Frustrating deadline day for Rangers
Posted Jan 10, 2011 04:30:38 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
All was not quiet on the western front on this OHL trade deadline day but there was silence in Kitchener.
While divisional rivals Erie and Guelph made moves and conference opponents Windsor and Saginaw swung trades, the Rangers were unable to add depth to a thin forward unit.
But it wasn’t for lack of trying according to head coach and general manager Steve Spott, who had been working the phones for days.
“We had looked at a couple of overage possibilities, we had looked at a 19-year old (from Barrie, Taylor Carnevale) that we tried to acquire but we had an interesting situation with Ben Thomson,” Spott said candidly. “But beyond that, it was multiple seconds and lots of picks if you’re going to get a player.”
Spott declined to go into details regarding rumoured No Trade Clauses, saying contracts were confidential. But he did point out that Ben Thomson could have gone the NCAA route at Cornell University with his brother but made a commitment to the Rangers instead. In light of that, Spott says he wants to return that commitment to his players and not send them home if they refuse to report somewhere else.
Still, Spott insists the prices began to spiral out of control this trading season.
“We had what we thought was probably an opportunity with Barrie last week that didn’t work out and that was the deal to be had. It made sense this year and next year,” Spott says. “The names that moved, and all the picks that moved, were just not right for our organization. And that’s what this is about.”
Spott says the Rangers would have made a deal today if he could have found one that made sense. In the end, however, he concedes to having used up the team’s assets on acquiring Cody Sol, Julian Melchiori and Jamie Doornbosch.
Those moves, says Spott, were designed to bolster a blueline left depleted by the departures of Dan Kelly and John Moore at the end of last season.
“The last thing I thought I’d be doing on January 10th, 2011, was looking for a forward,” Spott concedes. “But that’s junior hockey and that’s the way it’s played out with Jeff (Skinner) and Jeremy (Morin). Unfortunately today we weren’t able to acquire someone at a price that made sense for the organization.”
Skinner and Morin scored a combined 97 goals in Kitchener last year but both have graduated, somewhat unexpectedly, to pro clubs.
