An Okotoks Oiler defencman got walloped against the boards in a game near the end of the season.

However, he practically had a smile on his face when it was over because  it meant he’ll be as strong as ever for the upcoming Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs.

Okotoks Oiler Matt Strong is healthy for the AJHL playoffs.

“I took a hit from Brad Drobot of the Calgary Royals (on Feb. 15) and I came off the boards really hard,” said Oilers defenceman Matt Strong. “Before that, my collarbone would kind of reverberate, but it was fine on that hit and it’s been getting stronger and stronger.”

The six-foot-four 220-pound Strong joined the Oilers in November after leaving the Western Hockey League due in part to a span of injuries. After fitting in nicely with the Oilers for a few games, he caught the injury bug again when he broke his right collarbone on a clean hit against the Sherwood Park Crusaders on Dec. 12.

“It was just a fluke, the collarbone is real brittle bone,” the 20-year-old Strong said. “It was tough. Garry (Oilers coach Garry VanHereweghe) helped me a lot. He told me I was still an important part of the team and that when our team went through the good times and the bad times to be a vocal leader. He told me to make sure when I do come back, that I be ready and come back strong.”

Strong returned to the Oilers’ lineup on Jan. 28 against the Camrose Kodiaks.

Strong ripped some scar tissue around the collarbone during the game and missed another two weeks of action.

He admits he wasn’t his usual aggressive self during his second return to the Oilers, but he is fit, focused and confident ever since being belted by the Royals’ Drobot.

“There was a real tough adjustment the first couple of games,” Strong said. “It wasn’t that I was worried about getting hit, it’s just that I didn’t have that strength to really pop a guy.

“I’m back now and everything is just fine.”

Strong had an on-again, off-again relationship in the WHL. He played for three teams, Everett, Red Deer and Chilliwack in his four-plus years in the league. He played in 92 games and had two goals, five assists and 149 penalty minutes.

Strong grew up in a family who knows all about competition and sport. His mother Michelle was a ranked swimmer. His father Brian was an offensive lineman with the Calgary Stampeders in the early 1980s. Brian won a Grey Cup in 1986 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats before a knee injury ended his career.

“I’m a firm believer, just like my mother and father, that everything happens for a reason,” Strong said.  “I have faced a lot of adversity in a very short career and so far I have been lucky enough to overcome all of it.  People who have faced adversity before, so when they face pressure like the playoffs, they know how to push through it.”

Strong has been on the Oilers’ radar ever since he was playing with the Notre Dame Hounds in Saskatchewan nearly five years ago, according to VanHereweghe.

Strong opted to go to the Western Hockey League as a 16 year-old with the Everett Silvertips in 2005-06. He spent two years in Everett before being picked up by the Bruins. He was later traded to the Vancouver Giants.

“I knew of Matt when he was at the Under-16 development camp and he had just been drafted into the WHL,” VanHereweghe said. “He stood out in that camp and the 1990s (players born in 1990) were very strong.”

The Lloydminster Bobcats had his AJHL rights however, but VanHereweghe didn’t forget about Strong.

“He’s a big strong guy who brings leadership to the team, I think the guys look up to him,” VanHereweghe said. When Strong was released by Chilliwack, he had no hard feelings towards Lloydminster, but he wanted to go to Okotoks.

“I talked to Lloydminster, when I came back from the Western League and they said you likely want to come back to Lloydminster,” he said. “I wanted to go to the Oilers because of their reputation for moving players on (in their careers) and as a winning organization.”

Strong has one more year of AJHL eligibility left and he plans to be back with the Oilers’ next season.

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