Dante Spagnuolo (OJHL Images)  has definitely learned how to adapt in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

Well enough this season to be voted the OJHL’s most improved player.

The Newmarket resident totaled 89 points (third highest in the 22-team league) in his second season with the regular-season champion Toronto Patriots – up from 36 last year. His 66 assists were tied for tops in the OJHL, with teammate Oliver Benwell.

New head coach John Dean, who returned to the OJHL from North Bay of the Ontario Hockey League, may have had something to do with the jump.

“I think you’re a centreman; work with me,” Patriots general manager Mark Joslin recalls Dean telling Spagnuolo last fall.

Spagnuolo had moved over to the wing in major peewee and never looked back at the centre ice dot – until this year.

“It was a bit of an adjustment, but it was for the best,” he said. “I have to give Deaner and my linemates a lot of credit for this.”

With wingers Colton Kalezic and Brett Bannister, they’ve given Dean a choice between “1A and 1B first lines” every night, said Joslin, the OJHL executive of the year. League scoring champion Anthony Petrucci leads the other unit.

More adaptation?

Spagnuolo committed to play Jr. A for the Trenton Golden Hawks midway through his second season of AAA midget with the Richmond Hill Coyotes.

But he’d only play one game in Trenton before being shipped to the Patriots at the beginning of the 2016-17 season.

“I was a little shocked at first; I didn’t know it was happening,” he said. “And I was going from the Dudley-Hewitt Cup hosts to an unknown in the Patriots. But I was able to take the positives out of it and get lots of ice time last year. Everything happens for a reason.”

Joslin called the multi-player deal to get Spagnuolo “a no-brainer”.  Dean and Joslin knew him well after coaching his team in summer hockey. And Joslin’s son, Brett, gave him high marks after coaching him during those two major midget years.

Undrafted by OHL teams after his minor midget season with the York Simcoe Express, Spagnuolo attended a Peterborough Petes development camp before turning down a main camp offer from the Barrie Colts.

He was at rookie camps with the Aurora Tigers and Newmarket Hurricanes of the OJHL but never invited to their main camps.

So he developed at the midget level.

His Patriots were in the national top 20 rankings most of the season. After dispatching the Orangeville Flyers and Oakville Blades, they begin their OJHL semifinal series at home tonight with the Georgetown Raiders. Aurora and the Wellington Dukes are playing in the other conference championship.

Spagnuolo committed to NCAA Division 1 Mercyhurst for the 2019 earlier this season. Vermont also made him an offer. The bad news for OJHL opponents is that he’ll be back with the Patriots next season.

“Dante was a little bit devastated when we traded for him,” recalls Joslin. ”I told him, ‘be patient, stay focused, work hard ­­– and good things will happen’.”

True enough.

Brett Ouderkirk of the Markham Royals was voted runner-up as most improved. The native of the Cornwall-area community of Monkland boosted his OJHL point total from 27 in 2016-17 to 70 this year, both in Markham. Before joining the Royals, Ouderkirk played in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League for the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, Iroquois Falls Eskis and Mattawa Blackhawks.

Article courtesy OJHL website