The quest continues for BCHL teams to add players until rosters are frozen.
The Feb. 10 trade deadline has become even more important this season amid the chaotic junior hockey landscape created by last year’s NCAA decision to give scholarships to major junior players.
The Trail Smoke Eaters are among the teams who have been hit the hardest, with the departure of six players this season alone to either the USHL or WHL.
The feeling of some players who have made the jump is they need to play at a higher level to either secure or retain their NCAA Division-one commitments.
Defensemen Owen McCarthy and Carter Matthews left last month for the WHL, prompting Head Coach and GM Eric Thurston to acquire Cole Hutchinson from Chilliwack.
Thurston says the decision to make the cash deal was an easy one.
“Adding a younger, capable, an ’06 (19-year-old), who skates really well, has been in the league or has had experience (in the NAHL and USHL), being a right shot, those guys aren’t always easy to find so it ended up just being kind of a no brainer,” said Thurston, who added he is comfortable with the team’s back line.
“Having an experienced d-corps of 19 and 20 year olds I think really sets us up well, now it’s just a matter of keeping working and see how we fare the last games here and toward the trade deadline,” explained the bench boss.
The most recent departure by 19-year-old Swedish winger Louis Jonerheim to Muskegeon of the USHL has left a hole up front.
Thurston is scouring the BCHL and other leagues for quality forwards, but admits it’s difficult to find teams willing to part with them and players willing to leave their teams this late in the season.
“I think sometimes you might be luckier to find a needle in a haystack,” he said.
“It’s a work in progress, reaching out to the other GM’s in our league, but also seeing what’s available (in other leagues and in Europe),” noted Thurston, who called it a sign of the times in junior hockey, given the exodus out of the BCHL that’s been happening for over a year.
“We’ve got to play that game too, which is tough, you never like to do that, but I have a responsibility to the fans of Trail and to our team here that we are going to look to get the best players and put the best team on the ice,” Thurston stated and he promised he is going to be relentless.
“I am going to keep hunting until the deadline or when the league has frozen all rosters, where I can’t look for us to get better, that’s my job and unfortunately that’s the tough part of junior hockey these days.”
