Another day, another trade for the Falcons

Another day, another trade.  It seems that we may need to re-name Fort Erie Falcons GM Matt Young after the illustrious CCHL trade reviewer Trader Sam.  If one didn't know any better, you would think they are one-in-the-same.

Yes, he makes that many trades.  This is not fiction.

In his latest move, Young shipped newly signed Drew Stafford, prospects Jonathan Ang and Kole Sherwood and a mid-round pick to the Dayton Musicmen for 22-year-old Justin Bailey.

It seems like a lot to pay for an unproven right winger, but Young didn't seem to think so.

"Listen, we like Justin a lot.  He's 6'3" tall, and 210 pounds.  Can you imagine a forward line with Nick (Falcons winger Nick Ritchie) and Justin on a line together in three years?  Can you imagine a defence trying to contain those two down low?  That would be really hard and it would make us harder to play against.  That's why I was willing to sacrifice these players for a guy like Bailey" said Young after announcing the trade.

Young continued by saying he expects Bailey to remain in the minors this season before challenging for a role in the forward group next season.

"It won't be easy for him.  We expect DeBrincat, Chipachoyov, Palat, Ritchie and both Stromes to put for more ice time next season.  We love what we've got in that group up front," added Young.

Rumour around practice this morning is that winger Alex Burrows has asked the organization for a trade, citing playing time concerns as the reason.

When asked about it following practice, the feisty winger was a bit coy in his response.

"Listen I like it here, but I like playing more.  I won't say I asked for a trade, but I won't say that it'd be a bad thing to be moved again.  This isn't what I had in mind and I know I could contribute to at least 10-12 teams in this league," replied Burrows.

It remains to be seen what happens with Burrows' request but word around the league insiders indicates Young is willing to move the winger for a draft pick or prospect.

Miners and Express battle to a 3-3 draw.

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON)

Goaltenders Ben Bishop and Henrik Lundqvist each made 30 saves and overtime would solve nothing, as the Long Island Express battled the Sudbury Miners to a 3-3 draw on Monday night.

John Tavares would lead the attack for the Express with a goal and two assists, while Miner's winger Tobias Reider and defenseman Shea Theodore would each chip in two points.

The Express would open the scoring as Brady Skjei’s wrist shot beat Bishop blocker side for his first of the year.  Tavares and Mats Zuccarello would draw the assists.  The Express would extend their lead before the period ended, as Tavares capitalized on a Philip Danualt turnover and beat Bishop for his 12th goal of the season.  The Express out-shot the Miners 14-5 in the period.

The second period was all Sudbury.  Their relentless attack peppered Lundqvist with 17 shots and allowed them to take a 3-2 lead to the dressing room.  Tobias Reider, Radim Vrbata and Lauri Korpikoski, on the power play, would be the goal scorers for the Miners.

A very tight-checking third period saw both teams trade chances but both Bishop and Lundqvist stood tall in the nets.  Sudbury appeared on its way to their 8th win of the season, but it was not to be.  Rookie Tanner Kero picked a perfect time to score his first CCHL goal, as his slap shot with 52 seconds remaining beat Bishop and sent the game into overtime.

The shots in overtime favored the Miners, 2-1 but the extra period solved nothing.


MINERS NUGGETS

- Rookie Brandon Montour played his 3rd game of the season last night.  He is expected to remain in the line-up until Darnell Nurse returns from injury.  Nurse is targeting the weekend for his return.

- Special Teams were solid last night.  The penalty kill was perfect in three chances, while the power play was 1-for-3 on the night.

- The Miners now get a much-needed rest and time to re-group.  They have three days off before their next game on Friday night, when they host the Hamilton Tigers at the Vale Centre.

Dayton continues to overhaul team as Aho goes to Falcons for three prospects and NHL vet..

Sebastian Aho appears to be crushed as he gets word he's been traded.

The major overhaul in Dayton continued a few days ago when twenty year old forward Sebastian Aho was traded to the Fort Erie Falcons.

Aho, was the 35th player drafted in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. He was drafted by the Musicmen with the 61st pick, 17th selection of the CCHL 3rd round of their entry draft.

Aho posted 49 pts. in his rookie season and had roughly ten points in limited time with Dayton this season before being traded to the Falcons.

"We loved Aho," said Dayton GM Bill Corfield. "But as good as we thought he was - we didn't think he was so good we should turn down a really solid offer from Fort Erie for him. We're a better and deeper team now because of the trade. Maybe not better on the ice right now - but in time, we're confident that some of the kids that come our way in this deal will contribute on the ice for a future Musicmen team."

Here's what is coming to Dayton.

Christian Fischer - RW/C - Drafted in the 2nd round, 32nd overall, by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2015 Entry Draft. 6' 2, and 214 pounds, the twenty year old has a nose for the net, an ability to perform in all three zones, plus he has a physical dimension he's not afraid to use. Fischer has scored well at every level he's been at, just shy of being a point per game player for his amateur career. Currently in the NHL, which will help his overall development. (Fischer was drafted 20th overall in the 2015 CCHL Draft...)

Malcolm Subban - G - Drafted in the 1st round, 24th overall by the Boston Bruins of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Coming through both Belleville of the OHL and Providence in the AHL, allowed Subban to improve his high end skill set without being rushed to the NHL. Despite the promise he holds, the Bruins waived Subban at the start of the 2017-18 NHL season, hoping to sneak him through waivers so they could assign him to their AHL team. The expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights claimed him and he now works with Marc-Andre Fluery to tend the nets for the NHL's newest team. (Subban was drafted 18th overall in the 2012 CCHL Draft...)

