{"id":16991,"date":"2017-04-12T16:26:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T20:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16991"},"modified":"2017-04-19T16:56:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T20:56:58","slug":"melconian-named-ojhl-rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/melconian-named-ojhl-rookie-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Melconian named OJHL Rookie of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Magnificent Mel is leaving one more lasting impression on the Aurora Tigers franchise.
\nFor the second time in the Junior A club\u2019s history, a Tiger has been named the Ontario Junior Hockey League\u2019s Rookie of the Year, with centreman Mel Melconian taking home the honours.
\nMelconian was one of few lights in an otherwise dark and dreary season for the Tigers, who failed to make the postseason for the first time since 2011.
\nIn 51 games in a Tigers\u2019 uniform, Melconian was able to put up 29 goals and 30 assists, leading the team in both categories. He also led the team in powerplay goals with six.
\nStemming from a stellar career in the AA system of the Mississauga Braves organization, he swiftly moved up the AAA ranks two seasons ago before impressing Tigers brass at camp. There he established himself as the team\u2019s top centre, combining with winger Eric Holland to often form a lethal offensive combination.
\nBy December he was headed to Cornwall, Ontario for the 2016 Eastern Canada Cup All-Star Challenge, lacing up as a member of Team Hawerchuk. He then earned a spot on Team East in the annual CJHL Prospects game.
\nFar above and beyond all other OJHL rookies in scoring, he landed among the top twenty-five scorers league-wide by the end of the year.
\nScoring points in 39 of the 51 games he played this season, Melconian said perhaps his most impressive moment on the ice was earning his first junior level hat trick in mid-January against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens.
\nMelconian joins 2014-15\u2019s Cameron Morrison as the second Tiger to win the illustrious award, now playing with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and a second-round pick of the NHL\u2019s Colorado Avalanche last year.
\nWith a season of Junior A hockey under his belt, Melconian is continuing his career next season with the Sacred Heart University Pioneers of the NCAA\u2019s top collegiate division, saying he is \u201cvery excited to start the next step of my career.\u201d
\n The Pioneers, members of the Division 1 Atlantic Hockey, have a long history of drawing from the OJHL, with eleven former players on the roster. Melconian joins Kory Kennedy as the second Tiger alumnus to suit up for the Pioneers, with Kennedy entering his senior season after three stellar years with the Tigers between 2011 – 2014.
\nWith recruiting season underway, no other Tigers have yet made a commitment announcement.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magnificent Mel is leaving one more lasting impression on the Aurora Tigers franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017-04-12-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4q3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 16:46:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}