BUSY DAY for Canes

Hurricanes make a trade, sign two more players and release one on busy day

It was a busy day on the transaction wire for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. On Wednesday, the Hurricanes added a pair of forwards from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, pulled the trigger on another deal for a 20-year-old defenceman and announced the release of a local product.

As the team gets ready to head to Edmonton Friday to begin a home-and-home series with the Oil Kings that comes back to the Enmax Centre Saturday night, the Canes added overage forward Jack Flaman and 1999-born forward Zach Cox from the SJHL.

In a separate deal, the Hurricanes also acquired 1997-born defenceman Tate Olson from the Prince George Cougars in exchange for a third round selection in the 2018 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft and released Lethbridge’s Connor Lyons.

A bit banged up early in the season after a 1-1 start against the Medicine Hat Tigers last weekend, the Hurricanes looked east to stabilize their roster.

“We had injuries to both (Ryan) Vandervlis and (Tanner) Nagel, so we thought we had better see if we can at least get some help. Flaman was available as an overage, so we decided to bring him in and see what he could do for us and it looks like he might give us something,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt.

Flaman, 20, was undrafted in the WHL Bantam Draft. The Vibank, Sask. native was a member of the Vancouver Giants for the past two seasons.

Last season he scored 15 goals and 22 points with the Giants to finish fourth on the team in goals.

Flaman has played 147 career WHL games with the Giants and Portland Winterhawks.

Cox, 18, was originally selected in the eighth round and 167th overall by the Regina Pats in the 2014 Bantam Draft.

The right winger played 58 games last season with the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, scoring 10 goals and 25 points.

This season, Cox has suited up in four games with the Nipawin Hawks of the SJHL, putting up one goal and three assists.

“He’s younger, but he’s bigger. So we’ll see what he can do,” said Anholt of Cox. “He’s been playing Junior A and playing pretty well there. So we thought we would bring them both in. They’ll both play this weekend. So that’s good, it’ll help us out numbers-wise.”

With overage defenceman Brennan Menell signing an entry level deal with the Minnesota Wild earlier this week and being sent to the team’s farm club in Iowa with the chance to earn a roster spot there, the Hurricanes were forced to assess their blue-line corps.

“Obviously we’re not counting on Menell coming back,” said Anholt. “So I think we have to plan accordingly and that’s what has brought this move for Tate.”

Olson, 20, was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft in the seventh round and 210th overall.

The product of Saskatoon was originally selected by the Cougars in the second round (24th overall) in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft.

In four seasons with the Cougars, Olson has played in 252 games, scoring 107 points (23 goals and 84 assists).

Olson will be sidelined until the beginning of November after undergoing off-season shoulder surgery.

“Tate is injured at this point,” said Anholt. “He had shoulder surgery in the summer, so he won’t be ready until about Nov. 1. We have some time in front of us to figure things out, at least a month or so. Tate is on an injured reserved list until he’s healthy, so that gives us some time to figure things out. We don’t have to do a cutdown until Oct. 10.”

With the acquisition of Olson, the Hurricanes sit at 26 players, including 16 forwards, eight defenceman and two goaltenders.

In the other move Wednesday, the Hurricanes released 18-year-old forward Lyons.

“Releasing Connor Lyons was a hard move for us because he’s a local kid and his dad has roots with the organization,” said Anholt. “But ultimately, you have to make decisions and for us, we really appreciated that Connor worked his (butt) off for the summer to give himself a chance to play at our level, but ultimately his foot speed was his biggest downfall and it’s hard to play at our level when your skating isn’t as good as it needs to be.”

After Friday’s game in Edmonton, the teams return to Lethbridge for the back-half of the home-and-home series Saturday at the Enmax Centre at 7 p.m.

Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter