Rockets swing another trade ahead of home-and-home set against Tri-City this weekend
The Kelowna Rockets are off to a rough start to this season but will get a shot at redemption against the team that ended their playoff run in a resounding thud last season.
The Rockets (1-8-0-0) were swept in four straight games at the end of March by the Tri-City Americans (3-2-0-0), who host Kelowna tonight in Kennewick, Wash., with the return game on Saturday, 7 p.m. at Prospera Place.
“As a staff, we hope the returning players remain aware of what happened in playoffs,” assistant coach Kris Mallette said.
“It should leave a sour taste in their mouths and they should be the best players out there, looking to make amends,” he added.
Kelowna fell to 0-5 on home ice with Wednesday’s 9-6 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds, but Mallette says he is hoping the additions of a few new players will help jumpstart the Rockets moving forward.
With Kelowna set to host the Memorial Cup in 2020 — to end next season — general manager Bruce Hamilton has been proactive in retooling his roster through a series of trades in recent weeks.
On Sept. 28, Hamilton acquired over-age forward Lane Zablocki, who is drafted but not yet signed by the Detroit Red Wings, from the rival Victoria Royals in exchange for a pair of bantam draft picks — a fourth-rounder in 2021 and a seventh-rounder in 2019.
Zablocki has been recovering from a lower-body injury and is expected to be sidelined for at least 10 more days before making his Kelowna debut.
On Wednesday, at the WHL’s over-age deadline, Hamilton made a move for over-age defenceman Dalton Gally, sending a conditional 10th-round pick in 2020 to the Medicine Hat Tigers in order to audition Gally over the next couple weeks before making a decision once Zablocki is healthy.
Then, on Thursday, Hamilton swung his second trade in as many days by landing 2000-born forward Michael Farren from the Saskatoon Blades for a third-round pick in 2020.
“We feel each player brings intangibles to our team that we’re lacking right now, and hopefully they can inject some life into the group,” said Mallette. “That will translate into better results on the ice.”
Rockets assistant GM Lorne Frey gave a scouting report on Farren: “He’s a skilled guy who we are hoping can come in and put up some good offensive numbers. He’s a younger guy — hopefully a twoto-three year guy — and we think he can help us move ahead offensively. We’re trying to get more offence injected into the team and we’re hoping that he can help as he’s a young, talented kid.”