Jean-Michael Gilbert played forward for the majority of his playing days until his Bantam AAA days. That's when he made a change and now, the Vallée-Jonction, Quebec native plays on the back end and he prides himself in defending his own net.

Already with a solid cast of back end players for the upcoming 2020-2021 season, Gilbert will move to the City of Sunshine and join the Club. 

Playing with the Shady Side Academy last season, Gilbert had five goals and 12 assists in 17 games. They play in the Midwest Prep Hockey League and Shady Side is located in Pittsburgh. 

"I really like playing as a defenceman, but I also really enjoy jumping up in the play," said Gilbert. "I would say I'm an offensive defenceman who can make it happen at both ends of the ice."

Standing in at 6'2 and 180 pounds, Gilbert adds to the solid cast of back end players as mentioned above. Dauphin recently acquired Parker Malchuk who will be an extremely strong asset to the team. Eligible returning players include Cole DeKoninck who led all MJHL defenceman in scoring this past season.

Gavin Wendorf, Kadin Ilott, Colby Jaquet, and Ty Brant are all also eligible to return to this upcoming year's team.

When it comes to why Gilbert chose Dauphin, he has a pretty neat story. He met two of the team's players in Boston and they had good things to say about the program. He also knows the Dauphin is a wonderful place to play junior hockey.

"I've heard the fan base is awesome and that's really important to me," continued Gilbert. "I think playing in front of a lot of fans brings on great challenges and I love that. I'm really looking forward to moving to Dauphin and playing for the organization."

Just like Grady Hobbs did this past season, Gilbert has a goal of committing to a Division 1 university in the future. Hobbs, who was the league's MVP this past season, committed to play at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).