It's been a long climb to the top, but the cross-Canada journey has paid off for Jacob DeSerres.
Jacob DeSerres can be excused if he needs to pinch himself once in a while.
After all, he wasn't the only goaltender waived through his league only to resurface in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League this season. The overage goaltender landed in Saint John when the league-leading Sea Dogs claimed him on re-entry waivers from the Brandon Wheat Kings early this season.
DeSerres is now primed for another chance at the elusive MasterCard Memorial Cup. But his story from Brandon, Man. to Saint John, N.B. has more than meets the eye.
For starters, DeSerres was not unlike many of the goalies who resurfaced in the QMJHL this season, simply needing an opportunity. Brandon head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon had always been up front in that he wasn't sure which direction his team would take. But he also informed his goalie of another opportunity: if not Brandon, why not Saint John?
Mike Kelly, the Sea Dogs' associate coach and director of hockey operations, was in attendance for the Memorial Cup last May. It was a long and irregular scouting trip that landed his team one of the best goaltenders now in his league.
Playing in the QMJHL was far from DeSerres' thoughts, until McCrimmon brought it up. At the time, DeSerres wanted to stay in Brandon, but also thought a championship-worthy team in the Western Hockey League may come calling.
"I thought maybe there's a chance I would get traded to a team like Portland or something," DeSerres said.
His cross-Canada journey leaves him wondering now if it had all been part of a bigger picture.
"I kind of look at it and think maybe last year was meant to happen to prepare me for this year," he said. "I'm so thankful when I look back.
"It's scary. Just thinking about it and thinking about this team gives you butterflies knowing what we have the potential to do this year because I came so close last year."
DeSerres helped lead the host Wheat Kings to the final, but saw his championship dreams whisked away by the back-to-back champion Windsor Spitfires in a one-sided final. Now he feels like he's been given a rare second chance.
"I don't want to let it go this time," he said.
It was a rather seamless transition upon arriving in Saint John. DeSerres fit in immediately with his new team. Fluently bilingual, he shocked his new teammates by speaking French.
His father, from Québec, and his mother, raised in P.E.I., enrolled him and his brother in an all-French school while growing up in Toronto, Ont. It was there that DeSerres first began playing. He backstopped a 10-year-old all-star team his final summer in Toronto that featured, among others, Steven Stamkos, Michael Del Zotto and Alex Pietrangelo.
His family relocated to Calgary, Alta. shortly thereafter. Now he can proudly boast he has lived in nearly every time zone in Canada.
DeSerres began his career in Seattle, Wash. with the Thunderbirds. Last season's trade to Brandon brought about its own culture shock.
"You're a star when you're at the rink (in Seattle), but away from there you're just an every day person," he said. "(In Brandon) you get recognized everywhere you go."
Saint John, meanwhile, is another completely different experience.
"The snow has been ridiculous out here," he said. "The biggest trouble last year was starting my car -- even when you plugged it in you couldn't start it in the morning. (In Saint John) you're completely packed in with snow… and getting stuck all the time."
DeSerres is hoping he can now help his QMJHL team get unstuck in the race for Memorial Cup championships. The last time a QMJHL team captured the Canadian Hockey League's top prize was in 2006 when the Québec Remparts defeated the Moncton Wildcats in the final.
Since then, the QMJHL's reputation took a beating and is often looked at as the weakest of the three leagues. Those whispers don't do his new league any justice, DeSerres said.
"For example last year, I thought Moncton was as good as any team in the Memorial Cup," he said. "They went 0-3, but they were one of the best 0-3 teams probably ever."
DeSerres is optimistic about his team's chances this season. The Sea Dogs boast the QMJHL's top record heading into the final stretch of the season and he doesn't see many differences between this year's Sea Dogs and any other top team around the country.
"I think we're definitely up there in the whole CHL," he said.
A trip to Mississauga, Ont., site of this year's MasterCard Memorial Cup and suburb of his previous hometown, would be a fitting way for this story to come full circle.
"I've had quite the journey," he said. "I'm so thankful when I look back."
