Wheeling and dealing in Flint
Busy on the Ontario Hockey League trade front this week, Flint Firebirds made three transactions in all as general manager George Burnett did deals with the Hamilton Bulldogs, London Knights and Oshawa Generals.
It began when the Firebirds dealt holdout centre Will Bitten to Hamilton for 1997 birth-year goalie Connor Hicks, 1999 birth-year defenseman Fedor Gordeev and a pair of second-round draft picks.
Armed with a growing number of future second-round selections, Burnett then parlayed two of them to London for 1997 birth-year forward Kole Sherwood, who recently signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. The American-born Sherwood scored 12 regular-season goals for the Memorial Cup champion Knights last season.
And dealing from strength with a number of 19-and-20-year old defensemen, the Firebirds shipped 1997 birth-year defender Alex DiCarlo to Oshawa for a future fifth-round draft pick.