Growing up in British Columbia, Jakob Jones grew up playing his minor hockey in his home province and Jones stayed right close to home for his AAA journey as well.
In his final year of AAA, Jones unfortunately only played four games because the COVID pandemic shuttered the season, but the 5'8" Vernon native was off to a torrid start with three goals across those four games. It was a tough pill to swallow for Jakob realizing his AAA days were cut very short, but there was some light at the end of the tunnel as he was presented with an opportunity to play with the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League to begin the 2021-22 season.
Jones played in 20 games with the Broncos, scoring once and adding two assists before he returned to his home province to play with the Merritt Centennials, where the sharpshooter had a pair of points in 28 games.
With strong ties to British Columbia himself, Barry Wolff then recruited Jones to come play with the Swan Valley Stampeders. So Jakob made yet another move away from his home province and for him, it was one that he was very happy with.
"It was a lot of fun, I knew two guys on the team already which made the transition very easy," said Jones. "It was a great team atmosphere right from the beginning and that made it a great year."
Jakob came in and immediately produced at an all-star level with 72 points in 58 games. He scored in his regular season debut with the Stampeders and added another goal in his third game with the team and he never looked back. Jakob played most of the season with Justin Keck and Trey Sauder and the trio formed one of the most dominant lines in the league as they combined for 195 points.
"It was awesome playing with those two guys, especially being able to keep that line together throughout the year," offered Jones. "It was really easy to go out there knowing exactly where they would be. It made the offensive side of the game much easier."
Jones found out very quickly about the rivalry between Dauphin and Swan Valley and come playoff time, it was once again Stampeders against the Kings for the second straight year.
"The rivalry was made very clear to me right from the get go," said Jones. "I know some of the guys lost to Dauphin the year before so it was a very passionate win for us, it felt great to win that series."
Swan Valley came up short against Steinbach in the next round, but it was still a great season for the second most northern team in the league. While this year's team will not include some firepower from last year including Keck, Collin Jennings, and Kobe Grant to name a few, a solid group of returnees are back in the fold this year including Jones and linemate Trey Sauder who was born and raised in Swan River.
It will certainly be a new looked Stampeders roster come Friday, but it's a group that Jones believes in.
"We have another great group of guys," said Jones. "We have guys that want to come in everyday to get better and that's what we need. I'm excited to get going with them into battle."
The curtain opens on a new season this Friday as the Stampeders make the short trip to Dauphin to play the Kings at Credit Union Place. The puck drops at 7:30 and after three weeks of training camp and preseason games, Jones is ready to get things going for real.
"The preseason felt long for whatever reason, we're all very eager to get going for real," said Jones.
You can hear Jakob's full chat with Darnell Duff during the Dauphin Kings Powerplay Show on Friday afternoon just after 4:00 p.m. and you can then hear it during the second intermission of Friday night's game right here on 730CKDM.
