20 goals for Tyson Doucette
It is a milestone attainment for a player who was never drafted into the Ontario Hockey League only to in due course make it as an improbable long shot by way of a free agent tryout.
Tyson Doucette, formerly of the Soo Jr. Greyhounds of the Great North Under 18 Hockey League and the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, has become a go-to performer for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting as a 2004 birth year forward.
Doucette leads Sarnia in goals with 20 and is second on the Sting in points with 38. Sarnia is currently chasing the Flint Firebirds for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference of the OHL. The Sting is on a three game northern road trip that takes it to North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie this week. The road swing ends with a Sunday afternoon game against the Soo Greyhounds at GFL Memorial Gardens.
Doucette, who made Sarnia as a free agent walk on last season, scored only four goals in 58 games as an OHL rookie with the Sting in 2022-2023. But his breakout season as a second year skater in the OHL comes as little surprise to those who have closely followed the late growing youngster since his minor hockey days in Sault Ste. Marie.
Doucette looms as a top candidate to return to Sarnia as an overage player next season. Doucette, while slightly built, has skill, speed and smarts with a hockey IQ that is off the charts.