By: John Humphrey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Tilbury Times Reporter
Although the Tilbury Bluebirds have been far from consistent during the 2025-2026 Northern Premier Hockey League (NPHL) season, a talented right-winger has been front and centre in helping the team achieve as many goals as it has so far.
Jake Durham has scored 10 goals and added five assists in 12 games so far this season with the Bluebirds. Among those red-lighters are three game-winning goals, which means Durham is responsible for just over half of his team’s victories this season.
With just one game remaining before the holiday break (Dec. 20) on the NPHL schedule, the Bluebirds sit in fifth and last place in the league’s Metropolitan Division with a less than impressive 5-7-0 record. They began the season by losing four of their first six games before switching gears and winning four of the next five. However, the Bluebirds ended up on the losing side of a 10-3 blowout against the Alvinston Junior Kings in their final game at the Tilbury Memorial Centre before the holiday break.
Durham, a 26-year-old native from Port Perry, Ontario enjoyed a stellar four-season career with the Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League (2016-2020) before a three-season career playing Canadian university hockey that was split between St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the University of Windsor. Durham also played briefly with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and the Peoria Rivermen of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) in 2023-2024. He then started the 2024-2025 season with Alvinston before being traded mid-season to Tilbury.
Durham scored nine goals and added seven assists in 10 games during his first stint with the Bluebirds. That experience motivated him to stay for another season in 2025-2026, and Durham has maintained his nearly goal-per-game pace this season, with 10 goals and five assists in 12 games. His goal tally not only leads the Bluebirds but also places him fourth among the NPHL’s Metropolitan Division top scorers. The three game-winning goals are also the most in the Metropolitan division leading up to the holiday break.
“I really enjoy the competition aspect of playing hockey and I think that of the reason why it has been so much fun playing in Tilbury is because of Dylan (team captain Denomme) and Joe (Bluebirds owner and general manager Bryne),” Durham claimed. “Our league is not the National Hockey League (NHL) but there are some players on teams who have played at that level, in the American Hockey League (AHL) or in the OHL like I have, so there is a lot of talent out there during most games.
“Our league used to have a bad reputation for being less skilled and having a lot of fights” he continued.” But the quality of play is really good and there are skilled players on every team.”
And there has been more enjoyment for Durham this season, including mostly playing with Denomme on the Bluebirds’ top powerplay and penalty-killing units, as well as taking a regular shift in all game situations.
“I’m having a lot of fun still playing and enjoying the great atmosphere not oily in our dressing room, but in our rink when I could be sitting at home on the weekends and maybe not doing much,” he claimed, matter-of-factly. “It’s great being out on the ice and getting my mind off the work week or any of the problems that are going on in the world today.”
Durham’s day-job is at Cintas in Windsor, where he also lives.
And the Bluebirds’ recent turnaround in wins and losses was not without reasons, he claimed.
“I think that Dan (head coach Jackson) does a great job in coaching because he lets the players go out there and have a lot of fun by doing their own thing,” Durham offered. “He is critical and constructive when he has to be though.
“At the start of the season, we were playing a lot of very good teams and we were over-matched a bit,” he continued. “But we’ve really come together as a team, both on and off the ice, and it shows in the results that we’ve been achieving lately.”
In the big picture, look for Jake Durham to be a productive member of the Tilbury Bluebirds for the remainder of the 2025-2026 NPHL campaign and for seasons to come.
“The Tilbury community isn’t the biggest in our league but they have been amazing, they re very knowledgeable about the game and they support us very well,” a grateful Durham said. “Sometimes we will have 400-500 at our home games and those are numbers that many junior teams would be very happy to have,” Durham continued. “The support that we receive certainly does not go unnoticed by our players and management.”
