Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

NHL draft hopes remain intact

Jake Pilon: remaining focused amid team struggles

Jan 23, 2025 | 8:00 AM

Let’s call Kelowna Rockets goaltender Jake Pilon a quick study. 

He didn’t begin playing the crucial position until he was 12 but has steadily developed his skills, despite a few bumps along the way. 

“It is an honour,” Pilon said of being named the 23rd-best draft-eligible goalie among North American skaters for June’s NHL Draft in NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings. “There is a lot of hard work to be done. 

“I’ve come a long way, especially from last year,” he continued. “A lot of that goes to Eli [Wilson] and my work ethic too. My mom and dad have instilled that in me—to work hard.

“My patience has improved, and my reading of the play has gotten a lot better. My tracking… everything has taken a step up this year.” 

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Tracking the puck is crucial for any goaltender. A sign of weakness in this area is when a goalie, after making a save, has to look right, left, and then up in the air to locate the puck. Not knowing where the puck is can be disconcerting for teammates, as it signals the goaltender is just as out of control as those in front of him when the opposition threatens to score. 

“I work with an eye doctor back in Calgary,” Pilon said, referring to his focus on tracking the puck. “I do some eye exercises to train my eyes and get them as dialed in as I can.” 

Like any elite goalie, Pilon is often seen enhancing his hand-eye coordination by bouncing rubber balls off the wall and tracking them with his eyes. 

“It helps me warm up my hand-eye coordination, and it gets me into a good flow.” 

Pilon’s season mirrors that of his team’s performance. A strong start saw him win seven of his opening 11 starts, with just two regulation losses, a overtime loss and a shootout loss, but his numbers dipped with four losses (1-4-1-0) in his last six appearances. 

“You don’t want to get too high or too low,” he reflected. “When you make a big save, it feels good. It gets the crowd fired up, and you feed off their emotion. When you don’t make a save, it happens—you just have to keep playing and take a one-shot-at-a-time mentality.” 

The last Kelowna Rockets goaltender to be drafted by an NHL team was 17 years ago. Torrie Jung was selected in the 7th round of the 2007 draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kristofer Westblom (Minnesota-2005) and Kevin Swanson (Vancouver-1999) are the other goaltenders who have been picked by an NHL team since the franchise moved from Tacoma, Washington to Kelowna, BC at the start of the 1995-96 season. 

“I try not to look at it,” Pilon said when asked about fans who might criticize his play after allowing a bad goal. “I try to stay off social media and the comments, as they usually are negative.” 

With just one win in eight home games and the team struggling to put together back-to-back wins since their victory over the Victoria Royals on the road before Christmas, Pilon is working hard to remain positive despite the team’s recent slump. 

“We pretty much have a whole new team,” he noted, referring to the trades of Andrew Cristall, Caden Price, and Marek Rocak, as well as the release of 19-year-old forward Brett Calhoon. 

“I am looking forward to the future with these guys.”