Jacob Melanson is modest as he thinks about where he will be picked in Saturday’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft on Saturday.
The 16-year-old Amherst native doesn’t want to predict how high he’ll be drafted, but is confident his name will be called sometime late in the first round or maybe early in the second.
“I would like to go as high as I can, but I think it will be late first or early second. I’ll just be happy to be drafted,” Melanson said.
Melanson arrived in Quebec City – the site of the 2019 draft – late Thursday and has a busy day ahead of him in preparation for Saturday. He’s meeting with at least four teams on Friday and then will sit in the stands at the Videotron Centre on Saturday to wait.
“I’m a little nervous, but I'm also excited. This is something I’ve worked so hard for so long to get to,” Melanson said.
He would love to be drafted by a team in the QMJHL’s Maritime division, but admitted he’d be happy with whatever team he’s picked by.
Going into the 2018-19 season Melanson was being thought of as a player that could go anywhere between the second and fourth rounds. The all-time leading scorer from the Truro Major Bantam Bearcats, Melanson turned heads in his rookie season of major midget with the Pictou County Weeks Midgets, scoring 20 goals and adding 21 assists for 41 points in 32 games.
But, it was at the Canada Games in Red Deer, Alta. that he gained ground in the eyes of scouts with his hard-hitting play that saw him score four times and add three assists for 7 points in six games for Team Nova Scotia. He also had 19 penalty minutes.
After his major midget season ended, he was picked up by the Amherst CIBC Wood Gundy Ramblers scoring a goal and two assists in the club’s last regular season game and scoring a goal against the Ottawa Junior Senators in the opening game of the Fred Page Cup in early May.
“I think it was the Canada Games that got the scouts to notice what I could do,” he said. “I play a physical style and like to throw the body, but I can also score.”
Melanson said it was a thrill to play for the Ramblers at the Amherst Stadium down the stretch, saying it’s something he hadn’t done since leaving the Cumberland County Minor Hockey Association at age 9 to play Atom AAA in Truro.
Melanson will be the first Amherst area product drafted into the QMJHL since Lucas Sangster was taken in the fifth round, 84th overall, in 2014 by the Charlottetown Islanders.
In 2011, Springhill’s Bronson Beaton was taken 23rd overall in the second round by Shawinigan. He would go on to play with Shawinigan for part of a season before being traded to Cape Breton. He also played with Acadie-Bathurst and the Moncton Wildcats before being captain of the Quebec Remparts in 2015-16.
Wes Herrett, also of Springhill, was taken in the ninth round, 158th overall, by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in 2009. He also played with the Gatineau Olympiques and the P.E.I. Rocket.
