Elliott: Anderson, Jankowski teammates in 2009, now Stanley Cup foes

Josh Anderson, of the Montreal Canadiens, and Mark Jankowski, of the Carolina Hurricanes, were baseball teammates in Georgetown during their youth. They are now facing off in the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals. Photos: Canadiens, Canes

May 23, 2026

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Neither Josh Anderson nor Mark Jankowski played in the 2009 gold medal Baseball Canada bantam championship in Vaughan.

That does not mean they were not involved.

“To show you how much of ‘team guys’ they were, they came racing in from the left field bullpen to tell me that they had Quebec’s signs,” said assistant coach Scott VandeValk.

Not that Ontario did a lot with the signs -- managing one single by Brad Bedford. But as head coach Bill Byckowski used to say “they decide games not on hits, but on runs scored.” Ontario scored a 4-2 win over Quebec thanks to walks, errors, stolen bases and who knows what else, overcoming a 2-1 deficit in the sixth.

Now Jankowski, of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Anderson, of the Montreal Canadiens, teammates in 2009, are facing off in the 2026 NHL Eastern Conference final. One will be playing for the Stanley Cup. Montreal beat Carolina 6-2 in the opener of the best-of-seven series. Two of the smaller players on the Georgetown team, they “growed up good … real good,” as Jed Clampett used to say.

That Sunday night, Jankowski, the regular centre fielder for the Georgetown Eagles and the eventual Ontario champs, was 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds. Now, he is a 6-foot-4, 200 pounder, having a growth spurt in grade 11 at Stanstead College.

Back then, Anderson was 5-foot-7 and 138 pounds. Now, he is a 6-foot-3, 226-pound bruiser. He clanked the post in Game 7 against the Buffalo Sabres and twice showed bursts of speed to create breakaway chances. Not that we watch all the games, but we’ve read more than once by wiser hockey men than me how Anderson is a “Conn Smythe candidate.”

“Joshua-and I would always throw knuckleballs to each other,” said Jonathan Palumbo, Anderson’s best pal on the Eagles. “We’d throw them till the cows come home. He still has a pretty good one to date. We played in the Leslie Wells softball tourney in Milton a couple years ago.”

Josh Anderson, 14, blows a bubble at a game in Sterling Heights, Mich. Photo:Craig Bedford Studios.

On the season, Anderson hit .313 with an .816 OPS, hitting five doubles and knocking in 17 runs. Jankowksi hit .219 with a .588 OPS, a double and 18 RBIs.

“We used to make fun of Janker for his 2-3-4 steps in the outfield,” said Palumbo. “Sometimes he would get turned around on a fly ball -- but you know what? He always ended up making the catch.”

Outfielder Nathan DeSouza was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays, while pick-ups who went pro were Daniel Pinero, who reached triple-A with the Detroit Tigers, and New York Yankees draft Dayton Dawe.

“I didn’t appreciate this at the time as a self-centred teenager,” said Bedford, “but I think it was incredible that both Josh and Mark played their roles on the team so well, despite them not being ‘the guy’ on the ball field when clearly they were ‘the guy’ on the ice.

“It says something about their character to execute a (smaller) role with a smile on their face. Maybe I’m wrong and Bill was hearing complaints from them, but I doubt it.”

“My mother-in-law was actually the Jankowski family dentist for years, right up until retirement, small world,” said Kyle Hann. “I honestly can’t remember much from those days or games. I know both were definitely late bloomers though.”

Hann was a member of the same Georgetown team that won the 2007 Baseball Canada peewee championship in Quebec City. Jankowski threw out a runner at the plate against British Columbia which allowed Ontario to avoid playing an extra tie-breaker game due to run differential. Hann went to the College World Series in Omaha with Mississippi State and then played at St. Johns River.

Head coach Bill Byckowksi presents Mark Jankowski with a trophy after winning a tournament in Brampton.

Rose Mary and Len Jankowski -- along with brother David, who skated four years at St. Lawrence University and one at Michigan Tech University, plus sisters, Natalie and Nicole -- were not at every game, but some. Michelle and Gary Anderson -- sometimes with their children Jessica, Jordan and Jake - were at a lot of games.

“It felt like between the two of them, their families took up an entire section of the bleachers, and while Janker’s family was quiet, I’m pretty sure I’d still recognize Michelle’s voice cheering,” said Bedford. “There were generations of support.”

Selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the fourth round of the 2012 draft from the London Knights, Anderson has scored 160 goals in 688 games, while Jankowski, a first-round pick of the Calgary Flames, has scored 79 goals in 481 games. The Jankowski name is hockey royalty: grandpa Lou, who later worked for the NHL Scouting Bureau, played for 20 years, including 127 NHL games for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, and his great uncle is Hockey Hall of Famer Red Kelly. His father, Len, was an Ottawa 67s draft who attended Cornell.

Anderson scored 14 goals this season, while Jankowski scored 11.

Byckowski won the bantam eliminations with Brampton without losing a game. Then he won the 2007 peewees without losing. When he started out 3-0 in the bantams (playing as minor bantams) in Windsor, he may have mentioned once, or twice or 100 times “you know I have never lost a game in the eliminations.” To the other coaches -- used to going 2-2 and going home -- it became quite annoying.

So, a plan was hatched: the players would sign a ball and after a loss against the older age group, someone would present it to Byckowski after his first loss. But who?

Anderson was selected. No one could get angry with Josh.

Well, unless you were a Carolina Hurricane.