OHL trade aftermath


By
January 12, 2017

Trading was brisk, furious and reactive as contenders and prospectors were part of the flurry of activity up to and including deadline day in the Ontario Hockey League.

With the top four teams in the OHL all members of the Western Conference — Soo Greyhounds, London Knights, Erie Otters and Windsor Spitfires — it was a chess match of sorts with one move leading to multiple others.

And in a touch of irony, the leading team in the Eastern Conference — Oshawa Generals — were sellers rather than buyers.

As for a mid-grade team that made itself better for this season and beyond with little fanfare, the Ottawa 67’s left the trade table in good shape.

WESTERN WORLD

Soo Greyhounds scored well and dealt from youthful depth up front in getting seasoned, steady defenseman Noah Carroll from the Guelph Storm for disgruntled forward Liam Hawel. It may not rank as an explosive trade but Carroll represents an above-average defender who the Soo did not over-pay for while also exchanging draft picks with Guelph.

Back-to-back, 50-win regular seasons have not brought the desired championship to Erie, thus the Otters went all out to add overage forward Warren Foegele from the Kingston Frontenacs and Team Canada forward Anthony Cirelli from the Oshawa Generals for this year’s run.

But the defending OHL and Memorial Cup champion London Knights more than answered Erie by dealing stock-piled draft picks to get Team Canada forward Mitchell Stephens from the Saginaw Sprit, star defenseman Mitchell Vande Sompel from Oshawa and the rights to minor-pro overage forward Dante Salituro from the Ottawa 67’s.

Meanwhile, Windsor Spitfires, who have a free ticket into this year’s Memorial Cup tournament as host entry, nonetheless added a valuable chip in Team U.S.A. forward Jeremy Bracco from the Kitchener Rangers.

The trade winner from among the fab four of the Western Conference?

London, all the way.

EASTERN BLOCK

Oshawa Generals and Peterborough Petes were the top two teams in the Eastern Conference on trade deadline day. But Oshawa sold off its two best players in the aforementioned Cirelli and Vande Sompel while Peterborough added a decent center in Christopher Paquette from the Niagara IceDogs after making earlier trades in which the Petes gave up multiple draft picks for three veteran skaters.

In a ho-hum Eastern Conference, the Petes have emerged as the favourites with general manager Michael Oke having slowly-but-surely built a solid, structured team ahead of the sell-off Generals, who are more focused on next season when they hope to bring the historic 100 anniversary of the Memorial Cup tournament to Oshawa in 2018.

Ottawa 67’s came and left trade deadline week minus only one player from their active roster, disgruntled 18-year old forward Drake Rymsha. And Ottawa coach-general manager Jeff Brown not only added five high draft picks but picked up overage defenseman Chris Martenet from London and 18-year old forward Zack Dorval from Kingston.

The 6-foot, 186-pound Dorval could prove to be a steal for Ottawa.

A hard-working competitor who plays with an edge, Dorval never found his game in Kingston after the Frontenacs took him in the second round of the 2014 OHL draft following a spectacular 48-goal season with the Soo Thunder minor midgets.

A character kid with strong leadership traits whose game is built on speed, grit and heart, Dorval — for whatever reason — never did look comfortable playing for Frontenacs coach Paul McFarland. But in going to Ottawa to play for Coach Brown — who had been trying to acquire Dorval for more than a year — the Hearst, Ontario product has a golden opportunity to achieve potential that wasn’t attained in Kingston.

IN LIKE FLINT

After taking over as general manager of a team that won only 20 games and missed the playoffs in 2015-2016, George Burnett (and his staff) have transformed the Flint Firebirds into a competitive club in 2016-2017 by virtue of a number of productive trades.

Flint has already matched last season’s win total and with a record above the .500 mark, is currently in possession of a playoff spot in the higher-end Western Conference.

Since taking over hockey operations in Flint, Burnett — who has had notable success elsewhere in the OHL as a long-time coach and GM — has added several better-than-average players to this edition of the Firebirds with the only notable subtractions being forward Will Bitten and defenseman Vili Saarijarvi, who had both requested trades.

By trading Bitten and Saarijarvi and a cupboard full of excess draft picks, Burnett went out and acquired the likes of no. 1 goalie Connor Hicks, big, rangy, young defenseman Fedor Gordeev, serviceable overage forward Everett Clark, two-way forward Maurizio Colella, high-scoring, 20-goal forward Kole Sherwood, promising young forward C.J. Clarke and puck-moving, veteran defenseman Jalen Smereck.

To be sure, seemingly every trade engineered by Burnett and his staff has paid dividends.


What you think about “OHL trade aftermath”

  1. Seems to be two divisions in the OHL the super elite and the elite with the West being superior in every way shape and form not just from a performance stand point but drafting as well

    Zach Dorval with 7 OHL goals in three seasons as a 2 nd round pick a change of scenery might be best for both partners

    Importance of Draft in Hockey

    The good teams seem to get real good players with mid round picks players like Morgan Frost as a 3 rd rounder 13 goals , Boris Katchouk 2nd round pick 20 goals and Jack Kopacka 8th round with 13 goals in a tough conference great job by the Soo
    North Bay 98 draft – with Zach Poirer 1st with 8 goals this season , David Sherman 2nd ( no longer with team ) and Cam Morrison 3rd – no show

    99 draft with Brady Lyle1 st , Jacob Ball -3 goals , Kyle Potts 6 goals and Daniel Walker 0 goals
    it does not take much with a bad draft or two for things to start to fall apart

    Starts with good player evaluation in all leagues

  2. The Western Conference is going to be very close this year. Soo, London, Erie, Windsor, and Owen Sound all in the fight for the lead. Can’t wait till the playoffs start. I’m almost 100 certain, the OHL rep will be a team from the Western Conference to complete with Windsor in the Memorial Cup. I’m certain it will either be Soo or London, but Erie could surprise everyone.

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