Soo Eagles have committed to free agent defenseman Hayden Daca, Hockey News North has confirmed.
The December, 2001 birth year skater spent the 2019-2020 season with the Elliot Lake Wildcats, who finished in last place in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
The Wildcats have since ceased operations ahead of the 2020-2021 season.
Overall, Daca performed rather well as an NOJHL rookie with lowly Elliot Lake in 2019-2020, managing five goals, eight assists, 13 points in 52 games from his blue line position.
Eagles general manager Bruno Bragagnolo said both he and head coach Doug Laprade like what they have seen of the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Daca.
“He is a player who Doug and I noticed when we played Elliot Lake last season … and we both thought that he really improved as the season went on,” Bragagnolo told Hockey News North.
“Doug just saw (Daca) at a (North American Hockey League) tryout camp of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and recommended to me that we commit to him,” Bragagnolo added.
Bragagnolo said he and Laprade also scouted Daca when the young defenseman played for the major midget Soo Indians of the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association during the 2018-2019 season.
“We are really familiar with the kid and Doug (Laprade) in particular has really done his homework on him,” Bragagnolo noted.
Randy Russon’s media career began in October, 1975 at CKCY Radio in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. He joined Sault This Week in February, 1982 and has been its primary sportswriter ever since. Besides writing for Sault This Week and Hockey News North, Russon hosts the weekly Hockey North Show on ESPN 1400 Radio.
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