Joel Castle Junior Review

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Junior Review

 

Name:  Joel Castle

Position:  Goaltender

Height:  5’ 10”

Weight:  185 lbs

Birthdate:  05/17/2003

Hometown:  Victoria, BC

Nationality:  Canada 

 

Joel Castle was born in beautiful Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island on May 17, 2003 to Ian and Ruth Castle. While not having any professional sports background, the Castles nonetheless enjoyed being active and playing recreational sports and that active lifestyle definitely rubbed off on Joel and his older sister Autumn. Both Castle children played a variety of sports growing up and even in the moderate climate of Vancouver Island, young Joel fell in love with skating and ice hockey at a young age. Specifically, Joel loved strapping on the pads and daring anyone to score on him. Despite a laid back personality, he always displayed a fierce competitiveness and a will to win. As part of a search to improve his speed and reflexes, Joel also delved into activities such as boxing and drumming.

 

From ages 7-15, Joel played his minor hockey in the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey League in Victoria and worked his way up as one of the more well-known goaltending prospects in the province. He wasn’t able to break into the top tier though partially due to his height (which finally topped at 5’ 10”) and his lack of individual and team success. His most successful season was his U11 year where his team won one of the year-end tournaments and he was named tournament MVP.

 

Castle’s hard work did not go unnoticed by scouts. In the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft, he was selected by the Prince Albert Raiders in the 12^th round although he decided to stay closer to home and never played for the Saskatchewan team. Instead, the young goalie continued his development with the Victoria Cougars of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. He only played a handful of games in each of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons with the Cougars but they did win the league championship (Brent Patterson Memorial Trophy) in 2018-19 and were the runners-up in the British Columbia Provincial Junior B Hockey Championship (Cyclone Taylor Cup). Although Castle didn’t see any action in these tournaments, he learned a lot about what it took to win a championship.

 

In 2020-21 during the height of the pandemic, he tried out with the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL but it soon became apparent that there would be no playing time as the Grizzlies had their goaltending set so Castle looked elsewhere. He ended up with the Cowichan Valley Capitals just up the highway in Duncan. The BCHL’s season was shortened due to the pandemic so each team only played 20 games starting in April 2021. Unfortunately, the Capitals struggled as did Castle. He only played in 6 games and managed a 1-4 record, a 5.31 GAA, and a 0.874 SV%. Despite his poor numbers, the Capitals brought him back for the 2021-22 season. After a great training camp and preseason, Castle got COVID which took him a while to recover from. He lost his spot in the regular goaltending rotation and only played in 12 games. He was able to post better numbers from the season before with a 3-7 record, a 4.36 GAA and 0.884 SV% but after the playoffs, he was encouraged to seek other opportunities.

 

Joel Castle playing for the Cowichan Valley Captials (BCHL)

 

As it became increasingly apparent that he may have to move from his comfortable Vancouver Island bubble in order to further his hockey career, the young netminder cast his (inter)net wider than before – worldwide, in fact. He contacted various leagues and agencies but nothing seemed a good fit.

 

Then, an email came from the Animal Sports Agency, a small company he had never heard of yet one that seemed to have a good reputation, global reach and close ties to the Victory Hockey League. The Agency said they had been scouting him for a long time and while their player base was largely European, they were looking to expand to North America. There was a backup role available in the VHL’s minor affiliate team in Las Vegas, the defending champions, and would he be interested? After some quick research into the league, the team and the management, Castle jumped at the chance to stay in western North America and play for a top team with a chance at a title. GM @Shindigs was very supportive and accommodating and Castle would go on to win all five of his regular season games with the Aces and split a couple of playoff games as Las Vegas would go on to repeat as Continental Cup champions. The Aces liked what they saw on and off the ice from Castle and subsequently drafted him 13^th overall in the S85 VHLM Draft to be their number one goaltender for the upcoming season.

 

Joel Castle was drafted 13th OV in the S85 VHLM Draft by Las Vegas