OHL goalie market
A veteran goalie or two could be on the move ahead of, or just into, the 2018-2019 Ontario Hockey League season.
While the start of the 2018-2019 campaign is still a couple of months away, the OHL officially re-opens for business on August 1, which is when the trade embargo is lifted and teams can begin to make player moves.
On the always-important goalie front, there are teams looking for assistance and upgrade between the pipes. And the Sudbury Wolves, who finished in last place in the 20-member OHL in 2017-2018, have a net worth of depth under team control.
With holdovers Jake McGrath, Marshall Frappier and David Bowen already in the Wolves den, Sudbury general manager Rob Papineau added four more goalies via the 2018 OHL priority selections and under-18 processes and the Canadian Hockey League import draft.
Sudbury used two picks on goalies at the 15-round priority selections draft, taking Jonathan Lemaire in the fifth round and Nicholas Heinzle in the 13th.
Then, at the three-round, under-18 draft, Papineau added to the Wolves crease by taking goalie Mitchell Weeks with the first overall pick.
And the Wolves may have landed the biggest prize of all when they took Finnish goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen in the first round of the 2018 CHL import draft. Luukonen was a second-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres at the 2017 National Hockey League draft.
If the Wolves are able to sign Luukonen, it would most likely make McGrath, a fellow 1999 birth-year goalie, expendable and available for trade.
McGrath has played in more than 90 games with Sudbury and his experience could be rather attractive to another OHL team.
Another goalie who might be available at some point is Kaden Fulcher from the reigning OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs.
Fulcher has a 1998 birth date and if he returns to the OHL in 2018-2019 it will be as an overage player. Fulcher is under contract to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and if he is returned to Hamilton, the Bulldogs could opt to trade him and recoup a few of the many draft picks they traded away in exchange for veteran players en route to winning the 2018 OHL title.
Teams that could be on the look for a veteran goalie include the Owen Sound Attack and Flint Firebirds.
Both teams have young, up-and-coming, 2001 birth year goalies — Mack Guzda in Owen Sound and Luke Cavallin in Flint — who played in the OHL in 2017-2018 as 16-year olds.
But both teams might want a veteran goalie to partner with and help develop their young tenders in 2018-2019.
PHOTO: Sudbury Wolves goalie Jake McGrath. (Photo by Terry Wilson/OHL.)