While we're not too far away from the new hockey season and preparations are already underway, for one former Barrie Colt, the off-season is an opportunity to help others follow in his footsteps.
If you're a young hockey player trying to get noticed, the place to be is Daniel Tkaczuk’s summer hockey camp at NTR in Barrie.
There, kids’ skills stay sharp for when the big clubs come calling.
"It's not like it used to be,” he says. “Hockey never stops, all summer these kids have been staying ready and in shape.”
OHL draft picks JD Falconer and Tyler MacArthur, both minor midget Colts, are taking that next step in junior this season. And Zach Nastasiuk was picked up by the Detroit Red Wings in June. Today he's working out off the ice watching some of the younger guys chase their dreams.”
"Daniel's camp is great,” says Christian Antoski. “He's helped me work on being strong on the puck. Stickhandling is huge especially in the pro game."
James Mense-Dietrich is an Innisfil kid who's spent the last few years in Jr. C with Stayner. Now, he’s making the jump to the Kitchener Rangers and he wants to make a good first impression.
"They definitely want me to improve my lower body strength because I’m not a taller guy so being able to give through and around guys is huge in the OHL.”
What Tkaczuk is trying to do is build a hockey community for these young guys where they can learn together and grow so that one day they can get to the point where they are teaching the next generation, just as Tkaczuk’s been doing for the last 15 years.
