Thomas Freel named 2018-19 CCHL2 Prospect of the Year

Photo: Icelevel.com | Graphic: Mark Kelly

By: Dante De Caria

Ottawa, Ontario – The Central Canada Hockey League Tier 2 is proud to announce that Ottawa Jr. Canadians ’01 born forward Thomas Freel is the winner of the 2018-19 CCHL2 Prospect of the Year award.

Freel, 17, becomes the third player in CCHL2 history to win both the Rookie of the Year and the Prospect of the Year award in the same season after Ryland Mosley won both last year (Carleton Place) and Oliver Casselman (Casselman Vikings) captured the feat in 2015-16.

The Ottawa native led all CCHL2 rookies in points (59), assists (35), PPG (1.34) and ranked third in goals (24) while playing in all 44-games this season. Among all CCHL2 leaders, he ranked 8th in scoring, assists and 11th in goals.

Ottawa Jr. Senators Head Coach Martin Dagenais is proud of Freel’s development at the CCHL2 level and is excited to see what he will bring to their roster next season as an 18-year-old.

“We’re happy to hear that Thomas (Freel) was the recipient of two league awards in the CCHL2.  It’s fully deserved. He has progressed so much this season playing with the Ottawa Jr. Canadians. They are using him in every situation, and you can see that he’s playing with a ton of confidence right now. He’s also been great in the games that he’s played with our team so we’re definitively looking forward to see what he’ll bring to our team next season as a full time member.”

Freel passes former top rookies Nicholas Domitrovic and Oliver Casselman for points in the season with 59-points. He is third behind Ryland Mosley (88-points) and Reece Bolton (76-points) who set those records last season.

Freel won the Prospect of the Year fan vote yesterday.

Ottawa Jr. Canadians Assistant Coach Stuart Battrick, who is also the Video Coach for the Ottawa Jr. Senators says that his work ethic will help make the transition to Jr. A easy next season.

It’s safe to say that I have seen more of Freel then I have of any other player this year. With him being a part of both OJC and OJS I see him on the ice 3 to 6 days a week,” said Battrick. It’s his work ethic that makes the transition seamless. He has amazing work habits in practice and I hope that he continues to strive to be the hardest working player on the ice. He makes all the players around him better and if the trend continues, he’ll be winning battles at higher levels for years to come.”

The Ottawa Jr. Canadians finished the regular season 39-4-1 and will either face Alexandria or Char-Lan in the Barkley Cup Quarter Finals in two weeks.