Barrie selected Jaswal in the sixth round (No. 114) of the 2024 OHL Priority Selection Draft from Whitby’s U16 AAA team, where he had a 2.05 GAA in 25 games.
He was on Barrie’s 2024-25 roster but mostly practiced with the team and played games with the nearby Toronto Red Wings U18 AAA program.
“He would go down for games with the AAA team, but he was up here in Barrie where we billeted him,” Belitski said. “He was able to practice with the guys and face those kind of high-quality chances and shots through a full year’s worth of practices.
“That was part of the plan when we put it together at the beginning of the year for him. We saw something in him, we wanted to keep him close by … Did we know that Arvin Jaswal would have had the year that he had this year? I don’t know, but we were certainly hoping that he would.
“To his credit, he put the work and the time and the effort in throughout the summertime of his off-ice and on-ice preparation coming into training camp.”
Jaswal credits the approach Barrie took with him last season for the success he had in the OHL this season.
“I would take reps after practice,” he said. “The guys would do 15 minutes of breakaways on me, but it was all just kind of part of the grind. It was a great experience, and it definitely helped me with where I am right now.”