Kyle Jackson "Jacked" about his chances with Troops

Hockey has seemingly become a 12-month sport. You have your regular seasons, playoffs, summer leagues, ball hockey, and of course workouts. When it comes to OHL hockey, it almost seems as if the season doesn’t stop. Sure the playoffs wrap up sometime between the end of March and mid-May before the Memorial Cup, but most teams hold development camps in May to integrate their new draft picks with some returning prospects.

The North Bay Battalion held their camp May 25 and 26, but one face was missing. The face of Kyle Jackson.

To buck the trend, the rumour was Jackson was told to stay home due to the amount of hockey he had played throughout the Central Canada Hockey League’s (CCHL) season and playoffs, not to mention a 12 game stint in the OHL with the Troops.

All that hockey certainly paid off as Kyle posted 24 goals and 30 assists for 54 points in 51 games for the Ottawa Jr Senators, good for rookie of the year award. He also added 2 goals and an assist in the 12 games with the Battalion.

He also won a CCHL title and played in the Canadian Junior 'A' Hockey championship (formerly the RBC Cup) in Brooks, Alberta back in May. 

“It was an unbelievable year I think,” Jackson said through a phone interview.

“Picking Ottawa to play my first year of junior hockey was a great decision. The team has a great coaching staff, players, my linemates throughout the year were really good with me. Winning rookie of the year was a great feeling and keeping the momentum going throughout the playoffs and winning the Bogart Cup was something I will never forget.”

Winning a championship and being a part of a winning culture is always a major plus for a player. 

The Troops are hoping Jackson's on-ice success in the CCHL translates in a winning way to the OHL. 

“Winning is obviously good for myself in development, to carry that on to the OHL would be something that I would love to have.” Jackson continued.

“As I get older and more experience in the league, I will be able to bring that to the Battalion and I know we have big goals for the future in North Bay and I am excited for that.”

“The CCHL is a very good league and when Kyle went down there he played big minutes and was in every situation,” Battalion Assistant GM/Assistant Coach Adam Dennis said.

“To put up the numbers that he did in a league like that, it is no small feat. It gives us a lot of high hopes for what he can do in our league.”

The trajectory of Kyle Jackson can remind some of the current Battalion (and overager for the upcoming 2019/2020 season) Brad Chenier.

Chenier came up for a nine-game stint in 2015/16 and looked strong. However, over the next two seasons, there were some growing pains with Chenier’s game before he took off for 65 points in 61 games played this past season.

Long story short, the OHL is a tough league to crack and contribute in regularly, but the Battalion believe Jackson can do it.

“What stood out with Kyle is that he is no ordinary 16-year-old," noted Dennis.  

"He was able to jump in and not miss a beat with his linemates. He’s a very smart player, very good with the puck and a smooth skater. He just oozes hockey IQ.” 

So what goes into the factor of not breaking camp with Jackson at the start of last season?

“There are a lot of factors that go into it,” Adam said when asked on the subject.

“There are conversations with Kyle and his family on what is going to be best. He has a late birthday and for a 16-year-old, grade 11 is a big year for school. When you’re a skilled player, sometimes the thought process is you want to play on all the special team moments. With Ottawa, Kyle was able to play on the first line, the powerplay, play penalty kill minutes and play with older players. With us, it probably wouldn’t have been able to happen at that same pace but he was able to get those minutes. Obviously, going into the playoffs and playing those minutes he was able to lead his team to a championship and we hope that experience is going to pay dividends for us moving forward.”

Jackson was pretty blunt about how he felt about being sent down to junior 'A'. 

“After the development camp last year, there was some disappointment,” Jackson said.

“They didn’t say much to me, but I also knew that I didn’t have the best off-ice scores and that I didn’t play my best so I trained hard in the off-season and had a really good main camp with them and that’s why they signed me. I think they had their lineup set, however, and being a late birthday I had already signed with Ottawa at that time," added Jackson.  

"Doing Junior “A” and still having two years in the OHL would be great for my career. I think I was a little disappointed not being able to play right away but it ended up working out great and I am happy with the decision.”

With the end of every season in Major Junior hockey, there is always turnover.

That, coupled with the Battalion brass' outlook on Jackson, it’s easy to envision him in green this season and Kyle is certainly confident in his abilities while remaining humble about the opportunity.

“You can’t think that you are just on the team,” Jackson admitted. 

“You have to prove yourself to the coaches so they can make it easier to pick you. I also think that after this year, knowing that they called me up for 12 games, I don’t think there is much pressure coming into main camp. I just need to do what I do best and if I continue to work hard this summer, I don’t think there will be much pressure for me to crack the lineup.

But the Battalion is optimistic he will have a role in 2019-20. 

“We certainly have high hopes for him and it was tempting to bring him up for the whole season last year. I would expect he has a very good chance to crack the lineup and contribute this year,” Dennis stated.

If that is any indicator, Jackson will look to repeat as “Rookie of the Year”, only in a different league.

That would certainly be a feather in his cap and put some smiles on the face of fans, and those with the Troops who selected him in the third round of the 2018 OHL Priority Selection.