Skip to content

Sault native playing big in North Bay

It’s been quite a year for North Bay Battalion forward, and Sault Ste. Marie native, Michael Amadio.

It’s been quite a year for North Bay Battalion forward, and Sault Ste. Marie native, Michael Amadio.

The former Soo North Stars forward played on a Battalion team that went on a run to the OHL final last spring, was drafted by an NHL team and now is one of the leaders on a North Bay team that sits third in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

You can add to that the fact that Amadio has put up career numbers this season with the Battalion.

With 22 goals and 58 points entering tonight’s game against the Soo Greyhounds at the Essar Centre, not only has Amadio set career highs, he currently has eclipsed the totals he had posted in his first two OHL seasons with the Battalion combined.

“I definitely have to give some credit to my teammates, it’s not all on myself,” Amadio said in a recent interview with SooToday. “To be able to get the puck to them and them get the puck to me is a huge part of my game.”

Battalion Coach Stan Butler spoke highly of the Sault native and his contributions in North Bay.

“He’s done great and he’s getting better all the time,” said Butler. “And that’s what you expect. He was solid at 16, better at 17 and a lot better at 18 and hopefully he’ll take that next step next year as well.”

Amadio, who enters action on Friday as the leading Battalion scorer, called last summers NHL draft a motivation coming into the season.

“It was huge,” Amadio said of the draft. “I wanted to improve my game just to show them what I can do and what improvements I’ve made to my game.”

Amadio was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the third round last summer.

“It’s a day I’ll never forget,” Amadio said. “I don’t even know how to put it into words. It was the best day of my life being selected by LA. They’re a great organization. Then going there and see how their top players prepare for games.”

“To see how the pro guys take care of themselves on and off the ice and how hard they work to prepare themselves for the season was a good experience,” Amadio also said.

Training camp was a learning experience for the 18-year-old, who had some pieces in his game he wants to improve in order to make the jump to the next level.

“My speed and my strength were the two biggest things,” Amadio said. “The pace at that level is much faster than (in the OHL). Once you have the puck, you should already know where you’re going with it. The guys are a lot stronger so you need to win your one-on-one battles in the corners.”

The Battalion enter tonight with a 28-15-6-5 record and sit second behind the Barrie Colts in the Central Division, trailing the division-leader by five points with a game in hand.

“We had a good start to the season,” Amadio said. “We had a few games (in early January) we could have had but we let slip away. We’re doing well. We need to win a few more games to try to catch up to Barrie and get first place in our division.”

“Definitely Oshawa and Barrie are games we need to win when we play those teams,” Amadio also said. “They’re good measuring sticks for us for where we are in the league. We’ve done well against those teams and I think we’ll be good here going forward.”

(FILE PHOTO: Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)


What's next?


If you would like to apply to become a Verified reader Verified Commenter, please fill out this form.




Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
Read more