Tyler Piercy felt like he had something to prove.

Last year, every team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League passed over the feet-footed netminder from Fredericton, New Brunswick in the league’s annual draft.

It didn’t help him, of course, that he’d been a bit hidden at the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Mass.

But that was beside the point. He felt he could play.

“I didn’t think there would be a team drafting me this year, either, honestly,” Piercy said. “I worked hard and wanted to keep my options open.”

After repeating his eighth-grade year and completing his freshman year at Eaglebrook, Piercy shopped around for Division I prep schools who might take a chance on him.

He found no takers.

But a friend from back home told him about North Yarmouth Academy.

“Going to prep school here in Maine helped that happen, so I could go to college if I want to.” Piercy said. “The bonus was that (the) Lewiston (Maineiacs are) right next door to us, so that helped because I got to go to their games, and their goalie coach actually came and practiced with the goalies here. That made a big impact.”

Having seen plenty of Piercy, the Maineiacs made the keeper their eight-round selection (No. 129 overall) in last weekend’s QMJHL draft.

“We had him on some of our lists as the best hands and feet goaltender available,” Lewiston GM Roger Shannon said. “Some people think he’s the No. 1 1992-born goalie in Atlantic Canada. He’s been down the path the last couple of years of playing in the U.S., so many people haven’t had the opportunity to see much of him. The Maineiacs’ staff has taken time over the last couple of years to go and watch a few of his games. He’s a very, very good goaltender; he does everything well.”

Shannon would know. The founder and operator of the V-Reds Prospect Camp at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Shannon saw a lot of Piercy as the youngster grew up.

“He’s won many, many games growing up here in Fredericton,” Shannon said. “I know for a fact he’s a big-game goaltender, and I know he’s a rock-solid kid, as well.”

The one knock on Piercy in most goaltending circles is his size – he’s listed at just 5-feet, 7-inches and 167 pounds.

“He wants to prove to people he can play,” NYA coach and director of hockey Kent Hulst said. “He’s not the big 6-foot-3 goaltender everybody seems to be looking for, but he brings a lot to the table. He competes, he wants to win, and he wants to be the best goalie he can be.”

NYA made the playoffs this season in D-II for the first time, with Piercy at the helm.

“He’s not a big kid, so he makes up for that in aggressiveness, being in very good shape, and working hard on and off the ice,” Hulst said. “He’s working to get his body bigger and getting quicker, and obviously working on his angles.”

“It’s always mentioned, my size,” Piercy said. “I always challenge the play, come out of my crease and try to stay up as much as I can, stay on my feet while the play is moving to try and make myself look bigger. Going down obviously makes me look that much smaller.”

The other big question, of course, is whether or not Piercy will even show up to the Maineiacs’ training camp in August. Many times, players at U.S.-based prep school teams opt to keep their NCAA eligibility options open.

“The chances are very high that he’ll show up,” Shannon said. “We had many discussions with the family before the draft. The issue with Tyler is that goalie typically don’t get their education packages from colleges too early. They’re not like the players, who get offers much earlier. At this stage, Tyler has nobody offering him anything in terms of NCAA. His goal, he wants to play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, that’s for sure.”

If he stays beyond 48 hours at the camp, he will automatically lose at least one year of NCAA eligibility.

“I’m going to go to the Lewiston tryout,” Piercy said. “And I’ll try the best I can. I’ll keep in touch with the coaches during tryouts, see what my chances are. If Lewiston doesn’t work out, I want to try and go for college or Junior A or something along those lines.”

Piercy was one of three goalies taken last weekend alone. One – 16-year-old Jordan Kennedy – was taken ahead of him, in the third round, and another – 17-year-old Charles Grant – came after Piercy in the 10th round.

Those three will join returning 20-year-old Adrien Lemay, 18-year-old Jonathan Connelly and 19-year-olds Philip Wright and Kirk Rafuse in the Lewiston system.

“I don’t think anyone has a better shot at making the team than any other goalie,” Shannon said. “The situation with goaltending is, in those later rounds, we made a team decision to stockpile the cupboard with good goaltenders, because you can never have too many in the system. The last couple of years in Lewiston has been tumultuous in terms of goaltending. That being the case, we want to be able to have goaltenders available so that when you do need that third goalie, at any time, that you have some in different regions to be able to have backup goalies.”

Piercy has a bit of a different mindset.

“I’m pretty sure there’s only one spot, so I’m going to have to play my heart out and be the best goalie there trying out,” Piercy said. “That means training all summer, for sure, and being ready to go when the time comes.”