At a glance, it sure looks like Lucas Signoretti has been playing hockey since birth.
A highly gifted offensive player, the 20 year old native of Ottawa has now built up a 12 point lead atop the NOJHL scoring race (ahead of Greater Sudbury Cubs' teammate Samuel Assinewai) a year after capturing the crown with 117 points in 50 games as a member of the Espanola Paper Kings.
Opponents marvel, if somewhat unhappily, at both the playmaking prowess and the deft touch around the net which all seems incredibly natural for Signoretti.
The truth, however, veers somewhat off the pathway of that story of the childhood hockey phenom from the time he toddled out as a Tim Horton’s Timbit talent.
Lucas Signoretti did not even begin to skate until the age of nine, with a couple of very formative years proving to be very poor indicators of future success in the sport.
“I’ve only played hockey for ten years now,” said the 5’9” forward who was a second round pick of the Erie Otters back in 2020. “For my first two years of hockey, the coaches called me a snowman. I didn’t know how to skate so I would fall down a lot.”
The delay in his introduction to what is clearly the unofficial national pastime of Canada was spurred by a family move to North Carolina at the age of three, his sports of choice in the ensuing handful of years falling right into the American wheelhouse: baseball and golf.
“I am a huge fan of golf,” noted Signoretti, the eldest of three children, with younger brother Jacob (who was born in the States) now a teammate with the Cubs. “I will play 36 holes a day during the summer.”
Yet for as much as he dabbles right around the benchmark for a scratch golfer, it is not the physical attributes that he most translated from the links to his newfound passion when the Signoretti clan returned to Ottawa as Lucas prepared to celebrate his ninth birthday (or thereabouts).
“I wouldn’t say the swing but more just the game of golf,” suggested the shifty point producer who has amassed 67 in 32 games to date with the Cubs, but only four in his first five outings this year. “For most people, golf can be very frustrating. It’s frustrating when you don’t hit the fairway, or you chunk a shot when you’re five yards from the green, or you miss that putt.”
“I try and take all of those lessons that I learned through golf every day and bring it out on the ice,” he added. “Obviously, every game is not going to go the way you want it to. There’s going to be ups and downs.”
Lucas Signoretti has seen his share.
Aided by the patient helping hand of his uncle, Andre Signoretti, a similarly-sized athlete who starred with the Ohio State Buckeyes for three years (1997-2000) before turning pro and eventually carving himself out a 14 year career in Europe, the youngster began to make waves in Ottawa roughly three seasons after first donning the skates.
Some contacts in spring/summer hockey opened the door to a pair of winters spent with the Pittsburgh Elites program (U14 & U15), a time during which one of his linemates was none other than former Sudbury Wolves’ sniper Evan Konyen.
His first taste of junior hockey torpedoed by the cancelled OHL season of 2020-2021 (Signoretti actually played a few weeks with the New Jersey Avalanche alongside both Quentin Musty and Matthew Mania before separating his shoulder and returning home), the well-spoken young man would not find the ensuing 2021-2022 campaign a whole lot more productive.
For a player who put pucks in the net with incredible regularity, a stat-line that read just three goals and five assists in 58 games with the Otters (2021-2022) could easily have spelled the beginning of the end.
“When you are not getting the opportunities, it’s hard,” said Signoretti. “But I always knew that it (my offensive game) was there. There’s that golf game again. You can’t get down. I am a big believer that everything happens for a reason. I tried to come here (to the NOJHL) and make the best of it.”
With little in the way of hockey ties to this part of the province, Signoretti knew only that he did not want to make his way to the CCHL (Central Canada Hockey League).
“My mindset was that I wasn’t going to play in Erie – they had told me that – and I needed to go and play games,” he stated. “Jason (Espanola coach Jason Rapcewicz) just called and asked if I wanted to play there – and that I would get a lot of ice time. One thing led to another.”
An off-season move to the defending NOJHL champs has done little to derail the offensive zone flair of the young man who competed in the U.S. Kids Golf Championships at the age of nine.
Both his skill and his approach remained intact in the move east down Highway 17.
“I think I have been very successful with that (his approach), so far, but we have a championship to win this year,” said Signoretti. “There’s still something left.”
And with only ten years of hockey under his belt, it’s not like he’s grown tired of the game at all.
