April 14, 2025, Mississauga, ON – …. Gabriel Trozzo of the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Toronto Patriots is the league’s Scholastic Player of the Year for 2024-25, the league announced today.
Stepping into a top-four role with the Patriots this season, the defenceman averaged 20-plus minutes a night while scoring one goal and adding 16 assists.
In the classroom at St. Martin Secondary School in Mississauga, his average was 89 per cent during the first semester.
His second semester course load includes calculus, biology and chemistry.
In nominating Trozzo for the award, the Patriots said: “Gabriel has maintained elite level academics throughout his entire life in high school and has continued that in his Grade 12 year while managing his schedule around a full-time junior hockey schedule. Gabriel has not missed a practice or game all season while maintaining his grades…”
Trozzo, who turned 18 on April 11, says it’s a natural fit: he’s passionate about school and hockey.
“It’s a matter of staying on top of things, just making sure I’m organized,” Trozzo told the OJHL. “Obviously, doing my best to get to the rink on time and doing everything the team asks of me. But when I’m home it’s making sure I’m focussed on getting all of my work done so I can do my best in both, sports and school.”
That included being on the ice with his team an average of six days a week.
“During the season it was definitely a grind,” he said. “But it was good. I didn’t mind it at all. It was great.”
Trozzo skated in 10 games with the Patriots as an Affiliated Player during the 2023-24 season while earning GOHL Golden Horseshoe All-Rookie Team honours with the Jr. B Port Colborne Sailors.
An 11th-round selection of the Sarnia Sting in the 2024 Ontario Hockey League U16 draft, Trozzo is weighing his options for next season, which could include a return to the Patriots.
“In the next five years, I’d love to play in the (Canadian Hockey League), play (NCAA) DI one day, get my degree and see what happens from there,” he said.
Trozzo will be honoured along with the other OJHL award recipients at a ceremony during the OJHL Championship Series later this month.
The OJHL is announcing its 2024-25 award winners ahead of the Championship Series.
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About the OJHL – “League of Choice”
The Ontario Junior Hockey League is the largest Junior ‘A’ league operating under the auspices of the Canadian Junior Hockey League with 24 member clubs – including the 2024 national champion Collingwood Blues. A proud member of the Canadian Junior Hockey League and Ontario Hockey Association, the OJHL was originally named the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League and it was formed out of the Central Junior ‘B’ Hockey League in 1993-94. With a long and storied history of developing players for the next level, including the CHL, U SPORTS, the NCAA, minor pro ranks and the NHL, the OJHL has had more than 100 commitments already this season.
For more information on the Ontario Junior Hockey League, follow us on Instagram (@OJHLOfficial), X (@OJHLOfficial) and Facebook (OJHLOfficial).
