THE HAMILTON BULLDOGS have traded for two top scorers from Flint for Connor Roberts.
The price was high, but the Hamilton Bulldogs will be packing more of an offensive punch when they hit the ice against the Ottawa 67’s tonight.
Late Friday, the team sent centre Connor Roberts and three future picks — one second-rounder and two third-rounders — to the Flint Firebirds in exchange for centre Ryan Moore and left-winger Nick Caamano.
The goal is to boost scoring, said general manager Steve Staios, and with these two players, he thinks he will. However, he had to give up Roberts — a big 17-year-old with big upside — in order to get the deal done.
“Unfortunately in this league, if you need to add some significant pieces, they’re looking for your best young players, and Connor Roberts was the player they were looking for and it was very difficult for me to get past that,” he said. “I can’t say enough about what he meant to our team and our community and the type of player he is.”
If this is the season to get serious about a playoff run, the move makes sense. The Bulldogs won Friday 6-5 in Oshawa and are in first place in their conference, but were also scoring less on average than every team i n the OHL. More than half of their 11 losses were by a single goal. That’s where Moore and Caamano, an Ancaster native, should come in handy.
Together, the long-time linemates provide a lot of firepower up front. They each have 21 points so far this season, which puts them on par with Matt Strome, who was leading the Bulldogs in scoring to start the weekend. A year ago in Flint, they combined for 74 goals — 39 and 35 respectively, while Strome topped Hamilton with 34.
Staios called Moore, a 20-year-old from Troy, Mich., a great puck distributor and a tenacious player. And Caamano is “a power forward that has shown he can score in this league.”
John Gruden, who coached both players in Flint before taking over behind the Bulldogs bench at the start of last season, agreed.
“The way Nick can play with his physicality and gets into corners, and Moore with his speed. He’s a competitor,” he said. “They know how to play and it’s going to be really exciting.” Here’s the problem. If this isn’t the season to get serious about a playoff run — if, say, it turns out the team runs into injury trouble or these two just don’t jibe in their new home à la T.J. Fergus — the Bulldogs could lose out in the long run, since it’s likely neither Moore nor Caamano will be back next September.
The former is an undrafted overager, while the latter, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound signed Dallas Stars prospect, has a good chance at making the jump to pro hockey in the fall. That’s not the only blow. They also lose Roberts, the third overall pick in the 2016 draft with a high ceiling. And, while he’s had trouble breaking through offensively — he has three goals and five assists through 22 games — you do catch glimpses of his potential, particularly when he makes good use of his strong, 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame.
He’s “just scratching the surf ace,” said Staios, who also lauded the Owen Sound native’s leadership abilities and character. “That’s the most difficult part about this — we are giving up what we think is a prototypical Hamilton Bulldog, but obviously other teams are coveting the same thing.”
Staios has long made a point of stressing character in the players he drafts or acquires. That said, the 5-foot-8, 168-pound Moore was suspended for five games during the playoffs last season for a derogatory comment he made toward Sault Ste. Marie’s Bobby MacIntyre.
He issued an apology at the time, and Staios said yesterday he isn’t concerned.
“I think he’s a high-character kid, coach Gruden had spoken to that … I have zero issues with the character of Ryan Moore.”
On top of Gruden, Caamano and Moore will be reunited with former teammate Will Bitten in Hamilton. Camaano also played for the same Jr. Bulldogs minor midget squad that produced Brandon Saigeon and Owen Burnell.
With that level of familiarity, Gruden will have a number of options when it comes to inserting the duo into the lineup. However, he isn’t saying who they will be skating with against the 67’s quite yet.
The game starts at 7 p.m. at FirstOntario Centre.
Notes: With the acquisition of Ryan Moore, the Bulldogs have a new, but familiar problem — a surplus of overage players. That means they’ll have to release one of their four 20-year-olds (defencemen Justin Lemcke, Connor Walters and Stephen Templeton are the others) before the OA trade deadline in January. Until then they can only dress three per game, which is the same situation they were up against before trading overage T. J. Fergus to Barrie this month.