Trade Deadline Madness (Part 1, The Smokies)

On Thursday evening at 6pm the BCHL trade deadline passed for another year. Junior A teams from all across Canada were working madly to try and improve their team. Either they're going after a championship, re-stocking for next year or just trying to survive. It amazes me how much movement there is in junior hockey. From players asking for trades, to teams that are just looking for that next piece of the puzzle, there is pretty constant activity. I sometimes wonder if that's really the best thing for the development of young men. You would think that as you are going through school and developping as a hockey player, stability would be an ideal scenario. However, personalities and situations being what they are, guys are moving all over the place. It seems like players in this league are destined to be moved at least once or twice. It's not just the teams that are looking to turn around their fortunes, you look at teams on top like Penticton who are constantly making tweaks to their roster.

You have to be always on the look out for the next new talent or you're going to be left behind. There's more movement in the BCHL than the pros!

All of the trades today have yet to filter in. Some I know unofficially but can't really pass on as of yet. Lets start our coverage of the trade deadline by reviewing the moves of the Trail Smoke Eaters.

The Smoke Eaters have been put in a very difficult situation this trade deadline. Certainly Jim Ingram has been looking to make some improvements to his club all year long. He's added and subtracted pieces as he got to know the players and the league better. I've personally really liked a lot of his moves this year. Guys like August Aiken, Ryan Hill, Jimmy Geerin, Brad Davis, etc... have made very positive contributions to the play and even more so the attitude of this team. They're a hard working, blue collar group. Almost every trade has reflected a move in that direction.

However, ever since the start of December things have started to happen that have forced the Smokies to use this deadline as a way to cover losses rather than make significant gains. That's the reality of hockey sometimes. Cards were burned up without return when Jamie Paulsen asked to be moved and Paul Levarsky left the BCHL to play in Slovakia. Cards were burned up in a trade when Nathan Westover asked to be moved and was replaced by Jimmy Geerin. The Smokies have all become fans of Geerin's, but again the move forces the use of another card and limits trade deadline options. Another card wasn't so much burned but de-activated with the long term injury loss of defenceman Cam Brodie. He's gone at least 6 weeks and it could be longer.

Suddenly the Smoke Eaters go from a full roster with some extra bodies to a team with 4 healthy defencemen and 12 healthy forwards. Oh, and only two cards left for new guys.

That means as the trade deadline approached, Coach Ingram needed two more defenceman, but didn't have any extra roster players to give up to get them. Deal a forward and you're down to 11. Trade a defenceman and that negates the addition. They certainly couldn't deal a goaltender.

Extra spots here and there can certainly be filled by AP players. We're all hoping that Logan Proulx will be back to game action soon, and he could be brought up as an AP from Midget for 5 regular season games and the playoffs. Several Nitehawks has spent time with the Rebels this year. Ingram has some contacts and knows the players on Vancouver Island. As a result, the Smokies should be OK if there are a couple of unexpected injuries here or there. However, the unfortunate departures of a few players over the last month or so didn't give the organization much flexibility when it came to improving the club at the trade deadline.

You could try to blame the coaching staff for guys who leave or ask to leave. However, it happens everywhere. There are guys on this team who asked to leave other teams. No matter how successful a team or a coach is, some people don't feel like they fit in or are getting the opporunities they want or deserve. It's just too bad for Trail that it all happened after the early December card deadline.

That left the Smokies working overtime the last few days to find defencemen to help this team into the playoffs.

The first addition is a terrific one. Trail picked up Merritt's former captain, Kevin Koopman. Click on his name there for a profile of Koopman from the BCHL website. This year on a last place Merritt team he's put up 7 goals and 7 assists in 28 games. That's a very solid 0.5 PPG pace. He only had 2 points in 9 games with Vernon, but he was clearly in a bigger position with the Cents than he was with the Vipers. Having watched Koopman several times this year, I'm really excited to get to see him as a Smoke Eater. Koopman seems to play a very smart, simple and effective game. He's calm with and without the puck. He skates well, jumps into the rush when he has a chance to, and moves the puck effective on the PP. He's also a big guy at 6'3 205, so he should help clear the front of the net. That's something the Smokies had a lot of trouble with against Powell River and to some extent against Salmon Arm. It's something Cam Brodie does well and Koopman will hopefully full some of that void.

Koopman also have some ties to the Trail area. He was a star a couple of seasons ago for the Beaver Valley Nitehawks. In fact, he played with current Smokies Stefan Decosse and Patrick Martin on that team. Click here to take a look at that stacked KIJHL roster. Koopman put up 39 points in 38 games from the back end. That as a 17 year old. He also had 13 points in 15 playoff games. His production didn't dip when the games got tight.

The one unfortunate thing about Koopman in the eyes of Smokies fans is that he's off to school next year. Koopman's fine play has earned him a scholarship to Brown. Unless they change their minds and defer him for a season, Koopman will only be a Smoke Eater until the end of this season. You wouldn't get a player of his abilities for future considerations, no matter how good, if he was coming back next year.

We still don't know what it'll cost to get Koopman. Right now we're looking at a "future cosiderations" and in the BCHL that can be anything from cash to a pick of anyone on your roster before the next season. In this case it isn't cash, but we're obviously not going to find out what player(s) Merritt could get anytime soon. When we do, we'll have a better idea how good a trade it was.

Koopman takes care of one spot on D, but there's still another hole to fill. I personally saw Ingram on the phone almost constantly when he was within cell range on the bus. Today I know was a very busy and stressful day for Coach/GMs across the league. The stress seemed to be over for Trail when they made their trade early this afternoon.

