Wildcats defenceman earns mid-season rookie honour

By Neil Hodge/Times & Transcript

MONCTON -- Daniel Milan is in elite company.

The 18-year-old defenceman was honoured yesterday as the Moncton Wildcats' RDS mid-season rookie award winner. The television network recognized the top rookie in the opening half of the season for each of the 18 clubs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

"It's obviously a great honour to be picked as the rookie for Moncton," said Milan. "It's definitely a confidence booster to be recognized like that. To be considered among the top rookies in a league of this quality, it's definitely a good feeling.

"We have lots of other good rookies on our team who also could've been picked for this. Hopefully, I can finish off the season with a strong second half and continue to help the team have success."

Moncton, 18-10-1-3, is tied for second in the Maritime Division.

The Wildcats will visit the Halifax Mooseheads tomorrow. They will then return home and get ready to face the Quebec Remparts on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Moncton Coliseum.

Milan, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, is from White Lake, Mich. -- near Detroit -- and signed with Moncton as a free agent. He's a top four defenceman, a regular on special teams and he's been a key figure in the success of this rebuilding club.

He's tied for sixth in Wildcats' scoring with 23 points, including 11 goals, in 32 games. He's tied for sixth highest scoring defenceman in the QMJHL and he's tied for fifth in the rookie scoring race.

"He's certainly had a solid season thus far," said Moncton head coach and director of hockey operations Danny Flynn. "With the turnover that we had on defence, we worked hard in the off-season to search for a couple of potential free agents that could help bring some stability to our blueline.

"Daniel has played really well from the start of training camp onward. He has good size, he's an outstanding skater and he's highly competitive. You put those things together and you've got the makings of a good player."

Fact is, Milan is good enough that he could've been a regular in the lineup on Moncton's championship team last season. That's high praise when you consider the Wildcats clearly had the best defence corps in the QMJHL last season.

"From the start of last season until the trade deadline (in January), we went out and added three experienced defencemen in Alex Wall, Spencer Metcalfe and Alex MacDonald," said Flynn. "If Daniel Milan had been here as a 17-year-old and progressed like we hoped he would, it definitely would've affected our plan.

"There's no question that he would've been in our top six defencemen from the get-go last season. We would've made one less move during the trade period (when it came to strengthening our blueline)."

Following are the other RDS mid-season rookie award winners:

* Acadie-Bathurst Titan forward Zach O'Brien (11-12-23 in 28 games)

* Baie-Comeau Drakkar forward Felix Girard (1-4-5 in 32 games)

* Cape Breton Screaming Eagles forward William Carrier (6-3-9 in 32 games)

* Chicoutimi Saguenéens forward Charles Hudon (9-17-26 in 32 games)

* Drummondville Voltigeurs forward Marc-Olivier Brouillard (6-11-17 in 30 games)

* Gatineau Olympiques forward Taylor Burke (2-7-9 in 24 games)

* Halifax Mooseheads forward Martin Frk (11-19-30 in 31 games)

* Lewiston MAINEiacs defenceman Dillon Fournier (2-4-6 in 33 games)

* Montreal Juniors defenceman Alex Micallef (2-5-7 in 23 games)

* Prince Edward Island Rocket goaltender Maxim Lagace (3.76, .886, 4-2-0-0)

* Quebec Remparts forward Tomas Filippi (16-18-34 in 32 games)

* Rimouski Oceanic goaltender Cari Hozjan (3.93, .866, 6-5-0-0)

* Rouyn-Noranda Huskies defenceman Jean-Francois Grenier (3-3-6 in 28 games)

* Saint John Sea Dogs forward Ryan Tesink (6-12-18 in 26 games)

* Shawinigan Cataractes forward Anton Zlobin (12-12-24 in 28 games)

* Val d'Or Foreurs defenceman Julien Leduc (2-13-15 in 28 games)

* Victoriaville Tigres goaltender David Honzik (3.36, .890, 5-6-0-1)

If you break down the mid-season rookie award winners, there's three goaltenders, five defencemen and 10 forwards.

It's noteworthy that 11 of these 18 players were selected in the top two rounds of the QMJHL draft or they were among the top 15 picks in the Canadian Hockey League import draft. Milan was a free agent who was for the most part unknown entering this season.

"Daniel Milan has been probably the best first-year defenceman in the league," said Flynn. "We take pride in how hard we work in the off-season trying to find quality free agents. You put in long hours in the summer and when you end up with a player of his calibre it makes it worthwhile.

"You win on your blueline. That's certainly been our philosophy here. To have (Milan) here for two seasons and possibly three, he's an important part of now and the future for our team."

The Rookie of the Year will receive the RDS Trophy at the QMJHL's Golden Puck Awards Gala in April in Montreal. The top candidates at this stage are Milan, Zach O'Brien of Acadie-Bathurst, Charles Hudon of Chicoutimi, Martin Frk of Halifax, Tomas Filippi of Quebec and Anton Zlobin of Shawinigan.

Milan is the lone defenceman in this group and you can make a strong argument this is the toughest position for a rookie in the QMJHL. The others are all forwards. Moncton has never had someone named Rookie of the Year.

"That would definitely be a huge honour," said Milan. "It definitely crosses my mind. I check out the stats to see how I'm doing compared to other guys (in the rookie scoring race). It's good to be up there, but I have to make sure that I don't get too focused on that.

"I have to just focus on playing well, doing whatever I can to help the team win and having fun whether or not I'm getting points. I have no regrets about my decision to come here (instead of saving my eligibility for U.S. college hockey). Everything has been awesome. The city, coaches, teammates and fans have been world class and it's a great league."

* Neil Hodge is a Times & Transcript sports reporter who covers the Moncton Wildcats.

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