Action around the Canadian Hockey League has resumed following a break for Christmas and the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs made some news over the weekend.
The team announced on Saturday that rookie forward Shane Wright would be added to the Frontenacs leadership group as an alternate captain.
After earning exceptional player status last spring to enter the OHL Priority Selection a year early, Wright has made a smooth adjustment to the league as a 15-year-old.
Wright, who turns 16 on Jan. 5, has 17 goals and 30 points in 30 games this season with Kingston.
The Frontenacs named Wright and veteran blueliner Nick King as alternate captains. The pair joins a Kingston leadership group that features Jakob Brahaney as captain and Jake Murray as an alternate as well.
“Although Shane is a young player, he has earned the privilege of having a letter on his jersey,” Kingston general manager Darren Keily said in a prepared statement.
“Both players are great kids, care about their teammates, and do things the correct way on and off the ice,” Keily also said.
The announcement was one of two the Frontenacs made on Saturday as the team announced the signing of Slovakian forward Martin Chromiak.
Selected in the CHL Import Draft last summer, Chromiak started the season with HK Dukla Trencin in the Slovakian league.
In 32 games this season, Chromiak had five goals and six points in Slovakia’s men’s league.
Last season with HC Dukla Trencin’s U20 team, Chromiak had 22 goals and 46 points in 39 games.
Saying that the process of signing Chromiak took “longer than expected,” Keily said in a release that the 17-year-old was expected to join the team on Monday.
TRADING PLACES
As the league moves into the unofficial second half of the season, the weekend saw three deals go down in the Western Hockey League, including a pair by the Tri-City Americans.
The team dealt import Jan Cikhart to the Regina Pats in exchange for a conditional fourth-round draft pick in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft in one deal while also dealing defenceman Samuel Stewart to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a fourth-round pick in 2023.
A 19-year-old veteran of 109 WHL games, Stewart had two goals and 13 points in 33 games with the Americans this season.
The deal with Regina fills the Pats second import spot with the addition of Cikhart, who has a goal and four points in 25 games in his first WHL season.
As the WHL trade freeze ended, the Prince Albert Raiders and Swift Current Broncos connected on a deal as well.
The Raiders sent 18-year-old Cole Nagy to Swift Current in exchange for another 18-year-old in Matthew Culling.
MOVING PARTS
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Cape Breton Eagles were busy on the trade front following the Christmas break with a pair of moves over the weekend.
The team opened the day by dealing 18-year-old Brooklyn Kalmikov and a ninth-round draft pick in 2021 to the Victoriaville Tigres in exchange for 18-year-old Zackary Riel and a first-round pick in 2020 (originally Rimouski’s).
Riel and the pick were then dealt to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan along with 16-year-old David Doucet, a second-round pick in 2022 and a third-round pick in 2021.
In return, the Eagles received veteran forward Shawn Element and a sixth-round pick (originally Quebec’s) and a ninth-round pick (originally Blainville-Boisbriand’s), both in the 2021 draft.
The deal paid dividends early for the Eagles as Element had a pair of goals in two weekend games with Cape Breton.
Acadie-Bathurst and Blainville-Boisbriand also connected on a weekend trade as the Titan sent a third-round pick in 2022 to the Armada in exchange for 17-year-old defenceman Sam McKinney.
[relatedlinks]