Cliff Pu - RW/C - Drafted in the 3rd round, 69th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. 6'2, 192 pounds, Pu's game has matured greatly during his time with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. Averaging 23 goals in his first two seasons with the Knights, Pu has seen his offensive skills mature to match his defensive ones. He may be in the right place at the right time to seize his chance to make the NHL someday. (Pu was drafted 41st overall in the 2016 CCHL Draft...)

Jason Pominville also returns to the Musicmen per the terms of the trade.

Carey Price gets the shutout as Chinook down Orrsmen 3-0

CALGARY –  Carey Price said it may have been his best game of the season.
The Calgary goaltender made 22 saves for his third shutout of the campaign as the Chinook downed the Parry Sound Orrsmen 3-0 on Sunday night.

But he gave a lot of credit to his defense.

"The guys did a great job of blocking guys out," said Price, who shut out Parry Sound posting his third clean sheet of his career. "I saw most of the shots and the ones I didn't just seem to hit me.
"They had a few scoring chances, but they cleared a lot of garbage and blocked a lot of shots."
R. O’Reilly scored in the first period and Shattenkirk, Granlund scored in the second for the Chinook, who were unbeaten in 8 games since the upset by the Dayton Musicmen.

The Chinook moved eight points clear of Springfield for the first place in the league.

Crosby had an assist in tonight’s outing which puts him in a three-way tie for the league-leading 40 points with Getzlaf and Draisaitl. 

"To be honest, I thought it was a pretty routine game for him," said Crosby. "The thing about Price is he makes the saves look easy. He's one of the best goaltenders in the league. For me, it was just another game for him."

NOTES:
Shattenkirk scored his first goal of the season on a power play chance in the second period.
Condon was stellar tonight stopping 57 shots of 60 shots.

UP NEXT:
The Calgary Chinook will take a three-day break and visits the Ottawa Barracudas on Thursday.

The Disco Inferno, Burns, baby, Burns!

Yesterday, the Siberia Icecats made a significant upgrade to their team, bringing in Norris trophy and Kehler Cup winner, Brent Burns.  Brent did not come cheaply, but this deal seems to give the Icecats the true #1 dman that they have been searching for the past 2 seasons.  In order to get Burns, Siberia had to give up solid yet undersized Jared Spurgeon, a great defensive prospect Phillipe Myers and their 1st round pick in 2018.  

We caught up with GM Saouaf about the trade.  "Well, we are playing in a tough, tough conference.  It's going to be a tough battle to get through our conference and I wanted to give our team the best fighting chance I could.  While losing the talent we gave up is tough, we feel we have built up enough organizational depth to allow such a trade to be made, while not weakening us significantly.  I look forward to seeing how this team looks as they start to gel together.  The first quarter of the season saw us with ups and downs, with so many new faces, but we believe that as the year progresses, the Icecats will gel into a candidate for the Kehler Cup!".  

It certainly does seem like GM Saouaf is going all in this season, as his trades seem to attest to.  The question that is on everyone's mind is will captain McDavid be able to lead this team to a deep cup run?  Only time will tell.  The present and the future certainly look bright for the Icecats.  Stay tuned sports fans!

Miners make trade; send Sutter and Hutton to Vegas for picks.

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

The Sudbury Miners and Las Vegas Aces made a move early Sunday evening, as the Miners sent pending UFA forward Brandon Sutter, along with defenseman Ben Hutton, to the Las Vegas Aces in exchange for Las Vegas’ 2nd  and 3rd  round picks in 2019.

Las Vegas was looking to add some veteran help and will take on both Sutter and Hutton’s combined cap hit of just over $4 million for the remainder of the season.  With this latest transaction, Sudbury again moves a couple of veteran contracts for a couple of potential top 50 draft picks.  Sudbury will pick eight times in the first two rounds of the 2019 draft, barring any further transactions.

Sutter was a valued player for the Miners.  He was a big part of the Miners league-leading penalty kill and was often matched up against the other team's top lines.  In 26 games this year, Sutter has 4 goals and 7 assists and was among the ice time leaders for the team. But considering the Miners are in a rebuild mode and that Sutter will command north of $4.3 million to re-sign in the off-season, the time to move him for future assets was now.

The 24-year-old Hutton, is in his first full year of the CCHL.  His current entry-level contract expires at the end of next season and he has contributed 3 goals and 4 assists in 26 games so far this year.  The Prescott, ON native, was the Georgetown Millers' fifth-round draft pick back in 2014.

Fort Erie trades Burns to Siberia

There were many rumors circulating about a possible deal in the four days the Falcons had off from game action, but when it didn't happen on the first day, many believed they were just rumors. 

They were just rumors until Saturday afternoon when GM Matt Young pulled off a huge deal with the Siberia IceCats. 

Fort Erie sent Brent Burns to Siberia for Jared Spurgeon, Siberia's first-round pick in the 2018 CCHL draft and top prospect Philippe Myers. 

"We thought we'd gauge interest in Brent as it just wasn't working out well with our group, and there were a lot of serious conversations, but in the end, Siberia stepped up to the plate to make the big splash," said Young. 

Young continued "We're hoping Myers is a year or two away and he is a hulking defenceman that has a really nice offensive side to his game.  We like him a lot.  Jared will be a nice fit with our group.  He can still score 40 points and is better defensively than Brent at this point for us; he really loves to block shots." 

Spurgeon was in Fort Erie for the game-day skate and is expected to play the right side with new defensive partner Jaccob Slavin. 

"It's good to be here.  I think I may get more of an opportunity to show what I can do offensively here.  I know that it will be nice to not have my nose hairs freeze every time I go outside.  It should only happen once or twice here for the winter I'm told" espoused Spurgeon after the morning skate. 

Spurgeon is expected to wear his normal number 46 tonight in his first game as Fort Erie plays host to the Wisborg Donuts.