Wolves add seasoned defenceman to blue-line corps

Life in the professional hockey ranks is anything but certain.

Just ask Thunder Bay’s Justin Sefton.

A third-round pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2011, the 6-foot-3 blue-liner was coming off a 16-goal campaign with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League and looking to make his mark in the ECHL with the Wheeling Nailers.

It didn’t work out.

Sefton played one game with the Nailers before leaving the team, a situation he’d rather forget as he forges his new hockey future with the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

“It was tough,” Sefton said last Saturday, after the Wolves were swept by the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in his first official weekend with the team.

“It went back and forth with my family members and mentors. I just wasn’t happy where I was, playing pro where I was. I’m always a big believer in having an education, so if something does go wrong, if you get hurt, I’d have nothing to fall back on in two or three years.

“Right now I can and pro is still there at the end of the day.”

The 21-year-old, who spent four years in Sudbury and went to the Memorial Cup with the London Knights in 2013, said he learned what it takes to win in junior and hopes to bring that attitude to his hometown team in the OUA’s second half.

“Getting a taste of that and seeing what a team atmosphere is like, it was identical to being a family. And that’s what I’m going to try to bring here to this team in the next few years,” Sefton said.

Goalie Jeff Bosch, who returned last weekend for the first time in nearly three months after battling a concussion, said any improvement to the blue-line is a welcome addition to a team that struggled to a 6-9-2 first-half record.

“I’ve only seen him a few times and I’m pretty happy to have him out there. He’s a big body. He can play all situations, power-play, PK, five-on-five. He’s a huge addition to our team and fills a hole that maybe we had there before in our defensive depth,” Bosch said.

“I think moving forward he’s a pretty good pick-up for us.”

It was a long time coming.

Lakehead coach Bill McDonald had preliminary discussions with Sefton last summer, but nothing materialized at the time.

Persistence pays off, McDonald said, calling his latest recruit a fierce competitor.

“You can see throughout his playing career how he’s been taught. He does everything pretty well. For a big man he skates pretty well. He’s pretty strong and you can use him on the power play. Last year in junior he had 16 goals. He does everything real good and I think he’s going to bring a little leadership back to our back end,” McDonald said.

Sefton spent his first weekend paired alongside veteran Mike Quesnele, and looked anything but out of place in the Thunderwolves lineup, picking up five minor penalties, consistent with numbers he produced in the OHL.

While he’d like to produce offensively, it’s not the be-all, end-all to his game.

“Everyone wants to score, but at the end of the day if I don’t score and our team gets the two points at the end of the night, that’s all that matters,” Sefton said.

“If I can jump in there and get points, that’s just a pat on my back.”

Sefton and the Wolves travel to North Bay this weekend to take on Nipissing to open second-half play.