The Island hockey community has become well acquainted with undersized but dynamically mobile defencemen who can move the puck, with Juan de Fuca product Tyson Barrie of the Colorado Avalanche and former Victoria Royals blue-liner Joe Hicketts the prime examples.
Both won medals with Canada at the world junior championship.
Now the ‘Next One’ is being developed in that mould. But Jacson Alexander will go a different route than the one chosen by Barrie and Hicketts through the major-junior Western Hockey League.
The five-foot-10, 175-pound blue-liner from Esquimalt was selected 16th overall in the first round of the 2016 WHL bantam draft by the Swift Current Broncos. The Shawnigan Lake School Hockey Academy prodigy has instead committed to the University of Denver Pioneers of the U.S. collegiate NCAA.
“I liked the campus, the rink, the coaches and the people. It seemed like the right place to be,” said Alexander, of his recent fly-down visit to the current NCAA No. 2-ranked Pioneers.
“I feel this is a better path for me. It gives me a longer time to develop and I get an education while I’m playing hockey. Hockey-wise and life-wise, it was the best decision for me.”
Jacson’s late dad, Darin Alexander, played in the B.C. Hockey League for the Langley Eagles before a four-season NCAA career with the University of Illinois-Chicago that concluded as captain.
“My dad did not make it to the pros, but he still had something to fall back on with his education,” said Jacson Alexander.
Darin Alexander, who died from cancer in 2014 at age 50, was a Victoria businessman who graduated with a degree in business, which is the degree Jacson also plans to pursue.
“I want that, too, just in case,” said Jacson Alexander, who came up through the Victoria and Racquet Club minor hockey programs.
Alexander was eligible to be a 16-year-old rookie next season in the WHL for the Broncos. Currently in Grade 10 at Shawnigan Lake School, he won’t start NCAA play at Denver until he is a freshman in the fall of 2020.
“I view the WHL as a sprint and the NCAA as more of a marathon,” said Alexander, who can hit, and who closes in quickly and physically on opposing forwards.
The Royals coveted Alexander as a home-Island prospect. But as the defending WHL regular-season champion, Victoria chose 22nd and last in the first round of the 2016 bantam draft, and was unable to move up to nab him.
Losing a first-round bantam draft pick leaves a major hole in the development chain of any WHL team. Swift Current is somewhat protected in this instance because it had two first-round picks this year due to a trade. But it’s still a blow to the Broncos.
“They [Broncos] were disappointed when I called them,” said Alexander.
Alexander has a goal and five assists in 10 games for Shawnigan Lake, which is 8-3-2 in the Midget Prep standings of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League. He has to decide where to play the next two seasons after this season of Midget Prep at Shawnigan and before he becomes a Denver freshman. Alexander said he is leaning toward Junior A, which should leave all the teams in the Island Division of the B.C. Hockey League salivating at the possibility of landing the potential next Barrie or Hicketts.
“I have not decided yet,” said Alexander, about his team for next season.