Opting to sacrifice a full line-up of forwards in order to land a defenceman they really liked, Trail dealt '89 F Chris Santiago to Victoria for '88 D Chris Markiewicz. Santiago has shown real flashes of talent since coming over to Trail in the David Arduin deal. However, he never scored a goal as a Smoke Eater and never really broke out of the slump he had fallen into in Westside. The guy has all the tools, and I really hope he puts things together in Victoria. Santiago is only 18 and has lots of time to find that scoring touch again. He should be around next year as Victoria gears up for the RBC. He's also closer to his Langley home so that will probably be a nice change for Chris.

Markiewicz has put up 7 points in 26 games this year with Victoria. He had 22 in 52 games last year. He's big enough at 6'0, 190lbs. He's also a 19 year old so still could've come back for another season next year. Victoria has only been to Trail once, so I don't have a lot of first hand knowledge of his game. However, he was the guy the Smokies wanted and someone who apparently can play well at both ends of the rink.

Unfortunately, with less than two hours to go before the trade deadline, Markiewicz informed the Smoke Eaters he wouldn't be reporting to Trail. His reasons for doing that havn't come out publically yet so I won't say, but it's not a particular slight on the Smokies. It's just an unfortunate situation that didn't give Coach Ingram much time to act.

Since Markiewicz wasn't carded with Trail yet he didn't cost them that last card. However, unless he was going to sit the rest of the year, the Smokies had to move him in less than two hours. They also still had a card to fill.

Working non-stop until 6pm, Coach Ingram and Brian Youngson talked to several teams in Alberta before sending Markiewicz to the Brooks Bandits. It's a future considerations deal and Trail will be getting a player from them for next year's team. Working something out for a guy who could come to Trail this year would probably have taken a lot longer than 2 hours given the possibility of anyone switching leagues deciding not to report.

In terms of filling their void on the blue line, the obvious depth Vernon was building at that position put them in a situation where a BCHL player was probably not going to get the ice time he deserved. They picked up a couple of veterans and didn't have much room left for everyone they had carded. That allowed the Smokies to pick up 89 D Patrick Raley from Vernon for future considerations. Raley is an 18 year old who put up 9 points in 39 games this season. That puts him fourth among currently active Trail defencemen. It means he could possibly see some power play time in Trail that he may not have seen in Vernon. He's also got two years of BCHL eligability after this season. Raley is listed at 5'11 and 200lbs, so he's got some size as well. He's a right handed shot. We've seen the composition of Trail's defence go from 5 righties to 4 lefties and now back to 4 righties. There've been a lot of changes on the blueline this year.

Raley also joins the American contingent of the team. It's always kind fo fun when the two sides chide each other a little bit. Especially when Canada invariably beats the US at events like the Workd Jr A Challenge and the World Junior Championships.

Good on Vipers Coach and GM Mark Ferner for giving Raley a chance to play more with Trail when he knew that the guys he brought in would make that difficult in Vernon. Guys around this league do understand this is a development league. No one wants to leave someone in a situation where their growth might be stunted by a lack of playing time. Raley has shown he's a BCHL defenceman after playing 39 games this year and impressing the coaches in Trail. He'll get his chance to continue that career with the Smokies for possibly several years to come.

Now Trail's line-up is at 11 forwards, 6 defencemen and 2 goaltenders. They have no cards left and are one player short of a full game time roster. However, it's easier to deal with a shortage at forward than it is on the blue line. They also have a lot of guys ready to AP for them if needed. Again, Logan Proulx is hopefully not too far from hitting the ice. He'll be available as an AP from midget.

It's just too bad the Smokies gave up Sanitago for a guy who ultimately decided not to report. It happens all the time in junior hockey, but it's another spot of bad luck for a team that could use a few breaks.

Koopman and Raley are here. I would expect both to be in the line-up for the home and home with Vernon. Koopman will likely wear #7 while Raley is expected to put on the #3 jersey. For Raley it's a quick turnaround from being a Viper to playing the Vipers. He'll be on the ice that he's called home all season, but this time as the enemy. That's hockey.

Incidently, Trail's team really is looking good for next season. I know no one in the room wants to look that far ahead, but it's nice to see some real potential in not just this year but the following years as well.

At forward they could have Corcoran (20), Bulach (20), Mailey (18), Ourosov(17), Martin (20), Herold (19) and Davis (20) back with the team next year. Logan Proulx will be 17 and could return as well. Both Proulx and Ourosov may end up in the WHL next year, and guys like Corcoran and Bulach could end up with scholarships before the year is done, but it's looking pretty good for now.

They'd have even less work to don on D with Warner (20), Brodie (20), Geerin (19), Hill (20) , Kinnebrew (19) and Raley (19) all available for next season. This is assuming they would all come back. That's certainly not usually the case. However, they could have 5 out of 6 defencemen back for next season. That would be great for chemistry. It'd also be a very solid, veteran group.

Finally, they're in a great position to potentially have two 19 year old goaltenders back for next season. Rollheiser and Barclay have both had their growing pains as rookies, but they've also both put together a lot of very good performances. They also compliment each other well by brining different styles to the rink. It's a different challenge when you get a different look in the Trail net. As long as both guys come back next year, I am fully confident that the goaltending in Trail would be among the best in the league.

For now it's off to Vernon for the first of a home and home. Hope to see you all on Saturday night back in Trail when you could win two round trip tickets from Pacific Coastal Airlines!