The Regina Pats are poised to announce a big six player swap with the Kelowna Rockets this morning. Details will be posted here as soon as they're available. If I were a betting man, I'd expect the Rockets' Troy Ofukany to be in a Pats uniform this weekend. Other than that - we'll see shortly, I hope.
Update: The Pats have traded forward Ryan McDonald to his hometown team, the Prince Albert Raiders. In return, the Pats receive 6'5" forward Josh Elder from the Raiders.
Update #2: Here's the scoop on that 3 for 3 trade with the Kelowna Rockets. Heading west are Pats forwards Justin Bernhardt and Jason MacDonald, along with prospect Kyle St. Denis. Joining the Pats are forwards Troy Ofukany, Kaspers Saulietis, and Kirt Hill.
Overall, it looks as though Pats General Manager Brent Park improved his team significantly today. Elder, Saulietis and Ofukany add some much-needed size and grit up front. The Pats give up players who have accounted for 16 goals in the WHL this season. In return, they receive four players who have scored 33 times so far this year. All in all, not bad!
6 comments:
Holey Moley - A great trade I think!! The Pats just got a bit older and quite a bit bigger. Those were both weak areas of the team.
Parker gave up a lot in St Denis who clearly was the nugget in this trade, but there were rumors that St Denis didn't want to come this far east so they may have had to trade him at some point anyways.
The Pats really helped themselves in getting bigger. In addition they got two 19 yr olds of some quality for next year as potential 20 yr olds. As it sits now Brownlee and Scott are the only 19 yr olds, I think. Neither one can be considered impact players so their long term future would be unsure. Ofukuny is Kelowna's leading scorer right now so he could come back as a 20 yr old and be a kyle Ross type player. Ryan Mcdonald had played pretty well but adding 6'5" Elder is also going to add a lot of presence to this team. With Eberle, Hulak and adding young Strueby I think the Pats believe they have firepower on the horizon.
The d-men question is only thing that may have to be shored up a bit now. If Deck can't play or only play very little, maybe they will have to start looking for one veteran d-man for when the tough going starts. Again, maybe Cole Simpson? It must be deja-vu but I mentioned Ofukuny in an earlier post, and voila!!
All in all I think this was great trade for the Pats and I think it's worthy of 2 thumbs up.......
There's a certain amount of risk involved in this deal. If Bernhardt ever lives up to his potential, the Rockets win this one hands down.
However, as it stands now - the Pats addressed some glaring weaknesses by adding scoring and grit. I think Ofukany can develop into a Garth Murray-esque player: 20-30 goals, and some hard-nosed play.
The Pats top three centres are now Kyle Ross, Garrett Festerling (who appears to be out of his slump) and Ofukany. This has potential...
For sure if Bernhardt ever fulfills his potential, ouch. And worse yet if St Denis turns into a scoring phenom like he is billed, the Rockets win this in a walk...
But as they say potential and $ 1.50 buys you a cup of coffee... I think this is an interesting trade that could take them out of the sub .500 funk they have been in. The truth about junior hockey is that you can't look too far down the road. Now 3 of the Fab 5 are gone by trade. Like I said potential and a $ 1.50.............
Sometimes you've gotta roll the dice. And I like this scenario a lot better than Brent Parker stubbornly hanging on to players who aren't/weren't getting the job done. It's okay to admit a player (like Bernhardt) hasn't panned out the way you expected.
I agree! this trade helps them now and brings back some guys who could help them next yr. With Eberle developing, Hulak showing good signs, listing Strueby I think they can handle losing St. Denis. Additionally St Denis didn't really want to come here. They also have a kid in southern Alberta who was lighting up the scoring in one of the midget leagues down there. They got a lot more than they would have waiting till the deadline.
All in all this should make them better now and in the future.....
The NHL, CHL, and Hockey Canada are old boy clubs to be sure. Tell me Ted Nolan couldn't have coached at any of those levels for 7 years. He rebuilt Moncton in 1 yr, has the Islanders in 1st place, and I an sure could have won gold with any Canada Junior team. You will see my point soon.
The Pats lost another road game they should have won. Rowatt was poor, Kyle Ross was poor(lost 3 face offs while Pats had a 5 on 3), Nick Ross was poor, as was Shira. Rowatt gave 3 goals on 17 shots in Swift last game. He have up 4 on 26 shots last nite. He has been poor since returning from the West trip. Tommy T. should take the reins for a few games. You can see plainly they miss having a couple of veteran d-men. The new guys can't be expected much of, they don't even know who their billets will be.
Last yr was a 4 player team This year is real test. In my mind the coaching staff has failed. The kids have not bought into the scheme, and they appear to be unmotivated. They say coaching is 65% motivation and 35% teaching. That is why Nolan is so successful. I am not a big Hunt fan, never have been. He has worked his way up in th CHA doing lower tasks and they promote from within.(Like everybody didn't know Hartsburg was going to be head coach) These guys use this as stepping stone either to get to, or get back into, the NHL.ie; Rennie, Hay, et al. The truth is that this Pats team is not performing like a three yr built team. They have apparently removed all the cancers yet the team still languishes. If we have the talent, then what is reason we are not doing better? Strange; why is Hunt running the forwrds when a guy like Perkins who scored 60 goals in a dub season is coaching d-men. Why are we so poor on face-offs. We gave up 3.25 goals against last year which was too many. We are at 3.07 this year and we have a more veteran defense. This team has NOT been taught how to play on the road. Like Jacque Lemaire says. Play for a 0-0 tie, get a point, and try to win it in OT. Goals against are important. Last year the Pats were a plus 2 over the season and out in the first round. The Warriors were plus 73 and went to the league finals.
Watching the Rokets vs Silvertips on Shaw last nite when a comment was made. The owner of the Tips(a guy from Medicine Hat) said he didn't want to wait 5 yrs for a winner. The Tips made the League final in their first year. will finish first this year as they did last. All of this in what 4 years. The same can be said for the Giants. Coaches with NHL experience like Constantine and Hay seem to make a difference. Here we the Pats sit 11 yrs into this tenure trying to get to .500. It is bloody sad! We are now at 20-21 yrs with a cumulative record below .500....hardly a legendary franchise. There is clearly a problem Houston!!!
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