The Beaver Valley Nitehawks committed to a trio of Alberta products earlier this month.
The Nitehawks brought into the fold Taber product Jayden Kostiuk, Jackson Field of Edmonton and Ethan McKinley from St. Albert.
The 18-year-old Kostiuk played for the Taber Golden Suns of the U18 AA South Central Alberta Hockey League for the past two season. In the most recent campaign, Kostiuk finished second in team scoring, and 16th in league points with 17 goals and 37 points in 32 games.
“He’s a highly regarded forward,” said Nitehawks head coach Terry Jones. “He was on the top of (Nitehawks scout) Cory Clarke’s recruiting list, so we’re really happy to get him, and we just felt he was a great kid.”
The five-foot-11, 180-pound power forward and Golden Suns captain will also bring some grit to the Nitehawks line up as he also led the Suns in penalty minutes with 124 last season.
Field, 18, tallied 44 points in 32 games playing for AA U18 Maple Leaf Athletic Club in the Northern Alberta Hockey League last season. The six-foot-two talented playmaker also led his team in playoff scoring with four goals and 15 points.
McKinley, meanwhile, is a talented and creative forward who posted 20 pts in 31 games for the St. Albert AAA U18 Knights of Columbus Pats last season. At five-foot-11, 170-pounds McKinley will be an asset up front after two years playing at the elite AAA level.
The Nitehawks coach expects the three players to give an immediate boost to their line up once the season gets underway.
“We have committed to some people with the idea that we don’t know where we’re going to be with players so I think we’ve committed some really good hockey players, and we’ve got a good group of returning people,” said Jones. “I don’t want to say our team is already picked, because it isn’t, but I think we’ve committed to a few more than we normally would at this point, and that’s because of COVID.”
The KIJHL is expecting to return to the ice on Oct. 2, so the Nitehawks likely won’t pursue a camp date until closer to opening season.
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