JC Lemieux aims for big impression at Sabres’ rookie camp, big season in OHL

Whether seated in a barber’s chair or smiling from behind the box office glass, both in his full hockey gear, or introducing the fandom to their newest first-round selection on social media, JC Lemieux has quickly become a smiling face of the Sudbury Wolves franchise.

Hard to believe the amiable forward from Gatineau, Que., donned a blue-and-white Wolves jersey for the first time only eight months ago, part of a blockbuster trade with the Windsor Spitfires.

“I just want to be here in the community, and I want the people here to like me,” smiled the skilled 18-year-old, decked out in his game-night getup for the Pack’s annual media day on Tuesday morning. “I want to be there for the community and for the young guys on our team. I want to be a good guy to be around and fun to be around.”

Lemieux’s coaches and teammates will have to deal with his absence for at least a few days. Though he went unselected in the NHL Entry Draft this past June, he’s due to depart on Thursday to attend the Buffalo Sabres’ annual rookie camp and to suit up for a pair of Prospects Showcase games against the Boston Bruins next Sunday and Monday.

His latest big-league opportunity comes after the six-foot, 195-pounder attended the Ottawa Senators’ development camp earlier this summer.

“I talked to my agent, and they told me you should go to Buffalo, it will be a good opportunity for you, so I made the choice to go to Buffalo,” Lemieux told The Sudbury Star.

“First, I just want to learn from them. They’ve been there for a long time, and I’ll be practising with a lot of good hockey players and I want to learn from them — and I want to compete. I don’t want to put a lot of things in my mind, I just want to go there and have fun, to compete and make some friends. It will be fun.”

Under most circumstances, Sudbury head coach Scott Barney and his staff would hate to be without a player like Lemieux for any length of time, considering the latter’s promising OHL pre-season showing that has included three goals and an impressive 14 shots on net in only two games. But with seven NHL hopefuls also heading out to camps this week — including Jan Chovan to Los Angeles, Rowan Henderson to Chicago, Adam Nemec to Ottawa, Vladimir Provorov to Columbus, Artem Gonchar to the New York Rangers and Finn Kearns to Seattle — their younger teammates will get plenty of ice time while battling for roster spots, beginning with pre-season action against the Soo Greyhounds in Sudbury this coming Friday, then the Kingston Frontenacs in Newmarket on Sunday.

“JC has been outstanding,” Barney said. “He was outstanding for us last year and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t have been drafted in the Sudbury Wolves’ opinion, that’s for sure, and in the minds of our coaching staff. The kid scores goals, he competes, he works hard and he’s very coachable. I talked with him just as the draft ended and he’s using it as motivation. He went into Ottawa’s development camp in the summer and he was supposedly excellent there, too, and now he has another opportunity in Buffalo to show them what he can do. I think he’s using this in the right way and it’s going to help him and it’s going to help our team — that’s why he’s a leader and he’s going to play pro hockey one day, for sure.”

JC gets us on the board ‼️

While admittedly upset that he was passed over in the NHL draft, Lemieux received some good advice from his mother and the rest of his family that helped keep him committed to his off-season training.

“They told me you just have to work harder,” Lemieux recalled. “Not everything can be taken for granted and you’ve got to work for what you want. Since the draft, I have been working really hard on and off the ice and I’m ready to go.

“I think I’m more comfortable on the ice. I can show my skills and prove what I can do on the ice and I’m not scared to make plays. I just want to come in here to Sudbury and if the young guys need something, I want to be there for them.”

While he’ll be happy to prove his doubters wrong this season, Lemieux prefers to keep his more specific individual goals to himself for the time being. But he doesn’t mind setting some lofty expectations for his OHL club ahead of the 2026-27 season.

“Our goal right now is just to win,” he said. “The last two years have been 0-8 in the playoffs, so our goal is to win and to win in the playoffs. We have a really good team and I think we can go all the way this year, so it will be fun.”

Barney knows there’s a lot of work to be done before any playoff run is possible, but Sudbury’s third-year bench boss is encouraged by those first few, small steps his team has taken in pre-season. After suffering a 4-2 loss in the Sault last Friday, despite outshooting the Greyhounds 40-28, the locals bounced back on Sunday with a 6-2 win over the North Bay Battalion to improve to 3-1 in exhibition play.

“I feel like the attention to detail has been really good with the guys who are newer and I think the leadership has been really good with the older guys helping the newer guys and letting them know what our expectation is,” Barney said. “I thought in all the games, we had some good moments, even in the Soo loss. Now, it’s just getting into our systems and playing the right way, because if you’re not, teams in this league will beat you — no matter which team it is.

“This week, we’ve got seven guys leaving and maybe we’ll see which guys are going to pull ahead and which guys are going to fall behind. That last week was a grind with four games on the road and 26 hours on the bus and that’s a lot for some of these young guys who haven’t experienced it, but hey, you’ve got to be able to do it in this league.”

While all of the aspiring full-timers each have their particular strengths, from Mason Walker and Parker Smith to Norman Greene and Colton Colby to Cole Wreggitt and Alex Dvorak, Barney said the skaters left standing will be those who can find roles and embrace them.

“You’ve got to find an identity,” he said. “You can’t just be another jersey number skating around the ice. You’ve got to know what separates you from the other guy and that’s usually the guys who have that extra compete, who have attention to detail, who have good habits, or maybe some guy breaks out with a couple of goals. We’re looking for guys to provide that secondary scoring right now for our club — we need it. You can’t have one line scoring. You need depth in this league to score goals and we need to see which guys can do that. We also have a good chance to work on special teams and see which guys can fit in on those, too.”

From the source JC gets us started 1:39 in!! #WolvesNation

Of course, the likes of Lemieux and top-line comrades Chovan and Nemec will need to keep producing if the Wolves are to reach their potential this season, and to do so while under increasing pressure from the OHL’s elite checking lines.

“I think JC is going to have a huge year for us and a lot of success,” Barney said. “That line played together last year and they’re going to have to play against top lines. They did it last year, but teams are going to know what they’re doing, like a pitcher in baseball going through the league for the second time. Teams pick up on it.

“All three of those guys have worked really hard this off-season and we’re going to count on them for a lot. How many goals, now many assists? I don’t know, but I think the sky is the limit for JC and both of those other players, as well.”

While it could be some time before Dvorak plays big minutes on a nightly basis, both Barney and Wolves general manager Rob Papineau are high on the upside of the defenceman from Florida, son of longtime former NHL winger Radek Dvorak.

Now 6-foot-4, the big blueliner signed with the Wolves on Monday, just two days before celebrating his 17th birthday.

“He’s a big kid who’s raw and he hasn’t really been exposed to junior A hockey of the OHL level, but he seems to be getting better every day,” Barney said of the youngster, who was Sudbury’s ninth-round pick in the 2026 OHL Priority Selection. “He comes from a long hockey pedigree with his father, who had a long professional career, and he has been a sponge here, taking in all the information.

“It’s a big step from playing Florida AAA hockey to the OHL, but he’s 6-4, skates well and has a big stick— it’s hard to teach that, so hopefully, everything else comes along and he continues to get better. Again, it will be a good opportunity this weekend for him to rise above his competition.”

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