Trade making
Eagles, Mooseheads expected to complete deals as trade period opens today
SYDNEY — Nova Scotia’s two major junior hockey teams are expected to make moves when the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s trade period opens this morning.
In Sydney, Cape Breton Eagles general manager Jacques Carrière told the Cape Breton Post there will be “some stuff done," but couldn’t say who was involved as the players were not aware of the trades at the time of the interview last week.
The Eagles, who finished fourth overall in the league standings with a 40-20-2-1 record, currently have nine 20-year-old players, including Egor Sokolov, Shawn Element, Nathan Larose, Adam McCormick, Jarrett Baker and Kyle Havlena.
NHL draft picks Kevin Mandolese (Ottawa) and Mathias Laferrière (St. Louis) are also overagers and are signed by their respective teams.
Xavier Bouchard, 20, was not signed to an entry-level deal by the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday and will be eligible for the 2020 NHL draft. He can also return to Cape Breton next season.
“There’s going to be some moves from our 20-year-olds for sure and even 19-yearolds,” said Carrière. “There’s going to be some movement.”
Although not announced by the team, it’s been speculated one of the Eagles’ overage defencemen may be traded to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan to complete the Element trade, which was made last December.
The trade period comes with uncertainty this year as it’s unknown when the league will begin the 2020-21 season as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Because of the uncertainty, teams may be reluctant to make impact trades for the time being until they have more direction as to how the season will take place.
“The phone is ringing, however, with the uncertainty, it’s not as busy as its been in the past,” said Carrière. “We’re holding a draft and the trade period without knowing what’s going to happen — I’m confident we’re going to have hockey, but how much, I don’t know.”
Like Carrière, Halifax Mooseheads general manager Cam Russell’s phone has also been ringing, but the veteran GM also acknowledged the trade period uncertainty.
“It’s a bit of an issue where some people are a little apprehensive trading right now because they’re not sure when the season will start,” said Russell.
“I think what you’ll see if the season starts on time or if it starts a little bit later, I think the value is still going to be the same for those players, I don’t think they’re going to lower the value of certain players.”
The rebuilding Mooseheads finished the 2019-20 season in 17th place in the league standings with a 2038-3-2 record, nine points ahead of last place AcadieBathurst.
Halifax’s rebuild fully went into effect during the winter trade period when they unloaded star players Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Jared McIsaac to the Moncton Wildcats for draft picks, while sending Raphaël Lavoie to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, also for draft picks.
Since the trades, speculation has grown of possible future assets returning to the Mooseheads this month to complete the blockbuster deals.
“We don’t comment on that stuff, but there will be a few more moves on Wednesday to complete the deals that we made at Christmas and that’s all I can say.”
The trade period will open at 10 a.m. today. Teams will have three hours to make deals before it ends at 1 p.m.
The trade period will reopen on Friday during the first-round of the league’s virtual entry draft. Trades will only be allowed if they involve a first-round pick.
The final trade period of the week will begin Saturday morning at the start of the second-round of the draft. It will close at the end of the 11th-round.