With three games left in the 2019-20 regular season, the Pontiac Senior Comets sit in first place in the Outaouais Senior AA Hockey League (OSAAHL) standings with a 12-5-0 record.
Amassing 46 points in his first 31 career games, Comets’ forward Mitchell Gibson has . . .
established himself as a reliable offensive presence.
Standing at six-foot-two, Gibson is a power forward with slick hands who helps his team win in a number of ways, by contributing on both ends of the ice up and down the lineup.
“I’m a bit of an opportunist who can kind of go up through lines one and four depending on my role,” he said. “I want to be able to create offense and time of possession. Really every time I step on the ice I’m looking to score.”
Originally from Cobourg, Ont., Gibson is the youngest in a family of four hockey-loving children.
Along with his brother Travis, his sisters, Nicole and Jaqueline, and his father Mike, Gibson recalls participating in all sorts of sports as a youngster, including rugby, football and fastball.
But hockey was always the game they most gravitated toward.
“Saturday nights we would get together to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play and whatnot when we were growing up,” he added. “It was really just family-oriented. I don’t really remember weekends that weren’t spent at the rink.”
In his early minor hockey years, Gibson played at the AAA level for the Peterborough Petes organization, before returning to Cobourg to play alongside his childhood buddies.
“It was a blast because I got play with all my elementary school friends,” he said.
For Gibson, the most rewarding part about being involved in the game he’s loved for so many years is the people it allowed him to meet along the way, including some of his longest lasting relationships.
“I really fell in love with hockey just because of the relationships it built,” he said. “Like all my best friends are hockey-related friends. So that’s what kind of drew me to hockey.”
After his last year of Major Midget A in Cobourg, Gibson wasn’t expecting his career to drastically take off.
During the summer of 2012, he received a call from a friend regarding an opportunity to take another step in hockey by joining the Campbellford Rebels in the Empire B Junior C Hockey League (EBJCHL).
As a 17-year-old taking on older, more physically developed athletes, Gibson admitted that the change from Midget to Junior hockey required a number of minor adaptations.
“You go suddenly from being average-sized to playing against grown men,” he said. “It was something that took a little bit of time to work with. You go to 20-minute periods, you have less time on the ice. It’s just a little bit of a quicker pace of play.”
But around half-way through his first season (2012-13), Gibson acclimated himself.
By the end of it, he accumulated 31 points (16 goals, 15 assists) in 40 games – ending up fifth on the team in scoring.
Despite no postseason success, Gibson enjoyed his time in Campbellford.
A hockey-hungry small town – like Fort Coulonge – less than an hour away from his hometown, Gibson felt grateful for his opportunity with the Rebels because of how it helped propel his career.
“Campbellford actually has a lot of similarities to Pontiac,” he said. “It’s a small town. There’s not a crazy number of things to do. So, they love hockey. It was super fun and I really love Campbellford the most because it gave me an opportunity to play for my hometown.”
Before the start of the following season, Gibson still wasn’t heavily recruited.
But he felt good enough about his abilities to lace up for a try out with his hometown Cobourg Cougars – his father’s old team – from the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL).
“I wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” he said. “But I always felt like if I had an opportunity I could succeed.”
“I kept getting invited back and kept doing well,” he added. “I played in every single exhibition game, which is probably not a great sign, but they’re also not getting rid of you yet.”
Despite a solid showing, Gibson was let go as the final cut, but coaches told him that an opportunity to suit up for the Cougars was just an injury away.
Gibson returned to play for the Rebels for the first nine games of the 2013-14 season where he amassed as many points before he finally got the call.
Despite playing a smaller, less offensive role than with the Rebels, Gibson explained that the jump from Junior C to Junior A was fairly seamless since he played in his hometown.
“I lived three minutes away from the rink,” he said. “I was right back home. That’s where my dad used to play. It was honestly awesome. It was a perfect transition. I never really looked back after that.”
“But time of possession went way down,” he
added. “Pace of play is a lot higher and Junior C is a lot more local hockey. Whereas, Junior A is turning into more of a business. Everyone takes it very seriously, which I enjoyed.”
As an 18-year-old, Gibson suited up for 32 regular season games with the Cougars, notching 15 points (nine goals, six assists).
In his second season with the Cougars (2014-15), Gibson was the team’s fifth-leading scorer, contributing 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists) in 54 regular season games, along with eight points (four goals, four assists) in 10 playoff appearances.
Looking back, Gibson believes playing for the Cougars was likely his most memorable experience in hockey, noting that he loved playing so close to home with all sorts of familiar faces.
During the offseason, Gibson enrolled in the University of Ottawa’s communications program with a minor in business management.
