Claimed: Thomas Sankara Bio

[Tyler 881]

Thomas Sankara

Burkina Faso/Canada

Defenseman

Season 57 Draftee

Las Vegas Aces

 

 

Thomas Sankara was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2000. His father being a scientist who was born in France and his mother being a doctor his family was able to gain refuge in Canada, Montreal to be specific when Thomas was only 3 years old.  He began playing sports around that time and his attention immediately fell on ice hockey. He obviously had no knowledge of the sport at first but he quickly took to the game and was engulfed by the entire hockey culture in no time. He first played for a house league team in Montreal but in no time he was among the best players in his age group. By the time he was in Pewee he was asked to play for a local AAA team mostly due to his intimidating size and skating ability which put him a level above other kids his age.

 

He was a quiet kid but one who did all his talking on the ice. He has always been a bit of a loner who would rather think about hockey then talk with his teammates about their personal lives. He has always been a committed professional off and on the ice who, since a young age, has been a quiet leader for his teams. He was one of the best 2000 born Quebec players and even at such a young age was on the radar of many teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He played Bantam in Montreal where he excelled as a two way defenseman who's skating ability made him the kind of player who was able to jump up in to the play on a regular basis and be able to get back and defend. Once it was time for Midget, the family moved to the small town of Saint-Eustache to play for the Vikings de Saint-Eustache a Midget AAA team. By this time he was one of the top prospects for the 2016 QMHL draft though he had one year of Midget AAA to play before that. 

 

 

At the midget level, he struggled at first finding it hard to dominate the way he was used to and was growing more and more frustrated as bigger, faster and straight up better players made him look bad on a regular basis. Despite these early struggles, he stuck with it and within a few months he was starting to look like his old self. He scored 3 goals and added 16 assists in his only year of Midget Hockey and although his stats did not look too impressive at face value, he was still considered to be a top prospect in the 2016 QMJHL draft. Sankara was drafted sixteenth overall in the Quebec League draft by the Acadie Bathurst Titan, a team that was looking to put a competitive team on the ice in order to entice fans to come to the think. In order to do so, they traded the young African born player in order to make their team more competitive. They moved in a package deal for two established players to the Baie Comeau Drakkar, a young team that seemed to always be stuck in a rebuilding stage.

 

 

He made a name for himself in his first Quebec League training camp scoring 4 goals in 6 games in the pre season and earning a spot on the opening night roster as the teams sixth defenseman. Despite the hot pre season, he started out slow in the regular season and didn't score his first goal until Christmas time. Much of what made him such a great player in Bantam and Pewee made him look like something of a liability against better, faster and smarter players. Though he remained a great skater, his decision making with the puck was lacking and he often got caught out of position. He was benched during the new year and spent the majority of the rest of his first year alternating in and out of the lineup. Although he was once considered the future of the blue line he quickly fell out of favour in Baie Comeau and during the summer he was traded to the St. John Sea Dogs. 

 

The Sea Dogs were the polar opposite of Baie Comeau, a team that always seemed on the upswing and who's "rebuilding" years typically took 2 years at the most. Sankara knew he had to impress as it was now his draft year was fast approaching and he wanted nothing more then to be a top pick. He took his training more seriously and spent as much time as he could focusing on his play without the puck and making quicker decisions. He once again had a rock solid pre season with 6 points in as many games but this time he kept the play up in the regular season. While last season he had only one goal heading in to the new year, heading in to 2017 he had 7 goals already as well as 20 assists, placing him among the best 17 year old players in the Quebec League. 

 

The Sea Dogs cruised not only to the post season but also to the Memorial Cup with little competition in the QMJHL. Sankara finished the regular season with 13 goals and 34 assists immediately making him one of the players most likely to jump to the VHLM in the off season. His post season numbers looked good as well with 4 goals and 10 assists in 21 playoff games. The team headed to the Memorial Cup where Sankara was injured in the first game putting him out for the tournament after just ten minutes with a concussion. His team was eliminated in the round robin portion of the tournament.

 

 

despite the team losing, Sankara was already one of the top VHLM prospects and signed his first contract with the Las Vegas Aces on the eve of the season kicking off. He will be a draft prospect for the Season 57 Draft and is looking to be a second round pick for now, but with so much room to grow in his game there are teams already saying he could be a first round pick.

 

1044 words

[Gudnason 607]

That was fast. 

[Tyler 881]

11 minutes ago, punkhippie said:

That was fast. 

 

Not  much else to do at work