When it comes to draft eligible players from the 2018-2019 Ontario Hockey League season, most of the attention will be focused around Ryan Suzuki of the Barrie Colts and Arthur Kaliyev of the Hamilton Bulldogs, and rightfully so.
Unless you are the most ardent follower, then a young netminder from the Peterborough Petes being named our draft eligible player of the month may come as a surprise to you. That young netminder is none other than Hunter Jones.
Don’t be fooled by his 6-5-0 record during the month of October. The Petes have suffered through some key injuries and had it not been for Jones, that record could have been worse. In those eleven contests in October, Jones posted a remarkable .939 save percentage.
As of today, no goaltender has played more minutes then Jones (897) including some seasoned veterans: Jacob Ingham (780), Cedrick Andree (755), Matthew Villalta (719) and Michael DiPietro (641). Jones has also faced more rubber (527) then any other goaltender, 127 more then Ingham and stopped more shots (491), 130 more then Stephen Dhillon of the Niagara Ice Dogs.
Jones currently sits forth in goals against average among goaltenders with four or more starts with a 2.41 goals-against average. He currently sits second in save percentage at .931.
Jones was the OHL goaltender of the week and runner up to the CHL goaltender of the week for the week of October 8-14 – he was both the OHL and CHL goaltender of the week on opening week.
His performance earned him an invitation to participate for Team OHL in the upcoming Canada-Russia Super Series, a precursor to the World Junior Championships.
Also considered were Suzuki, who posted 2 goals and 11 assists in 9 games, Kaliyev and his 7 goals and 4 assists in 11 games and Cole MacKay of the Soo Greyhounds who recorded 2 goals and 10 assists in 11 games.
OHL Writers 
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