Yorkton Hyundai Terriers netminder Ryan Ouellette has garnered national attention.
The 19-year-old goalie is one of two SJHLers selected to play in the CJHL Top Prospects Game on Jan. 14 at the Dave Andreychuk Arena in Hamilton. The other SJHL player headed to the national event which was hosted in its inaugural year 2005 in Yorkton is Kindersley Klippers defenceman Mac Gross.
Ouellette has been the top goalie in the SJHL since his return from the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness earlier this season and has posted a 13-2-and-1 record with a 2.05-GAA and a .945-save percentage.
“It’s awesome,” said Ouellette of the selection, adding that being releases from Minnesota has ultimately been a good thing.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” he told Yorkton This Week, “and this has worked out for the best for me.”
Ouellette said the selection came as a surprise.
“Honestly it came out of nowhere,” he said, explaining he received telephone call where he was told he was headed to the national event.
The selection of course is one Ouellette recognizes as a big opportunity.
“This is awesome just being recognizes as one of the top goalies in Junior ‘A’. It’s really special to me,” he said.
The selection was also big for Ouellette’s father.
“My dad was really pumped. He was so happy for me, that was great to see him so happy too,” he said.
While Ouellette has Terrier games to play before heading east, he admitted the all-star game “will definitely be in the back of my mind.”
That said, Ouellette said his first priority is the Terriers.
“I just want to focus on the Terriers, one game at a time,” he said, adding first and foremost “I just want to try and help my team win no matter what it takes.”
For Ouellette that meaning get on the ice and just reacting to what is happening.
“If I think too much about things ... I get in my own head too much,” he said, adding he feels his greatest attribute as a netminder is keeping cool no matter the situation. “Probably my greatest strength is staying calm. It’s a good trait because it keeps the team calm in front of me too.”
Ouellette’s calm demeanor seemed to fully emerge in the SJHL playoffs last spring.
In the playoffs with the Terriers he led them to a quarter-final upset over the Nipawin Hawks and then kept the team close against Battlefords with SJHL Playoff MVP Joel Grzybowski in their net. Ouellette allowed just two goals on 83-shots in games two and three as the Terriers eventually bowed out to the eventual Canalta Cup winners.
“That really boosted my confidence, really boosted my play,” he said.
And Ouellette wants to play, every game if he could.
“I love to play. I love to make saves,” he said. “And, I love winning more than anything.”
Ouellette hopes his run with the Terriers, and now his national exposure, will draw him attention from American college scouts.
“I really want to play NCAA Division I,” he said. “... I want to go to school and play.”
That path may be made easier since Ouellette is American. He was born in San Antonio, but moved around a lot as a youngster with parents in the military.
Ouellette’s interest in hockey comes from his mother, a big Buffalo Sabres fan. For a young Ryan the fact that he had the same first name as then Sabre netminder Ryan Miller attracted him to want to play goal.
When they moved to Colorado when Ouellette was six he began in earnest to pursue hockey.
