From U18 draft selection to NHL contract: Jacob Julien a key piece for Knights

London Knights forward Jacob Julien’s path to the OHL was anything but ordinary. 

A third-round pick in the 2021 OHL U18 Priority Selection, Julien was passed over in the standard U16 process and took the long road to the league. 

Now, just a few years later, he’s a signed NHL prospect with the Winnipeg Jets – selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft – and one of the driving forces behind the Knights’ Memorial Cup campaign.

“It’s definitely a letdown, right? You don’t want to get passed on,” Julien recalled. “But you have to just work through it.”

The London native began with the Chatham-Kent Cyclones at the U16 AAA level before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted a critical development year. 

He then joined the Junior Knights U18 AAA squad and eventually caught the attention of his hometown OHL team, who selected him 41st overall in the U18 draft. After a full season with the GOJHL’s London Nationals in 2022-23, Julien was prepared for another year of Junior A – until the Knights came calling.

“I got called up to the Knights to start off my OHL career, and haven’t looked back since,” he said.

Fast forward to the 2024-25 season, and Julien’s leadership and growth are unmistakable. Wearing an ‘A’ this year, he posted 54 points (11G, 43A) across 65 regular season games and has added 19 points in the playoffs and Memorial Cup so far. 

Most recently, he netted the eventual game-winner in a crucial Memorial Cup round-robin victory over the host team, the Rimouski Océanic. That goal helped lift the Knights to a 2-0 start in Memorial Cup before their Tuesday night loss at the hands of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers.

“That has absolutely fuelled the fire. We want to win it all this year,” he said. “We’ve come so close throughout the past two years. Our goal is just to play our game, work through everything, and hopefully bring it home.”

Julien credits much of his progress to the influence of London’s veteran leadership, general manger and owner Mark Hunter and head coach Dale Hunter.

“They know what they’re doing,” Julien said. “They’ve taught me everything – how to be a defensive player, how to be an offensive player, little things on faceoffs or in the D-zone that help a lot and that I can apply to my game. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

From initially being overlooked in his first eligible draft to signing with an NHL club, Jacob Julien’s journey is a testament to resilience, patience, and hard work – and now he and the London Knights are aiming to finish their time together with a Memorial Cup championship.