NORTH BAY, ON. – The North Bay Battalion have announced the signing of goaltender Owen Loftus to an OHL Scholarship and Development Agreement.
The Battalion took Loftus of the Don Mills Flyers U16 AAA at No. 11 in the Priority Selection, held June 12-13 at Kingston’s Slush Puppie Place. In 50 games last season, Loftus posted a 2.00 goals-against average with nine shutouts and a record of 25-15-10. The Toronto resident, who’s six-foot-one and 163 pounds, turned 16 on April 29.
“I think the team’s got a really good development plan for me,” said Loftus. “I’m obviously going to do my best, and ice time’s not something that I know, right? It’s something that’ll just come from the work I do. Obviously, I have a lot of trust in this organization to be making the best development decisions for me.”
Loftus, a pianist who played at Carnegie Hall in New York City at 13, said he’s in a good spot with the depth of goaltending experience and expertise within the Battalion staff.
“One thing that really stood out to me coming to this organization is the goalie knowledge they have, and I can say probably a lot of teams don’t have this similar pedigree with goalies coming in and the staff that they have, like the knowledge,” Loftus said. “I was just talking with (Adam) Dennis before we came. We were just chatting about it. It’s a really cool experience being a goalie where, you know, not many people know too much about the position, to have a group like these guys who are just so smart, so dialled.”
