Defenseman Nicholas Kent wouldn’t be where he is without his time playing for the Anaheim Jr. Ducks.

“I had a great experience playing for the Jr. Ducks,” he said. “From Mites to Pee Wees, it helped build my foundation for my skills and my hockey awareness.”

Kent, a 2001 birth year, recently committed to NCAA Division I power Quinnipiac. He played last season and this season for Delta Hockey Academy in British Columbia.

“To see where he’s grown as a player is really neat,” said Jr. Ducks Director of Coaches Craig Johnson. 

Kent, and Johnson’s son Ryan, a defenseman on the Jr. Ducks Midget 16U AAA team, met as mini-Mites and played together for the next seven years or so.

Craig Johnson and Scott Niedermayer coached the boys and Niedermayer’s son Jackson from early on.

“I learned so much from Coach Craig and Coach Scott it would be hard to list,” Kent said. “I played for them for so long that the biggest thing that has helped me is my hockey awareness.

“Coach Scott helped me a lot with my transitions from defense to offense. I try to play a style similar to what he did. 

Committing to the Bobcats was a natural for Kent, he said.

“I liked their coaching staff a lot, and coach Rand Pecknold won (Division I) coach of the year,” said Kent, who scored 21 points in 25 games with Delta’s Bantam Prep team last season. “They play a style that fits my style with a lot of quick transitions.”

None of this would have been possible, Kent said, had so many Anaheim Ducks games not been on television when he was a young child in Orange County.

“It was exciting to watch, so I bugged my parents to let me try it out and I fell in love with it,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t trade his experiences traveling with his Jr. Ducks teammates to tournaments for anything.

“Often we were the only California team, and most the time we won. There’s a lot of great memories with the Jr. Ducks.”

He is the second Jr. Ducks 2001 to make a Division I college commitment this season. Defenseman Cameron York committed to Boston College last month.