“I was always in love with the city of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa was somewhere I wanted to go,’ he said. “
While he still wanted to play hockey competitively, he knew his career wasn’t going to be eternal.
So, he followed up by contacting he Central Canadian Hockey League’s (CCHL) Ottawa Junior Senators’ head coach, Marty Dagenais, stating that he was moving to Ottawa and still wanted to play junior hockey.
Despite being one of the only players in the CCHL studying full-time, Gibson really enjoyed his time with the Jr. Sens because it was his first experience living alone and because he played on winning team.
During his lone season with the Jr. Sens, Gibson finished second on the team in scoring, notching 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 57 regular season games.
In the playoffs, he played a major factor for the Jr. Sens offensively, scoring 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 18 games – leading the team to the CCHL final where they lost in game seven against the Carleton Place Canadians.
“I’m still bitter about losing,” he said. “Anyone who says that losing gets easier over time, that’s just a lie. I still look back, wishing we would’ve won that game. It was a great year. Personally, I thought I had a great year and a strong playoff. It was something that I wish we would’ve won. But it was a great time.”
After finishing junior hockey, Gibson was still hungry to play competitively.
Not overly optimistic about his chances in NCAA Division 1 hockey and uninterested in the Division 3 level, Gibson looked no further than where he had been studying for the last year.
However, no opportunities materialized, which led him to believe that his hockey career was over.
During the summer, Gibson received a phone call from Ottawa Gee Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaître suggesting him to try out for the team’s final roster spot.
“He told me that since I went to school, I might as well go to the open try out because they had one open roster spot left,” he said. “I went to the open try out and made the team again as that guy who wasn’t recruited, which kind of fit my entire hockey career.”
Gibson suited up for the Garnett and Grey for the next two years, playing alongside Comets’ teammates Justin Charbonneau and Quinn O’Brien.
Unfortunately, due to a lot of roster turnover, Gibson was let go from the team abouthalf-way through the season. However, he felt thankful for his t ime with the school’s varsity hockey program.
“It was all positive looking back at my time at U Ottawa,” he said. “I have zero regrets. It was an absolutely amazing time.”
After being cut, Gibson turned his talents elsewhere.
Instead of transferring to another school – forcing him to sit out one year – he contacted the school’s baseball team, asking if he could join as an outfielder.
Despite having starred in his fair share of fastball games throughout his youth, organized baseball was foreign to Gibson.
“I never really played baseball,” he said. “I played a couple of games here and there.”
“I didn’t really have a crazy hard time with it,” he added. “I mean there aren’t any breaking balls in fastball, but realistically being my first time, it was really fun. I played all year there and I think I started the year on the bench and ended the year starting in the outfield.”
Gibson felt grateful for his opportunity to play university ball because it reminded him of what he loves about sports – working as a team to have fun and accomplish a common goal.
“Our team was not very good, which is why after not playing hard ball my whole life I could just step in,” he added. “But it let me be part of a team which is why I love sports. It’s more about the team atmosphere and having 20 guys to rally with.”
During the summer of 2018, Gibson received a message from Comets’ owner Danick Boisvert regarding an opportunity to play competitive hockey for a team in the Pontiac in a new league that would be called the Outaouais Senior A Hockey League (OSAHL).
With games reserved to weekends, high caliber of play and minimal practice sessions, Gibson was thrilled with the league’s concept.
In his first season of senior hockey, Gibson finished third on the team in scoring with 31 points (17 goals, 14 assists) in 17 games. Considering the progress that the league has made in its first two years, namely in caliber of play, Gibson feels very positive about the state of the league and hopes for even better things in the years to come.
“It’s a growing league and every year it’s getting better,” he said. “So, this year is a lot higher skilled that last year and I think it’s always going to look to add players and make some realize that when they’re done university or junior, they don’t just have to stop playing hockey.”
For Gibson, the best part about playing for the Comets and the league as a whole is that it gives talented hockey players a chance to extend their careers by bringing great entertainment to passionate small-town fanbases.
“Sébastien Bonnerot is an awesome guy,” he said. “They take pride in running this Pontiac team. Danick and his entire family have put a lot of time in running this league successfully and the players know it. So, the best we can do is try and put on a good show.”
Away from the rink, Gibson is an assistant manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Orleans, alongside Comets’ teammate Stephen Blunden.
Living in Gloucester with his girlfriend, Brooke, he plans on remaining loyal to the Comets organization for as long as he’s in the region.
“At this point of my life, I’m just taking it month by month,” he said. “As long as I’m in Ottawa, I’ll be playing in the Pontiac. That’s kind of my mindset.”
