-2023 regular season looms, the Rock is a solid contestant for potential glory in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.

To be sure, Rock general manager and head coach Brandon Perry has had his trader’s hat on since early in the summer when he began to orchestrate a series of moves that brought in players with junior A hockey experience. Among the prize acquisitions have been goalie Patrick Boivin from the NOJHL’s Blind River Beavers and no less than five 20-year old players who were part of a Superior International Jr. Hockey League championship team with the Red Lake Miners in the spring of 2022.

For starters, the 19-year old Boivin has been one of the better goalies in a rich net worth of NOJHL puck stoppers with a 10-4-1 record, 2.01 goals against average, .924 save percentage and three shutouts thus far this season. And Boivin has been capably backed up by 16-year old rookie Jacob Brown, who is a top goalie prospect of the Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League

And then there are the five skaters with the SIJHL championship experience from their season in Red Lake — forwards Brady Harroun, Lucas Piekarczyk and Ethan Pool and defensemen Kenyon Nyman and Brandon Rossetti.

Harroun is second in the NOJHL in scoring with 17 goals, 18 assists, 35 points while Nyman leads all defenseman in the league with seven goals, 23 assists, 30 points. Piekarczyk (in action photo above) has been prolific in his own right with nine goals, 12 assists, 21 points. Pool has just one goal, six assists, seven points but has been getting his share of scoring chances. And Rossetti — the most recent acquisition — had a goal and an assist in his Timmins debut of last week, which was a 4-2 victory over the Elliot Lake Red Wings.

Another newcomer to the Rock this season is 18-year old defenseman Tenzin Nyman, who is Kenyon’s younger brother and who made the team in training camp as a free agent walk-on from British Columbia. And more recent acquisitions by Perry and the Rock include defenseman Kyle Trottier by way of the Soo Thunderbirds and a pair of forwards obtained from Blind River in Nick Moore and Kaeden McArthur.

All of the players that Perry as the GM and coach have brought into Timmins seem to have meshed well with a returning group led by the likes of league scoring leader Nicolas Pigeon. The Rock started the season on a hot streak, went into a bit of a tailspin and has since gone 8-0-2 over its last 10 outings to regain first place in the East Division with a record of 15-5-3, albeit by a single point over both the Powassan Voodoos and Hearst Lumberjacks.

Even though the Canadian Jr. Hockey League trade deadline of early January is still a ways away, Perry has given the notion that the Rock may be done dealing, barring the unexpected.

“Let us keep getting better with these 23 guys every single day, aim to play our best hockey come playoff time and see what happens,” relayed the second year head master.

“We really like our roster right now,” Perry added. “We really like our goaltending. It is exceptional and our back end is deep and we have some really good forward skill and depth.”