Whitehorse’s Ashton Underhill has been traded to the Victoria Cougars of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.

The 18 year old centre was traded as part of an earlier deal that saw Avery Hargitt go to the Saanich Predators.

The 5’11”, 165 pound Underhill has tallied 10 goals and 11 assists this season between Saanich and Victoria.

Underhill is adjusting to the trade to Victoria.

“It’s going awesome. I was surprised that it actually happened. It’s definitely different playing with a bunch of new teammates, but I played two games so far, and it went really well.”

Underhill explains how he made his way to Victoria.

“Last year I played here in Victoria for the Pacific Coastal Hockey Academy. We didn’t play any games, but we practised and the Saanich Predators head coach came and watched a few of the practises, and started talking to me and asked me to play for them next year, and I really like the Island, so I wouldn’t mind coming back here and playing.”

Underhill is enjoying playing with his new organization.

“Every guy has a winning mentality and I definitely think we can go far in the playoffs this year with Victoria, with the group of guys that we have. It’s just awesome to be a part of that.”

The Cougars are first in the South Division with a 28-8-2 record, good for 58 points, and sit second overall, only two points behind the Campbell River Storm, leaders of the North Division. Underhill’s old team, the Saanich Predators, sit last in the division with 21 points, so being traded to Victoria is a step up for Underhill.

“Definitely. Ever since the 2000’s, they’ve been winning championship(s) quite a bit,” said Underhill.

Underhill brings some strengths to the Cougars.

“I definitely bring my face-off taking ability, my speed to go up and down the ice, and my defensive and offensive awareness,” he related.

As for what he needs to work on, “I always need to work on everything ... there’s always room for improvement,” said Underhill.

“Probably my skating – that can always be better.”

Needless to say, Underhill wants to take his career as far as he can.

“Definitely I want to take my career to college. It’d be awesome to be able to play hockey and do school at the same time.

“Of course, U.S would be awesome, but Canada also has great hockey teams.”

Like any Canadian kid, Underhill has aspirations of someday playing in the NHL or for Team Canada.

“That’d be awesome playing in the NHL, but I have a lot to go to get there, but I’m super-excited. I wouldn’t mind playing overseas, too. It’d be awesome to play professional in Europe.”

Victoria Cougars Coach and General Manager is happy to have Underhill in the fold. He explained why the team traded for the Whitehorse youngster.

“Opportunity for us, obviously. We have a good chance to make a run at the league here this year and Ashton’s a guy who’s done well in this situation, coming from an organization that probably didn’t have the best run this year. I knew the head coach in Saanich a little bit and we were able to work something out.”

The team has about 15 games left in a 52 game schedule, so the Cougars picked up Underhill for the stretch drive.

Coulter thinks Underhill may make a difference in the playoffs.

“For sure ... obviously he was very productive with the team he was on before he got here. He had a bit of a leadership role with the team he played on prior to coming out of minor hockey so that was something we obviously liked and perhaps another guy who can score and add some depth to our team.”

Coulter thinks Underhill will be an asset to the team.

“He’s good with the puck. I think he’s sound defensively. There’s always a bit of an adjustment coming from one team to the other. There’s a lot of different changes and stuff like that but he’s a smart kid. I think he picks it up quickly. He’s a guy we can likely get accustomed to how we play, as opposed to how he was playing. He can probably dress in all situations. We can put him on the power-play. He works hard; he can probably put on some minutes on the penalty kill ... he’s a guy that can play any spot for us.”

As for what Underhill needs to work on, Coulter says time will tell.

“We’ve only had him for a short period, so it’s tough to pick out too much in his game. I think right now we’re just having him focus on playing, having fun, and everything system-wise, to get the speed on, and once we do that, we’ll have a better idea of where he slots in ... right now, he’s just adjusting, and that’s normal.”

Coulter thinks Underhill has a lot of potential.

