The Haliburton County Huskies have been recognized as one of the country’s top dogs when it comes to hockey, placing 14th overall on the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s (CJHL) weekly power rankings.
The franchise cracked the latest list, published Oct. 14, amid an eight-game winning streak stretching back to midSeptember. The team’s crowning moment came this past weekend, when they defeated the Trenton Golden Hawks 5-4 at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena. The Hawks have been a staple of the rankings all season, currently sitting fifth.
Huskies owner Paul Wilson was enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving Monday when his phone pinged mid-morning breaking the news.
“I’m thrilled we’re putting Haliburton County on the map. To see a community with the smallest population base of all the Jr. A teams in Canada make it into the top 20, it’s a pretty incredible thing,” Wilson told The Highlander.
Team putting Haliburton County on hockey map
The blue and white are currently second in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s East Conference, with 10 wins and three losses. They trail the Hawks by two points heading into a pivotal week, where they’ll play three times in four days.
They’ll do so with the league’s most in-form player in the line-up. Twenty-yearold centreman Nathan Poole has enjoyed a productive start with the Huskies, putting up 27 points in 12 games. He was the league leader heading into the Thanksgiving break, averaging 2.25 points per game.
Wilson said the Huskies were lucky to have Poole, who joined in the summer following three years with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs.
“He’s the best player in the league in my opinion,” Wilson said.
This marks the second time the franchise has been featured on the CJHL list since it relocated from Whitby in 2021. The Huskies debuted at 12th place in the Nov. 7, 2022 rankings, maintaining a spot for 12 weeks.
Wilson said he came into this season expecting an on-the-fly rebuild, with several of the team’s top stars aging out after the 2023/24 season. But head coach and general manager, Ryan Ramsay, had other ideas.
“Ryan deserves a lot of credit. He said to me this year [heading into pre-season] ‘our team’s better’ and I didn’t think it was as good as last year. He just told me to wait and see,” Wilson said, chuckling. “We have nine 17-year-olds who are all really producing. We’ve got the second youngest team in the league, so to see us doing so well is a testament to Ryan and his coaching staff.”
There’s still room for improvement, Wilson said – the Huskies have two maxage spots open and intend to fill them.
Ramsay said he was proud to be recognized on the CJHL list. He seconded Wilson’s claim that it helps to put Haliburton County on the hockey map.
“I’ve heard jokes before, other teams and people saying things like ‘where’s Haliburton?’, so this is really important. It recognizes the work our players, coaches, all our staff and volunteers put in to make this work.
“We’re a good hockey team. There’s lots of franchises that have never been in the top 20 ever in their history, so the fact that in our first four seasons here we’re already in the top 20 twice, that’s something special for the whole organization and for the whole County.”
