NEWS

Wellington Dukes defenceman Jacob Panetta (photo credit - Keith White/OJHL Images) has confirmed his commitment to join the Colgate University Raiders beginning with the 2016-17 ECAC season.

The Belleville, Ontario native has played the past two seasons as a member of the Dukes out of the Picton Pirates Junior 'C' club where he captured the EBJCHL title in 2012-13, while being named the club's Rookie of the Year and capturing the Schmalz Cup OHA title.  Prior to that, Panetta was a member of the Quinte Red Devils Minor Midget 'AAA' club and was selected by the Belleville Bulls in the 15th round, 292nd overall, of the 2012 OHL Priority Selection.

In his rookie season he had recorded 9 points and followed that up by doubling his output to 18 points this past season.  While an 18-year old rookie, Panetta was a key member of the Dukes defence that hosted the 2014 Dudley-Hewitt Cup, narrowly missing a berth in the national championship after falling to the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots in the championship game.  This past year he was selected to play for Team OJHL Hawerchuk, notching three points in three games to lead the d-corps, at the 2014 Central Canada Cup All-Star Challenge held in Toronto, Ontario. 

"The entire Dukes organization is very proud of Jacob's accomplishments," said Dukes' General Manager and Head Coach Marty Abrams.  "He has come up through the system graduating from both the Quinte Red Devil AAA and Picton Pirates programs, developing into one of the top Junior A defencemen in the country. He had a fantastic World Junior A Challenge tournament for Team Canada East and I expect his development will continue at Colgate."

Congratulations to Jacob on the achievement and we look forward to seeing him close out his OJHL career next season!