Josh Soares
Josh Soares (born Feb. 6, 1982) played minor hockey with his hometown Hamilton Huskies from 1990-96 before moving to the GTHL for two seasons. He played the maximum five seasons (1998-2003) of junior, all for the Hamilton Kilty B’s of the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League – now the Ontario Junior Hockey League. (The Kilty B’s changed their name to the Hamilton Red Wings in 2004. They moved to Markham and became the Royals in 2015.) Josh was captain of the Kilty B’s for four of those five seasons. He led his team in scoring three of his five years with the team.
The honours piled up:
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- Selected to play in four OPJHL all-star games and one future stars game.
- West Division MVP.
- Leading scorer in the entire OPJHL.
- Finalist for the Canadian Junior Hockey League player of the year.
- Top scorer in Canada during his final season of junior.
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Soares’ 56 goals and 68 assists in 48 games that season set a Kilty B’s record of 124 points. Soares ended his Kilty B’s career as the franchise’s all-time leader in goals, assists and points. He also set single-season franchise records in all three categories. Josh Soares finished his OJHL Career as the all time career leading point scorer in the OJHL in both the original and modern eras. He is second in both career goals and assists and finished in the top 20 in single season points and goals in both combined eras. Soares played four seasons (2003-07) on scholarship at NCAA Division I University of Maine. His teams won a Hockey East championship and played in four NCAA tournaments, appearing in the Frozen Four three times. Soares amassed 112 points in college. He was named to the All New England team and the Hockey East second all star team during his senior season. After graduation in 2007, Soares signed a one-year free agent contract with the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. He split two seasons between the Peoria Rivermen, Manitoba Moose and Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League and Alaska Aces of the ECHL. He was named to the ECHL’s all-rookie and first all-star teams. Soares played in Europe from 2009-19, making stops in Germany, Sweden and Austria before spending his final four seasons starring with the Stavanger Oilers in Norway where he won league and scoring championships.