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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, July 2, 2015 | 30 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Oakville hockey feels the draft Three ex-Rangers picked by NHL squads, including first Chinese-born selection by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Sports "Connected to your Community" Former Oakville Rangers teammates Matt Spencer (left) and Misha Song pose for a photo at last weekend's NHL Entry Draft in Florida. Spencer was picked in the second round by the Tampa Lightning, and Song became the first Chinese-born player to be drafted into the NHL when the New York Islanders took him in the sixth round. | photo submitted Saturday was a historic day for minor hockey in Oakville. Three former Oakville Rangers players -- Matt Spencer, Kyle Capobianco and Andong (Misha) Song -- were selected on the second day of the National Hockey League Entry Draft in Sunrise, Fla., representing what is believed to be the most-ever Minor Oaks Hockey Association products picked in one year. The 18-year-old Spencer went in the second round (44th overall) to the Tampa Bay Lightning; Capobianco, 17, was selected in the third round (63rd) by the Arizona Coyotes; and Song, 18, was picked in the sixth round (172nd) by the New York Islanders. And though Song was the last of the three defencemen to be picked, he generated his own headlines after becoming the first-ever Chinese-born player to be drafted by an NHL club. Song moved to Oakville from China to play hockey "It feels great. Unbelievable experience. Really honoured to be the first," Song, a defenceman who was picked in the sixth round, 172nd overall, told Yahoo! Sports. Song's family -- minus his father, Yu, who remained in China in order to run his own business -- moved to Oakville from Beijing in 2007 for the sole purpose of Misha playing for the atom AAA Rangers. Song had learned to play hockey on a half-sized rink located in the basement of a shopping mall in Beijing, where he could only practise because there weren't enough players to have a game. (The Oakville Beaver's Herb Garbutt wrote a feature on Song in 2008. To read the story online, visit bit. ly/1GK5Ya7.) Duncan Harvey, who coached Song from atom until bantam (when Song left Oakville to play at Lawrenceville School, a prep school in New Jersey), remembers his first meeting with a youngster who was extremely passionate about hockey. "His goal was one day to play in the NHL and also represent China on the world stage," Harvey said. "We had to learn to be careful what to tell him, be- cause whatever we'd ask of him, he'd do it. We might say to the players, `We want you to go home and stickhandle for an hour,' and some players might do it and some might not. He would always do what we said." Harvey credited Misha's mother, Lina, for her support of her son's dream, though the move wasn't all about Misha, either. Lina's other son, Aleisha, also played AAA hockey in Oakville, and daughter Liliya became a figure skater and tennis player. Yu also impressed Harvey by flying in from Beijing to attend all of the Rangers' tournaments, playoff games and even important league games. "It was really neat to see how much the family supported all three of the kids," Harvey said. "Misha always showed a ton of respect for his parents. They recognized what Misha wanted to do, and he recognized what they did to support him." Song's accomplishment made waves in his homeland last weekend as well, as Chinese news services monitored his progress and a film crew followed him at the draft in Florida. Song told NHL.com that he hopes more Chinese players will follow in his footsteps. "I am the first. Hopefully what I want to do is rally people behind me," he said. "Not focus on myself, but do something good for Chinese hockey." Spencer spent entire minor hockey career in Oakville Spencer took a much more traditional path to the NHL Entry Draft, starting minor hockey at tyke and continuing in the Oakville Rangers system until he captained the minor midget AAA Rangers to Ontario Minor Hockey Association and OHL Cup championships in the 2012-13 season. Harvey, who inherited Spencer at the novice level and converted him from forward to defence because of his superior skating and puck-handling ability, said it was quickly evident that Spencer was a special player. "You always knew it was there. Other teams and coaches would always talk about him, but Matt's always been very modest. His parents are two fantastic, supportive people, and they were more about the team than about (Matt as an individual player)," Harvey said. see Spencer on p.31 FANDOM WINGS. BEER. SPORTS.® FEED YOUR 403 AND DUNDAS · 905.829.0188 OAKVILLE