The Next Canadian Wall?

I hesitated on posting anything when the stories of her possibly being drafted to the OHL were circulating because we all know that the Old Boys' Club of hockey doesn't like anything new or different. However, the Sarnia Sting tossed the Old Boys' Club rules aside today when they selected Taya Currie 267th overall today in the 2021 OHL Priority Selection Draft to make her the first girl ever selected by an OHL team in the draft. Currie, who played for the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs, will now have a shot at making the Sting's roster in the coming seasons, and, by all accounts from OHL scouts, there's a good chance she may do that.

Let me make something very clear to anyone who is writing this off as a publicity stunt or public relations move: move along. That crap won't be tolerated here.

There are a number of good reasons why she was selected by the Sting, and all of them have to do with her talents in stopping pucks. The Sting are focused on winning an OHL championship and the Memorial Cup, not turning this young lady's career into a sideshow. Don't bother leaving those comments unless you want me to mock you incessantly for your sexism and misogyny. Are we clear? Good.

The 5'7", 140-pound, 16 year-old Currie was considered one of the best netminders in Alliance Hockey, and she's aiming to take her game to the next level in the OHL as "the goalie everyone hates to play against and loves to have on the team" as per her comments to The Canadian Press. She'll have that chance come September after the Sting chose her in the 14th round of the OHL Priority Selection Draft as the 21st goalie selected of the 25 taken by OHL teams.

"It was the athletic ability, great hands and the way she challenges the puck that drew us to her game," Dylan Seca, the Sting's general manager, told CTV News London on Tuesday as he prepared for the draft.

"I'm tipping my hand more than I would normally for anyone in this draft but there's someone that we've interviewed and the background checks are fantastic. It would not be surprising that she's gone before we even wanted to pick her ourselves."

Thankfully for Seca, Currie was still there in the 14th round after he had bolstered some key areas on his lineup, and Seca got his goaltender that he had been scouting. It had been clear that she was among the best young netminders who were eligible for the OHL Priority Selection Draft, and OHL Director of Central Scouting Darrell Woodley had noted that she was one of the best netminders he had seen play.

"Taya Currie is a very athletic goaltender," he told NHL.com. "Not the biggest goalie in the world but she makes up for it in her athleticism and quickness. She does a great job of taking away the bottom of the net with her butterfly style. She's athletic, she's known to be a good rugby player and a good soccer player and even a barrel racer. Those things prove how athletic she is. She challenges well, she moves well in her net. She's been playing with the boys at AAA since minor atom so she's been there for seven years so she's well accustomed to the speed of the game. She has no trouble keeping up or fitting in."

She's received some endorsements from people who have played the game at the highest levels as well as both Manon Rheaume and Yanic Perreault have given some words of encouragement, albeit in entirely different ways.

"'Follow your own path'" Taya Currie recalled Rhéaume telling her in a 30-minute conversation. "That's what I really took out of it."

Perreault's comments were far different, but reflected the talent and competitiveness that he saw in Currie.

"Last year, we played Chicago Mission, probably one of the best teams in North America, in the home opener of (their) tournament and I played really well. I stood on my head and (their head coach and former NHLer Yanic Perreault) said to me, 'I don’t want to play you again,'" Taya Currie recalled fondly of the compliment.

Currie will have a few decisions to make before she goes to Sarnia. If a player suits up in the OHL for a game, it makes him ineligible for the NCAA. Of course, there's never been a situation like Currie's before if she wanted to pursue the NCAA after playing in the OHL, so this could be a precendent-setting moment in hockey depending on her choices.

That being said, though, she could follow the same path as Charline Labonté who was drafted and played with the QMJHL's Acadie-Bathurst Titan before leading the McGill Marlets to U SPORTS prominence. There would likely be a lineup of suitors from the OUA and across Canada for a goaltender of Taya Currie's skillset to plat for that school, so there are all sorts of options available to Currie depending on what she wants to do with her career.

The one thing that is certain is that she'll be on the Hockey Canada radar, and that means we could be talking about the new goaltender for Canada's next generation of players for the foreseeable future. There will certainly be competition there, but as a 16 year-old, Hockey Canada would likely want to bring her in for U18 tournaments that could lead to other camps down the road.

Needless to say, Taya Currie's future is bright and the paths look long and prosperous for her whether it be in the OHL, the NCAA, or U SPORTS. What is certain is that her future wear the red-and-white with the Maple Leafs on her chest seems within reach, and her decisions with her immediate future will certainly give Canada's governing hockey body a lot to consider when it comes to the future of goaltending in their program.

Again, for those who are rolling their eyes at this article thinking that I've bought into the PR hype, consider these facts before you write Taya Currie off as "that girl who got drafted":

• Derian Hatcher is the owner of the Sarnia Sting. Yes, the same Derian Hatcher who captained the Dallas Stars and won a Stanley Cup with the Stars. Yes, the same Derian Hatcher who is Governor of the Sting and just stepped down as the head coach. If you don't think he cares about winning, I dare you to challenge him on that.
• Sting GM Dylan Seca played in the OHL for Kitchener, Niagara, and Detroit. He didn't win much as a player, but he worked as a scout under a pretty reputable guy in Nick Sinclair before taking over as the GM following Sinclair's resignation. Seca's always been thorough as a scout in finding talent, and his approach to the draft was "take the best player available." You think he'd toss that approach aside for a PR stunt?
• Taya Currie was the first goalie selected by the Sting in this draft. She was actually selected by the Sting ahead of 6'0" goaltender Antonino Rizzo who was taken one round later. Is it a PR move if you choose a player that Seca admittedly wanted ahead of a male netminder?
• As stated above, Currie was selected as the 21st netminder in the draft, two spots back of Niagara who chose goaltender Matteo Porporino and one spot ahead of Ottawa who took goaltender Mathis Mainville. Do you really believe that Sarnia would have used their pick as a "PR move" when there were still good goalies on the draft board?
• Do you feel that it was a PR move when Olympic gold medalist Charline Labonte was drafted in the 11th round of the 1999 QMJHL draft by the Acadia-Bathurst Titan? Or that it was a PR move when she went into camp and beat six other goalies for the backup netminding position in 1999-2000?

Taya Currie making the Sting next season comes down to one thing: if she can play, she can play. If she goes in claims one of the two netminding spots alongside Benjamin Gaudreau and she helps the team win, does Taya Currie being a girl matter at all? Being a woman and being an OHL goaltender can be simultaneous. That can happen at the same time. It doesn't take some "miracle" for that to occur.

Sarnia was 22-34-5-1 when the OHL season ended in 2019-20. They were 12 points back of the Soo Greyhounds and dead-last in the West Division. At this point, simply finding players who are good enough to push the Sting back into OHL Championship contention should be the priority, and it seems that GM Dylan Seca is trying to do that by selecting one of the better bantam netminders who played in Ontario in 2019-20. It doesn't matter if Taya Currie is a girl. It only matters if she can stop pucks.

Congratulations to Taya Currie on chasing her dreams in the OHL. I have a feeling it won't be the last time that you'll see her name on this blog, and that means she's doing exceptional things in a crease for a team somewhere in North America. Where the next chapter of Taya Currie's story is written is far from being determined, but it looks like it could very likely be in Sarnia. Embrace that opportunity, Sting fans!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!