Many players would be glued to the screen watching the Ontario Hockey League draft if there was even the slightest chance their name could be called.
But not Elora’s Owen MacDonald.
“I didn’t want to sit around a computer all day and wait,” the 15-year-old centre declared.
It turns out the wait would have been shorter than he anticipated. MacDonald, who expected to be drafted in the third to fifth rounds, was selected on April 7 by the London Knights with the last pick of the second round (43rd overall).
“I was never ranked that high all year … I guess I came out on top,” said MacDonald, who this year captained the minor midget AAA Guelph Jr. Storm.
He received the good News first from his mother, Vanessa, and shortly after that his phone lit up constantly, as friends and family offered their congratulations.
The Knights were among the 15 OHL teams MacDonald talked to on the phone leading up to the draft. He visited Barrie and Peterborough, as the Colts and Petes seemed most interested in him.
“We were totally shocked,” MacDonald’s mother Vanessa said of both the timing and source of her son’s selection. “It’s awesome … we’re ecstatic.”
Mother and son alike are also pleased MacDonald’s home games will be played relatively close to Elora, where he and his older brother, Shane, were first exposed to the game of hockey.
“I want to get out there, but not too far,” MacDonald said. “London’s a great city, it has great fans and it’s a great organization.”
It’s still relatively early in what MacDonald hopes will be a fruitful career in the sport he loves, but the grade 10 student at Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus does have a few goals.
He hopes to play in the OHL and get a package that will assist with post-secondary education, possibly in the health or physical education fields.
But for now MacDonald, who credits his father, Paul, with much of his success to date in hockey, is just enjoying life and the accolades that have come with his selection to the OHL.
“I’ve been congratulated so many times by friends, teachers, parents and everyone else,” he said. “Everyone’s been really good. It’s been awesome.”
