Trade winds blowing
Screaming Eagles trade Hylland and Major in separate deals, reassign players
Cape Breton Screaming Eagles make pair of trades.
The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles were busy on Monday, making a number of moves as the club inches closer to its final roster.
The local Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team completed two trades, including trading 20-year-old forward Tyler Hylland to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
In exchange for Hylland, Cape Breton received a fourth-round pick in the 2021 QMJHL Entry Draft.
Prior to the trade, the Screaming Eagles had four overage players at their camp including Hylland, Mitchell Balmas, Declan Smith and Wilson Forest.
“It was pretty obvious when we acquired Balmas and Forest that those two guys brought something to the table that we needed,” said Screaming Eagles head coach and general manager Marc-André Dumont.
“Tyler has been great for our team and he’s been a great teammate. He’s a class act and we wanted to give him a chance to have a major junior training camp and not wait at home for a trade to happen.” Dumont, who acquired Hylland in a deal with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in August 2016, said the reason for making the trade now was in large part due to school.
“Tyler attends CEGEP and CEGEP started in Quebec last week, so if we kept him for the next two, three or four weeks, he can only do CEGEP by correspondence and it would be too late for him to join in-class CEGEP,” said Dumont.
“The clock was ticking where if we kept him and released him in mid-September, his whole education plan would have been quite down the drain.”
Hylland was acquired in a deal that sent forward Luke Henman to the Armada during the club’s 2016 training camp.
In 117 games in Cape Breton, the native of Châteauguay, Que., had 24 goals and 58 points.
Meanwhile, the Screaming Eagles also traded 18-year-old defenceman Jérémie Major to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. In exchange, the club received a ninth-round pick in the 2020 QMJHL draft.
In other roster moves, Cape Breton placed 19-year-old forward Kyle McGrath on waivers on Monday.
McGrath, a St. John’s, N.L., native, was acquired by the Screaming Eagles in January 2017 in a deal that sent Dillon Boucher to the Charlottetown Islanders.
In 33 games with Cape Breton last season, McGrath had four goals and two assists.
The Screaming Eagles also reassigned forward Mason Beck, defencemen Alex Farlardeau and Matthew Power, along with goaltenders Daniel Thompson and Jacob Leblanc on Monday. Samuel LeBlanc, who was on loan from Blainville-Boisbriand, was also sent back to the Armada.
Over the weekend, Cape Breton reassigned forwards Karl Vaillancourt, Jérémy Talbot and Jake Martin. Forward Mikael Martel, a fourth-round pick in 2017, elected to leave camp on his own.
Dumont said he hopes to have the club’s roster finalized within the next week.