Ingram, Vandekamp on Trade

(Kaufmann at Rebels camp - Red Deer Advocate)

A couple of different perspectives have come in today on the deal that sent veteran forward Colin Lidster to Grande Prairie of the AJHL for 18 year old defenceman Mitch Kaufmann. First, I had the chance to chat with Smokies Coach and GM Jim Ingram at practice yesterday...

Ingram on Roster Moves

Click here to download

Grande Prairie Coach and GM Mike Vandekamp (who used to coach in Merritt and Vernon) has some comments on the deal up on the Storm website.

Kaufmann, a six foot, 190-pound defenceman from Red Deer, was in his second year with the Storm. He saw limited playing time to start the season.

“We’ve been carrying what we feel is too many defencemen since the start of the season,” said Vandekamp. “That made it difficult to provide necessary playing time.

“Mitch has been caught in a numbers game at times. We felt this move would help him.”

It's really hard to know what the Smokies will get from Kaufmann. The newspaper report I linked to yesterday said he was steady and reliable. A Grande Prairie fan on the BCHL message board gave the impression he could be an offensive defenceman that could run a power play if given more of an opportunity. I suppose we'll find out soon enough! I'm not sure if Mitch will be in the line-up tonight, but surely we'll see him either tonight against Cowichan Valley or tomorrow against Prince George. I'm sure we'll see new forward Josh McEwan make his Smokies debut though. Both those games have 7:30pm puck drops at the Cominco Arena.