Western Capitals acquire veteran goalie
Nathan Torchia brings impressive resumé to Summerside
SUMMERSIDE – The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals have added a veteran presence at one of hockey’s most important positions.
The Capitals announced the acquisition of 20-year-old goaltender Nathan Torchia from the Georgetown Raiders of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) on Wednesday night in exchange for a player development fee.
“He’s a guy we targeted back in May and stayed in contact with the team in Ontario all along,” Capitals general manager Pat McIver said in an interview with The Guardian. “He was voted the top goalie in the OJHL last year, and he finished runner-up in the MVP voting.
“He’s a legitimate, bona fide junior A goaltender. We are ecstatic to land him.”
Torchia posted a 2.56 goalsagainst average and .925 save percentage in 134 OJHL games over four seasons. He also recorded 10 shutouts.
The five-foot-10, 185pound Torchia, who is from Waterloo, Ont., arrived in Summerside on Wednesday and will self-isolate in a hotel room for 14 days since he travelled from outside the Atlantic bubble. McIver said Torchia has been on the ice with the Raiders, so he will be able to join the Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) team once his quarantine time is up.
STRONG TRADITION
Torchia will look to carry on the Capitals' strong tradition of goaltending. Recent highlights include Kevin Bailie backstopping the team to the gold-medal game of the 2013 Canadian junior A hockey championship tournament and Dominic Tmej receiving the MHL's goaltender-of-the-year awards the last three seasons.
“With Dominic Tmej graduating, I wanted to make sure we had another bona fide No. 1 goaltender,” said McIver. “We targeted him and other guys, but we stayed with this one and were able to make it happen. We are pretty happy.”
Torchia will give the Capitals four goaltenders with Mavrick Goyer (2-0-0, 2.98 GAA, .895 save percentage), Stephan Giansante (0-1-0, 2.02, .938) and Stratford native Erik MacInnis, who is injured and who started the season with the Capitals.
McIver said the Caps feel all four are junior A-calibre goaltenders, and the organization will have some decisions to make in the next two weeks.
“We like our hockey club and know there is some tweaking to do,” said McIver. “It wasn’t that we do not like our current goaltenders; we started this process a long time ago before we knew what we had. When the opportunity arose here in the last couple of weeks, we couldn’t turn it down.”
CONNECTIONS
Torchia’s father, Mike Torchia, who was also a goaltender, and Caps head coach Billy McGuigan are both alumni with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.
Torchia, a member of the Memorial Cup all-star team in 1990, played with the Rangers from 1988 to 1992.
McGuigan wore the Rangers’ blue, white and red colours during the 1994-95 season.
That same year, Torchia would play six NHL games with the Dallas Stars.
“I heard lots of stories on Mike, and he had a great career,” said McGuigan.
“Nathan’s dad is pretty much a legend in Kitchener. It’s great to have him, and we have a bit of a common interest in the Kitchener Rangers.”
McGuigan reached out to some friends in the Kitchener-Waterloo area for references on Nathan.
He said everyone he talked to spoke “very highly” of him.
“Nathan’s skill set is excellent,” said McGuigan.
“He was one of the top goalies in that league, if not the top.
It’s great when you have a stopper in your net who can steal hockey games. We have been fortunate enough here the last three years to have Dominic Tmej.”
The Capitals (2-1-0) travel to Berwick, N.S., to face the Valley Wildcats (3-3-1) on Friday night, and return home to entertain the Bridgewater, N.S.-based South Shore Lumberjacks (0-6-0) at Eastlink Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m.