“Totally. He’s skilled. He’s 18, to do what he’s doing in this league this year as a rookie is no easy feat. He’s a kid who has a tremendous amount of potential. He can shoot, he can skate, once he gets a little bit of strength – but if he continues to work in the off-season, he’ll definitely have a chance to move up based on the year that he’s having this year, so hopefully he’ll continue to build that with us.”

According to Coulter, Underhill should fit right in with Victoria.

“Obviously, we’re very pleased to have him. It’s not every day you get to acquire quality players like him, so we’re definitely excited to have him”

“Everyone I’ve spoken to regarding Ashton has spoken very highly of his character. He’s well-respected in the dressing room and his on-ice play speaks for itself. He’s offensively-minded, capable of playing centre or wing and he has experience being on the ice in the big moments of a game. We believe he will be a great fit within our forward group.”

Underhill’s father, Shawn, is also happy with the move to Victoria.

“I’d say it’s pretty exciting to see him going to a team that’s going into the playoffs and with such a good record too going in. There’s good and there’s bad. Your kid gets to be part of a team like he had in Saanich there with the Predators. It’s pretty exciting to be part of that junior experience for the first time. So it’s sad for him to not play with those guys anymore ... but it’s cool to see him playing on this strong Victoria team.”

Underhill is pleased with how his son has progressed in hockey.

“It seems to be going good. He’s had a lot of opportunity with Saanich this year, like, tons and tons of minutes like power-play time, penalty kill time, so he’s had a lot of opportunity there. I think he’s just looking forward to playing junior for a bit longer, and probably on the Island; he really likes it there.”

The elder Underhlll saw a lot of potential in his son while he was growing up.

“He was always one of the best kids of his age growing up here in town. Did the Mustang thing for a lot of years, so put the time in and – he had good coaching ... he looked into having some really strong coaching up here, which you really need for development, right? So his skill was really good for when he moved away in Grade 10.”

Underhill was in Prince George, B.C. for his minor midget year with the Cariboo Cougars U16 AAA team when he moved away from home. The next year, he was living in Trail, B.C. and playing for the Kootenay Ice U18 AAA team.

After that, he had stints with the Nelson Leafs of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) and the Pacific Coast Academy U18 Prep program before he joined the Saanich Predators.

“His leadership is one of his biggest strengths,” stated Underhill.

“He’s not like the biggest goalscorer, but he’s a really good passer, he’s really good defensively, skates hard, and lots of leadership too. They give him an A (Alternate Captain) in Saanich as part of his rookie year. It was pretty exciting.”

Underhill thinks his young son could use a few more pounds. .

“The players get pretty good the farther you get in hockey, so if he wants to move to a level past this, he definitely has to get better,” opined Underhill. “Bigger, stronger. He’s kind of a light guy 165, 170 ... the guys start getting really big. You run into really fit 200 pound physical guys, which is pretty hard – getting into a physical interaction with somebody 30 pounds heavier than you ... so he’ll just work on adding more muscle mass ... in the off-season. He probably could work on his shot a bit more too.”

Underhill is pretty proud of what his son has been able to accomplish so far.

“100 percent. It’s pretty exciting. He’s come a long ways ... I’m glad he’s still sticking with it and pushing to see how far he can really go in hockey ... school or whatever he wants to do – that can wait a little bit. Your window is only open so long for sports, really, so you got to hit it hard.”

Underhill also thinks his son has the potential to take a shot at the pros.

“I think university or college would be definitely in the realms of possibility. He’s expressed interest in maybe NCAA potentially for school, or even Canada, why not, right? So he’ll do junior, and who knows where he’ll go from there. If you push yourself hard enough, who knows? Maybe he could do American Hockey League or East Coast Hockey League ... or Europe.”

As far as Underhill’s academic pursuits, “He was expressing interest in maybe being a teacher. He’d be like ‘oh, it would be the best to be like, a gym teacher’ or something ... he’s not totally sure on that yet.”

For now, Underhill is just looking forward to seeing his son in the playoffs.

“It’s exciting to see him play in the playoffs coming up.”