Jack Hillier made his final season of junior hockey one to remember.

The 20-year-old from Ontario was absolutely electric for the New Jersey Titans of the North American Hockey League in 2024-25. In fact, the 6-foot-2 forward recently broke multiple records for the organization, including the markers for single-season assists and the overall career assists. The Sacred Heart commit finished his two years in the NAHL with 78 total regular season assists for the Titans, with 52 of those scored this season - that’s 14 more than the next closest skater on the roster and the third-most in the entire league.

“It feels good, obviously, but I played with a lot of good players this year and last year to be able to have that … it helps playing with so many good players,” Hillier said about his record-breaking time in New Jersey, crediting his teammates for helping him to find success.

The Titans were recently eliminated from the NAHL playoffs as the No. 4-seed in the East Division in 2025 after being defeated by No. 5 Johnstown. That doesn’t make Hillier’s season accomplishments any less special though for a guy who was a relatively unknown prospect competing in the NCDC and CCHL just a few years ago.

(Contributed / New Jersey Titans / Patrick Olivero)

The native of Petawawa, Ontario, didn’t actually start playing the sport of hockey until around the age of 7 or 8 but he caught on quite quickly after that. Despite growing up just outside of the Pembroke area, Hillier eventually played three years of hockey in Saskatchewan with the Notre Dame Hounds organization during high school. He had originally planned to return for his senior year there but he wanted to be closer to home and to make the jump up into junior hockey so he decided to join the Nepean Raiders of the CCHL in 2021-22 as just a 17-year-old skater.

“It’s definitely a big jump, all the guys are so much older [in junior hockey],” said Hillier about joining the Raiders, where he would score 10 goals and 16 assists through 49 games that season and made the CCHL All-Rookie Team. “Looking at it now, I’m a 20-year-old, and I was only 17 and all those guys were 2001/2002 guys, so the physicality and the speed of the game, I just needed to be one step quicker. It’s obviously a huge jump but it didn’t take too long to get adjusted, maybe one or two months.”

After that first season of junior hockey, Hillier decided that joining a league in the U.S. would be a good idea to try and get some more exposure. He originally went to Minnesota to join the Minnesota Wilderness organization of the NAHL but things ended up not being a very good fit there.

“I think I was too young to play in the league [the NAHL], I didn’t feel physically ready,” he said about that trying out for a NAHL roster as an almost 18-year-old. “I was also an import and there were only a few import spots … the coaches told me I could stick around and practice and play like once every two weeks but I wanted to play obviously because that’s a big deal for development.”

It was a risk, but Hillier wanted to try to move to a different team/league where he could get more playing time to try and advance his game rather than sit on the bench and play limited minutes, which likely wouldn’t be good for his young development at the time. He wound up on the roster for South Shore of the NCDC, which is located in Massachusetts.

Although the NCDC is considered to be a lower tier league than the NAHL, Hillier found exactly what he needed there and became a go-to guy who earned tons of ice time. He scored the most goals out of anyone on the entire roster that season (24) and was second-most in overall points (49).

“I got a lot of confidence there and I grew my game, which I think I needed before I would go to the NAHL,” he said in a phone call interview with Clean Sheet Hockey.

Towards the end of the season with South Shore, the 6-foot-2 forward committed to play Division I hockey at Sacred Heart University and he then signed a tender to play with the New Jersey Titans of the NAHL for the 2023-24 season as well.

Not all colleges scout the NCDC, but the Sacred Heart staff being located on the East Coast and not too far from the South Shore organization had been watching Hillier and were very interested in recruiting him to their squad. Hillier officially announced his verbal commitment to the Pioneers in late-March of 2023.

“That’s a great program,” he said about why he chose the private university located in Fairfield, Connecticut. “With the new arena that they built, and they’re always doing well in the Atlantic [conference], I thought it would be a good fit. I loved the coaching staff and it’s a good school and close to home [compared to many other collegiate programs that would be much further away from Ontario].”

Looking back on it, the Pioneers did a great job of scouting out Hillier. After he committed to play Division I and tendered with the Titans, he officially joined the NAHL in 2023-24 and posted almost a point-per game for New Jersey that season. He scored 45 points through 54 contests and, interestingly enough, had the highest plus/minus rating out of anyone on the team (+30).

Now in his final year of junior hockey, Hillier has become even better. He finished 2024-25 with 18 goals and 52 assists for a grand total of 70 regular season points in 2024-25 through 56 games played. He wound up breaking the New Jersey franchise career assists and single-season assists records, which isn’t an easy feat. It’s safe to say that his decision a few years back to play one year of hockey in the NCDC to develop his game before he made the jump up into the NAHL has certainly payed off.

With the season now over for the Titans, Hillier is preparing to join the Sacred Heart program this fall. After playing three straight seasons of hockey on the East Coast, it won’t feel too different to make the move to Connecticut after competing in Massachusetts and New Jersey and traveling up and down the coast for various NAHL and NCDC games since 2022.

Pioneer fans can get excited about Hillier’s playmaking abilities that will certainly be useful out on the ice during the upcoming season. He also brings other positive offensive traits to the table and good skating ability as well. When he gets out to campus, he is thinking of majoring in sports management, or maybe business, but isn’t quite set on anything for sure yet. Regardless, watch for Hillier on the roster for Sacred Heart this upcoming season in 2025-26.

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