HERE FOR IT ALL
Kameron Kielly has been a part of the Charlottetown Islanders from their beginning
Kameron Kielly happy to have been a part of the Charlottetown Islanders from its beginning
Kameron Kielly can count the Charlottetown Islanders players and hockey staff remaining from his first year with the organization on one hand.
Daniel Sprong is the only player remaining from the 201314 roster, the original season of the rebranded Islanders franchise, while Paul Drew (goaltenders’ coach), Kevin Elliott (athletic therapist) and Andrew (Spider) MacNeill (equipment manager) remain on the staff.
“My main focus is bringing a championship to Charlottetown.”
Kielly, a Charlottetown native, has lived through the growing pains of a rebuilding franchise. He now sees the most talented roster the franchise has ever assembled following a trade period where general manager Jim Hulton and his staff traded future assets for veteran talent in hopes the players mesh into a cohesive and dangerous hockey club.
“Talent wise, it’s there on paper,” Kielly said before last weekend’s games.
“The organization, Jim and the owners, assembled a great team for us. It’s up to us now. I think the leadership group needs to come together. We’re still feeling each other out as teammates, and I think this next month and this road trip to Quebec are going to be crucial for us. I think there’s exciting things ahead.”
Kielly has had 100 teammates with the Islanders while Sprong has been the longest-serving member of the team. He was drafted on June 4, 2013, while Kielly was acquired in a trade on Aug. 19, 2013.
“We went through it together now for the last four years,” Sprong said. “My goal is to win this year, and that’s it.”
Kielly started his junior career as a 15-year-old forward with the Gatineau Olympiques after being a first-round pick at the 2012 draft. Tonight Kielly is back where his junior career began for his final regular season contest in Gatineau. Game time is 8:30 p.m. Atlantic. “It will be a fun game. It won’t be hard to get up for,” Kielly said Thursday while on the bus in Quebec.
He remembers being the fresh-faced rookie in Gatineau and then a sophomore in Charlottetown and hearing veterans telling him to enjoy the moments because a junior career goes by in the blink of an eye.
“It sounds cliché, but they’re right,” he said. “I’ve matured as a player, matured as a person and I think I’ve come a long way (towards) reaching my goals.”
Kielly said after last season he wanted to play for a winning team in his final season of junior and hoped it would happen in Charlottetown. While all players want to win, Kielly is the guy who will call the city home long after the rest of his teammates go their separate ways.
“My main focus is bringing a championship to Charlottetown,” the two-way forward said. “Not many people get the opportunity to win a championship in their hometown. Now it’s a process to get where we want to be. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we’re going to work on it.”
Kielly’s first season in Charlottetown saw the Islanders swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the defending Memorial Cup champion Halifax Mooseheads, a squad with UPEI Panthers Brent Andrews and Darcy Ashley as well as NHLers Jonathan Drouin and Nikolaj Ehlers.
“At Christmas, we traded away a ton. I kind of compare it to this year but in the opposite way,” Kielly said.
Now he is hoping to be a big part of the Islanders making a deep playoff run.
“I’m looking forward to the process and I’m all in,” Kielly said.
Charlottetown Islanders’ Kameron Kielly