The Ravens men’s hockey team has added yet another highly revered junior hockey name to head coach Marty Johnston’s incoming freshman class.
Forward Brett Welychka comes to the Carleton after a four year Ontario Hockey League (OHL) career with the London Knights and Belleville Bulls.
The 5’11” pivot is the eleventh addition to the team this summer, but Johnston said Welychka is a player he has been trying to get for a long time.
“Recruiting season for men’s hockey starts December 1. We were playing that night, but I was in Belleville the next night to have dinner with him and (fellow Raven addition) Brett Gustavsen,” Johnston said. “He was our first meeting. We thought that he was that important that we wanted to pursue him right away. We think he’s going to come in and replace some of the goals we lost with our veterans.”
Welychka said he wasn’t playing hard-to-get with Johnston, but rather trying to see if there were any professional teams interested.
“I didn’t commit to Carleton until late, but I was always talking to Marty. I was trying to find an AHL job,” Welychka said. “I figured I should start in school and did some research, and [Johnston], the team, the city and the pro atmosphere seemed like the best fit.”
Welychka put up 64 goals and 148 points in his OHL tenure, primarily with his hometown Knights.
With London, Welychka won three straight league titles and skated in two MasterCard Memorial Cups.
In his last season of eligibility, Welychka was traded to Belleville, a team also in its last days in the OHL.
Despite being in Belleville for 34 years, the Bulls were sold and moved to Hamilton for the upcoming year.
“Getting traded to Belleville was a choice that me and management really thought was a good fit and they tried to send me to the best place possible,” Welychka said.
When Bulls captain Jake Marchment was handed a 15 game suspension in November for violating league social media policy, Welychka was given the “C” for the rest of the year and the rest of the Bulls existence.
“It was pretty easy for George [Burnett, Belleville’s coach and General Manager] to put the letter on my chest, I was the oldest guy,” Welychka said. “It was humbling for sure and the fans were absolutely great about it.”
Welychka said the experience in Belleville allowed him to focus more on being more defensively responsible and being a leader, something his coach likes in the 21-year-old.
“Guys come in and you want them to have the qualities to belong at Carleton. He’s got a great pedigree,” Johnston said.
Despite only being a Raven for a short amount of time, Welychka said it hasn’t taken him long to understand what it takes to don the black and red.
He is joining a team that bowed out to the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in the Ontario University Athletics East semi-finals last year.
“I think if I can play well, I’ll put up some pretty good numbers. We’ve been chatting around the room about this being our year, but it always comes down to us,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious we want to win, you can see it on the guys’ faces. They’re thinking revenge when they step on the ice.”
Ravens fans can watch Welychka and the rest of Johnston’s new players hit the ice at the Ice House on Oct. 10 versus McGill.
