Inside the Will Bitten trade
At first blush and considering the returns gained for impact players in several other Ontario Hockey League trades over the past few years, Flint Firebirds should have received more for holdout centre Will Bitten than they did from the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Not that Flint came up empty in getting proven 1997 birth-year goalie Connor Hicks, a plum prospect in 1999 birth-year rookie defenseman Fedor Gordeev, and two second-round selections in exchange for Bitten and a 12th-round pick.
It’s just that the feeling was Flint was going to get multiple seasoned players and draft picks from either the Ottawa 67’s or Windsor Spitfires, who are the two teams we are told that Bitten and his handlers said they would accept a move to when the 1998 birth-year centre first requested a trade from the Firebirds about a month ago.
Let’s begin by safely assuming that Flint general manager George Burnett — who is as honest and respectable a man as there is in the OHL — had a number of conversations regarding Bitten with both Ottawa coach-GM Jeff Brown and Windsor GM Warren Rychel.
And one would have to believe that in the month that passed since Bitten requested the trade out of Flint to either Ottawa or Windsor that Burnett did not receive what he felt was a good enough offer from the 67’s or Spitfires in exchange for the talented centre.
Enter Hamilton — and the irony between the Bulldogs and Flint.
For it was Hamilton president Steve Staios who, following the 2015-2016 season, fired Burnett as coach and general manager of the Bulldogs.
So here we had it, Staios — who after firing Burnett, hired himself as GM — dealing with the new Flint GM who he had dismissed just a few months earlier.
Taking it a step further, Hamilton coach John Gruden coached Bitten in Flint last season before being fired by Firebirds owner Rolf Nilsen.
At any rate, back to Bitten and the fact that the two teams that he preferred to be dealt to, namely Ottawa and Windsor, did not come up with an offer suitable enough to pry the Montreal Canadiens draft pick out of Flint.
So, in further examination of the trade, Burnett got what he felt was a better offer from Hamilton — the team that had just fired him a few months back — than he had from either Ottawa or Windsor.
Which could lead one to think that perhaps Bitten is not as highly regarded as he or his handlers might have thought.
And that line of thought is enhanced by the fact that Bitten, who many projected as a first or second-round pick at the 2016 National Hockey League draft, instead lasted until well into the third round when Montreal picked him 70th overall. And that is despite Bitten leading Flint in scoring in 2015-2016 with 30 goals, 35 assists, 65 points.
Putting all of the above out there for consideration, we can perhaps safely assume — there are those words again — that Burnett as GM of the Firebirds simply took what was the best offer when he got a good goalie in Hicks, a towering, young defender in Gordeev and two second-round draft picks for Bitten.
The 67’s could have had him, but Jeff Brown said it wasn’t a good idea.
Ryan,
Obviously.
Asking price was too much. I’ve seen so many good players wanting trades, like Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Kyle Wellwood, and others.
Windsor wanted John Tavares, but London was able to afford him. Jason Spezza wanted out of Mississauga, and ended up with Windsor and then traded to Belleville for Kyle Wellwood.
John Tavares did never ask to be traded.