When Hopewell Valley Central High School hockey player Trevor Weidman graduated last year, fans and fellow players knew there would be a huge hole to fill. The forward scored 55 points for the 11-13-2 Bulldogs last year, more than twice what any returning player netted.
Which is why the team started preparing for his departure before he even left.
“I think more towards the end of the season last year, we started wanting everyone to contribute more,” junior forward Gilford Daley said. “We knew this year that we wouldn’t have him to rely on. It was good that we did that.”
Now, Hopewell is 9-5, and the team adapted just as Daley suggested it would. Point totals are more even, and player input is more spread out.
But the humble Daley serves as more of a replacement for Weidman than he would ever admit. With 34 points (18 goals, 16 assists) this year, he already surpassed his total of 21 from last season, and he led the Colonial Valley Conference as of January 10.
Daley’s brothers Peter (2009), Chris (2011) and Max (2013) were all HVCHS hockey standouts, and it was partially because of them that he got into the sport in the first place, starting skating lessons at 3 years old.
“My whole family has been playing hockey, my dad and my brothers,” he said. “I kind of got forced into it a little bit.”
Though “forced” initially, Daley started to genuinely enjoy the sport the more he played it. The speed and the physicality, he said, kept him engaged. He started with the Mercer Chiefs as a kid and then switched over to the Warwick Wildcats, a club in Penn. with which he currently plays, three years ago.
The junior prefers passing and creating opportunities for his teammates to scoring, which second-year head coach Bob Gialanella said was a major part of Daley’s responsibilities last season.
“He was in more of a setup role last year as a sophomore, and he kind of saw what Trevor had to do to be a marquee player,” he said. “To pair those two guys together kind of prepared him for what we were looking to get out of him this year. We are getting that from a productivity perspective, and he’s responded very well to it.”
Daley and linemates Aubrey Toland (7 goals, 13 assists) and Kevin Juan (7 goals, 17 assists) have meshed well so far, and the three feed off of one another. He added that the two seniors are an important part of why he has been able to up his numbers this season.
Their coach sees it, too.
“Look at the dynamics of the line he plays on,” Gialanella said. “You have Aubrey Toland on the left. He’s more of a grinding type of player. Very physical, very big and he’s able to create space for Gilford. Kevin Juan is a very savvy passer and playmaker type who’s just finding his game and how to finish.”
Other players like senior Ryan Schilling, a “very crafty left-handed shooter” according to Gialanella, and junior John Vagott have seamlessly stepped in and out of the line, a testament to Daley’s ability to adapt to different dynamics.
That came in handy again during the second half of the season, when the team finally started to play with a full roster. Mike Cowhey, Chris Nathan and Jack Boyer all missed several weeks due to injury, leaving Gialanella tasked with putting the best lineup on the ice without disrupting that chemistry when the others recover from their injuries.
“It’s been giving me a little bit of stress because we’ve been able to make it happen without these guys,” he said. “That’s the hardest thing.”
On Daley’s line, though, the original trio of him, Juan and Toland provides the best results, no matter who is fit to play.
“They really offset each other really well,” Gialanella said. “You have different skill sets. You have the marquee kind of guy who can pass, skate and shoot like Gilford can. You have the physical presence. You have the playmaker. Together, it’s really a nice recipe for what’s going on for us right now.”
Daley said his personal high point this season was a 5-2 win over Princeton on Dec. 17. While he did not log any points, it was a team win that could end up meaning something down the line.
“Obviously, they’re a good CVC team,” he said. “To beat them is a good feeling that we could do something special this year.”
The Bulldogs have the potential to best last season’s record, and their coach just wants to “keep them rolling in the same direction.”
“That’s my challenge as a coach right now, and I’m lucky to be able to lean on guys like Gilford and the other to help me get through this, and help the team get through it, too,” Gialanella said.
Daley said the Bulldogs don’t need to do much to keep that up, though he noted that learning the systems better, smarter puck work and more physical play would not hurt. Individually, he plans to focus more on his defense, as well as backchecking harder and taking a stronger, more accurate shot.
And his defense is already advanced, though he is not known for it.
“He knows exactly when to disengage from the offensive pressure and immediately drop back and hustle the backcheck,” Gialanella said. “He’s down deep in the corner defensively, helping out the defensemen, and he immediately jumps into the play and uses his speed.”
That knowledge and quick thinking, the coach said, comes from an above-average hockey I.Q. Daley is not the biggest athlete on the ice, but his smarts, joined with speedy skating, accurate shots and passes and the ability to take—and make—big hits makes him valuable.
“His hockey sense is remarkable,” Gialanella said. “He knows exactly where to be. He knows exactly where to put the puck. He knows where to get into the ice and either avoid a hit or make a big hit where we need him to. We really look to him as a leader.”
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