Local hockey phemon Dillon Dubé is multi-tasking at the next level.
In his first full season with the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets, he’s joining Team Canada’s under-17-year-old (U17) White team for the World U17 Hockey Challenge in November.
The 16-year-old Cochrane Minor Hockey product who played for Notre Dame Midget AAA Hockey Hounds last season in Saskatchewan is in Kelowna now. Nursing a lower-body injury suffered in recent practice, he travelled with the team on its Oct. 3-5 weekend road trip to Washington where Rockets defeated Everett 5-4 and Seattle 6-4.
While Rockets head coach Dan Lambert hasn’t had his prodigious forward over the boards this season, he’s looking forward to Dubé’s return to playing health within the week.
“Absolutely,” Lambert enthuses of the 5-foot-10, 175-pound sniper. “We feel even though he’s 16 – we understand that 16 year olds have their growing pains – but certainly we do expect him to be able to play some minutes for us, and some valuable minutes as well.”
Kelowna’s head coach admires the way Dubé plays.
“The one thing I love about Dillon is his competitiveness,” Lambert observes. “He’s got fire in his belly. He’s a kid who does play with passion.
“Obviously his skillset is really good. And he’s a great skater.”
All these tools have Dubé on a steep, upward trajectory. He plays for Canada at the World U17 Hockey Challenge next month in Sarnia, Ont., one of 66 players chosen Oct. 2 for three Canadian teams playing against teams from United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and Slovakia.
“It’s an honour,” Dubé says of wearing Canada’s national hockey sweater for the first time in his young career. “I was lucky enough they took me because with my injury they (Team Canada) hadn’t seen me play in the Western League yet. My coach had quite a bit of input on that too, so it helped me out a lot.”
He did enough at the August national U17 development camp in Calgary to put himself in the position to earn a Team Canada sweater.
“I was pretty happy when I got the news. It was so surreal when I found out. It’s a dream to wear that jersey. It’s awesome. With all the fans wearing the Canada jersey, knowing you’re wearing it.
“It will be really cool.”
Even more cool at the next level.
