{"id":22650,"date":"2019-01-11T19:32:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T00:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22650"},"modified":"2019-01-11T19:32:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T00:32:36","slug":"former-express-saint-earns-high-draft-praise-after-bronze-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/former-express-saint-earns-high-draft-praise-after-bronze-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Express, Saint earns high draft praise after bronze win"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Alex Newhook has come a long way since his time on the rock.
\nThe seventeen-year old centre has seen his name rise to the top of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft rankings over the past two seasons, now with the BCHL\u2019s Victoria Grizzlies after a three-year stint between the York-Simcoe Express minor program and the St. Andrew\u2019s Saints varsity hockey team.
\nEarning a bronze medal with Team Canada West at December\u2019s World Junior A Challenge in Alberta certainly helped: he posted four assists in the tournament for the red and white, who defeated Czech Republic 3 \u2013 1 in the bronze medal match.
\nIt was a step in proving he was heading in the right direction, after being a late cut to the Under-18 team just a few months prior.
\n\u201cGoing into a camp like that, all that\u2019s really on your mind is making that team,\u201d said Newhook. \u201cIf you don\u2019t do that, it\u2019s motivation. Proving them wrong is something anyone wants to do when they don\u2019t make a team. So, for me, keeping it in the back of my head at all times as motivation is what I had to do.\u201d
\nAfter putting up close to two points a game in his hometown St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland AAA program at the age of fourteen, Newhook moved to Ontario and got his feet wet in skating with the Saints program, before leading the Express Minor Midget AAA team in scoring in 2016-17 with a whopping 74 points in 33 games.
\n\u201cPlaying at home and going up through the ranks there was great, and I loved it,\u201d he says, \u201cbut for me, at that time, I just needed better competition and more exposure, and going to Ontario was a good fit for me.\u201d
\nSkating in one game with the Aurora Tigers as well that season, something quite rare for a player just turned sixteen, Newhook made the decision to head west to the Grizzlies program.
\n\u201cI was looking at options to stay in Canada, and the B.C. Hockey League is obviously a great option,\u201d said Newhook. \u201cIt\u2019s looked at as probably the best Junior A league in Canada and maybe North America, so, to go out there and be in Victoria, it\u2019s a great city and a great organization. It\u2019s great to be there, and I\u2019m happy with my decision.\u201d
\nIt is precisely these efforts that has risen his prospective ranking to an \u2018A\u2019 by NHL Central Scouting.
\n\u201cIn your draft year, you\u2019re going to have eyes on you no matter where you are or no matter what\u2019s going on,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to get better every day, every week and not really worry about what other people think or what other people are seeing \u2013 that\u2019s what I\u2019m focusing on.\u201d
\nHe said seeing his name among those at the top of the ranks is \u201cpretty special.\u201d
\n\u201cTo stay amongst those guys and stay atop of that class is definitely motivational, but it\u2019s something you can\u2019t really worry about too much at this point.\u201d
\nHe is already committed to play NCAA hockey with the prestigious Boston University program next season, a commitment he made at the young age of fifteen.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Newhook has come a long way since his time on the rock.
\nThe seventeen-year old centre has seen his name rise to the top of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft rankings over the past two seasons, now with the BCHL\u2019s Victoria Grizzlies after a three-year stint between the York-Simcoe Express minor program and the St. Andrew\u2019s Saints varsity hockey team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22650","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\/2019\/01\/2019-01-10-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Tk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 23:01:38","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\/22650","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=22650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}