Among the first people Matt Lahey texted, after being selected in the NHL draft Saturday, was his former Langford Pacific Coast Hockey Academy Sea Devils teammate Ollie Josephson.
“We are good buddies and congratulated each other,” said Lahey, who also won the WHL Cup with Josephson on Team B.C. in 2022.
Josephson, a six-foot, 185-pound centre, went 105th overall in the fourth round to the Seattle Kraken and Lahey, a six-foot-five defenceman, 200th overall in the seventh round by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Both were touted early, especially Josephson who went fifth overall to the Red Deer Rebels in the 2021 WHL prospects draft, while Lahey went 63rd overall in the third round to the Prince George Cougars.
Josephson had a Rebels second-leading 12 goals and 47 points in 68 games this past season and gave Red Deer a lot of possession as one of the best face-off takers in the WHL.
Lahey, committed to NCAA Div. 1 Clarkson University, went the B.C. Hockey League route and took longer to find his stride with the Nanaimo Clippers.
“I wasn’t playing too much in my first season in Nanaimo and I took it personally and put my head down and worked,” he said.
“Then last summer I took a real step forward.”
That translated into a big following 2023-24 season for the Clippers and getting on the radar of NHL scouts.
“I almost blacked out when my name came up in the draft,” said Lahey, who watched the proceedings Saturday with his family at home.
And then the phone call from Leafs GM Brad Treliving: “It was a special moment, almost surreal,” said Lahey.
Lahey, who played his youth hockey with the Racquet Club of Victoria, will continue his development next season in the USHL with the Fargo Force: “I need to step forward from the BCHL, but it prepared me well.”
Both Lahey and Josephson were all-rounders.
“I played everything I could get my hands on from baseball to basketball to lacrosse,” said Lahey, who attended Braefoot and Gordon Head elementary schools, and Spencer Middle School, before completing high school online.
Josephson, a product of the Spectrum Secondary hockey academy, was also a star in lacrosse with the Juan de Fuca Whalers. The Team Canada gold medallist from the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and 2024 world U-18 championship becomes the second member of his family to be drafted into the NHL. Dad Mike Josephson, an Oak Bay firefighter who played in the ECHL with the Victoria Salmon Kings, was selected out of the WHL in the eighth round of the 1994 draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Six-foot-three Victoria Royals defenceman Nate Misskey, meanwhile, overcame missing 24 games of the WHL season to being selected 143rd in the fifth round by the San Jose Sharks.
“Nate was having an outstanding year last year until he got a serious injury in January. He put himself in a place to get drafted. He’s shown how good a player he can be in this league,” Royals head coach James Patrick said in a statement.
“This is an exciting next step for him and his career.”
Josephson and Misskey were among 34 WHL players drafted, including five first-rounders, and Lahey among six BCHL players selected in the 2024 NHL draft held at Sphere in Las Vegas.
