Dealing with the deadline
Posted Jan 14, 2011 02:09:24 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ben Thomson is ready to focus on being a Kitchener Ranger.
Despite his best efforts to block it out, the 17-year old budding power forward admits he couldn’t help but hear his name bandied about in OHL trade rumours over the past month.
“You don’t know if it’s rumours or what’s going on,” Thomson concedes. “But it’s part of the business and you have to realize that.”
That “business” saw a total of 35 draft choices and 30 players change teams before last Monday’s deadline of 12 PM. Whether unloading or reloading, teams across the Ontario Hockey League served notice that the bottom line is about winning, whether now or later.
“You win, your team does well, and everyone’s happy,” says Thomson candidly. “It’s part of the game and it was the same for me growing up.”
Thomson is happy today because he’s still in Kitchener and he says he looks forward to continuing his career as a Ranger.
“You have to focus on the hockey. You can’t worry about what’s going on off the ice. You can only deal with that as it comes,” says Thomson. “It has to be hockey first.”
Thomson and the Rangers are home to the Peterborough Petes tonight before embarking on a road trip through Saginaw and the Soo.
