2018 Draft diary: Joseph Veleno

Joseph Veleno (6-foot-1, 195 pounds) of Saint John in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is the first player granted exceptional status to play as a 15-year-old in the league. He has 25 points (four goals, 21 assists) in 27 games and is Saint John's captain. The 17-year-old native of Kirkland, Quebec, has 108 points (30 goals, 78 assists) in 134 QMJHL games. Veleno, who received an A rating on NHL Central Scouting's November players to watch list for the 2018 NHL Draft, has offered to maintain a draft diary for NHL.com leading up to the draft at American Airlines Center in Dallas on June 22-23.

Hello NHL.com readers.
After a difficult start to the season, we slowly are starting to get things on track. We have at least one point in five of our past 10 games (3-5-2), and we finally appear to be finding some chemistry within the group.
Our recent trip to Quebec helped get things moving in the right direction and we also did some team activities that allowed the guys to come together, and that shows more and more on the ice.
We played an outdoor ball hockey game with the guys and some little kids this week. I think it was the first time the Sea Dogs organized something like this and there were a lot of people who came out and supported us. We had fun and obviously that's what the kids wanted, a chance to be with their Sea Dogs.

The community knows that we are in the process of rebuilding. They still like supporting us and they're always going to be there. Every time we step on the ice we want to give our best performance for the fans, and hopefully we can win a lot of games at Harbour Station.
Things are starting to fall into place here. At the beginning of the season our coach, Josh Dixon, tried a lot of different line combinations to find the right ones and now we have some stability in that area.
I'm playing on the top line with Ostap Safin, the Edmonton Oilers' fourth round pick (No. 115) in the 2017 NHL Draft, and we're having some success. Ostap is the team's leading scorer and I get on well with him, even though he's only in his first year in Canada. We have been finding each other on the ice and I love feeding him the puck.
We have fun playing together and it helps for sure in terms of our chemistry having fun on the ice and working hard. When we're playing together, we can be really dangerous. We're both very talented players with a lot of skills.
For my part, I've started finding my rhythm a little bit. I have points in eight of our 10 games in November, though I've only scored two goals. It's a little bit frustrating, but I've just got to stick with it and keep doing the things I'm doing well, continue to go to those dirty areas and keep shooting. Eventually it's going to have to go in.
I was also fortunate to have a really fun experience at the Canada Russia Series a few weeks ago, especially with all the guys there who are 17 years old. It was just a great opportunity to showcase our skills to the country and to everyone watching. I really enjoyed my time there and hopefully I'll get that call, the invite to the final World Junior Championship evaluation camp, but obviously I'm going to have to keep working hard over here in Saint John.
We'll talk again next month!