The Ravens men’s hockey team has added even more major junior talent to its roster for the upcoming season with recent signings of Corey Durocher and Jake Cardwell.
Durocher, an Ottawa native, said the opportunity to continue playing hockey in his hometown is a bonus.
“I’m looking forward to being able to see my friends and family every day, and having them come watch me every day,” he said.
Durocher began his junior hockey career with the Gloucester Rangers of the Central Junior Hockey League. He then spent three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), playing with the Kingston Frontenacs and the Soo Greyhounds.
In his overage junior season, he returned to Gloucester before joining the Nepean Raiders at the trade deadline.
Ravens head coach Marty Johnston said he was impressed with Durocher’s performance with Nepean in their playoffs, where he helped the Raiders go to the finals before falling to the Cornwall Colts.
“He definitely has a lot of skills and we’re confident he’s going to have an impact,” Johnston said. “His size is something we liked, and we’re definitely going to ask him to use it.”
At 6-3, Durocher said he hopes to use his size to contribute, as well as using his experience of playing high levels of hockey.
Durocher was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the sixth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
“Having been drafted by Florida, we know he has a lot of potential,” Johnston said.
Jake Cardwell of Niagara Falls, Ont. started off with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves before being traded to the Ottawa 67’s for the next two seasons. Then, he was traded to the Belleville Bulls last year, where his team lost to the Barrie Colts in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“Ottawa is a fun city and I’ve always had a good time here,” the former 67 said .
As an offensive defenseman, Cardwell said he believes his biggest impact will be on the power-play, something Johnston agrees with.
“He will definitely have a lot of opportunities on the power-play,” Johnston said .
Having spent two years in Ottawa, the Ravens coaching staff had their eyes on Cardwell for a long time.
“We expect Cardwell will prove to be an impact player right away,” Johnston said.
Durocher said playing at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) level will be a quite a different game.
“It’s obviously a shorter season, so the games are going to be more intense,” he said. “Some of the guys are a lot bigger and stronger too.”
According to Cardwell, the biggest difference will be his time management.
“Major junior came with more rest periods,” Cardwell said. “Now I’ll have to spend more time in school and balance it out with hockey.”
Both players said they were impressed with Carleton’s season last year, and that made the decision to commit to the program was an easy one.
“They’re a great group of guys and I wanted to go to a winning team,” Cardwell said.
“They seem to be putting together a good team every year. I wanted to join a program on the up rise and Carleton sparked my interest,” Durocher said.
