Perfect timing
Islanders claim Richmond’s Jacob Arsenault off waivers to fill need on back end
Jacob Arsenault is coming home.
The Charlottetown Islanders claimed the 19-year-old Richmond native off waivers Wednesday from the Sherbrooke Phoenix. The defenceman was travelling Thursday and will play his first game tonight at 7:30 p.m. when the Isles host the Saint John Sea Dogs at Eastlink Centre.
“He’s a kid that we came close to acquiring last year at the deadline and it didn’t work out,” Isles head coach and general manager Jim Hulton said.
Sherbrooke recently had 17-year-old blue-liner Jeremy Jacques return from the United States Hockey League and Arsenault was the odd man out. Jacques was acquired in the Anderson MacDonald deal with Moncton in August 2017. Arsenault was traded from Moncton to Sherbrooke in August 2018 after playing 60 games with the Wildcats last season and registering a goal and three assists. He had a goal in eight games for the Phoenix.
The Islanders were on the lookout for some help on the back end after Greg Kehoe returned home to St. John’s, N.L., earlier this year, leaving the squad with six defencemen. There was more urgency this week as rookie Lukas Cormier leaves after Sunday’s game for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in New Brunswick. He will miss five Islanders games.
“The timing was perfect,” Hulton said of the Arsenault acquisition, which didn’t cost the team players or draft picks. “We had been looking and he’s much better than any of the other options. He’s got some size, he’s got some grit to his game and he’s got league experience plus he’s local.”
Islanders assistant coach Brad MacKenzie knows Arsenault, who is listed as six-foot-one and 186 pounds, from his time working with Andrews Hockey Growth Programs.
“He speaks really, really highly of how he’s going to fit in the dressing room,” Hulton said.
The Islanders (8-5-1-0) are looking to keep things rolling after winning their fifth straight game Wednesday in 6-1 victory over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
“We took care business,” Hulton said.
“They had some injuries and suspensions that made a young team even younger, but at the same token we didn’t let off
the throttle,” he added Thursday. “We need to remember the same formula going into tomorrow night. This is a team we gave a little bit of life to the last time in here and I think anytime it’s Charlottetown and Saint John you throw the standings out. We have to be prepared for a real competitive game.”
Hulton was pleased to see the scoring was spread out in Bathurst.
“We had no passengers,” he said, noting the players on the fourth line each scored and were plus-three.
Dakota Lund-Cornish gets the start with Matthew Welsh dealing with minor lower-body injury.
Liam Peyton (back) is also questionable for tonight.