Petes release Svoboda
Petes tried to swing deal for a defenceman before trade deadline
Peterborough Petes GM Mike Oke said he could not find a late trade for his club which made sense prior to Wednesday’s OHL trade deadline.
Oke dealt Jonathan Ang to the Sarnia Sting for forward Brady Hinz on Monday. On Tuesday he dealt the rights to overage import Jonne Tammela, who has not played a game this year, to Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for a conditional 15th-round pick which will become a third-round pick if Tammela plays for the Soo.
On Wednesday the Petes made no further transactions other than to release import player Matyas Svoboda.
Oke said he looked for deals, particularly to add a defenceman, but he said in each case the players other teams’ wanted in return he wasn’t prepared to give up or created a need elsewhere.
“In some cases it felt like we were robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Oke said.
Earlier in the season when the Petes were near the top of the Eastern Conference Oke said he approached teams about some of the high-end players who were traded in recent days or weeks. At that time, Oke said, teams weren’t prepared to move those players; they either wanted to see where their team was at closer to the deadline or thought they’d get greater return near the deadline.
Given where the Petes are in the standings now, sitting in ninth place and fighting for a playoff spot, Oke said his mindset was different in January than November when he might have been prepared to sacrifice some future for shortterm success. Now he’s in a position where he’s not so eager to sacrifice the future but also isn’t willing to give up on this season.
“When we had discussions with teams we would have been taking pieces out of our lineup we need to have in order to move forward and bringing pieces back we weren’t sure were as good as what we’d be giving up,” Oke said.
“We have confidence in this group of players we have assembled here. I think they’ve acknowledged they can do more and expect more out of themselves. Myself and the coaches share those feelings.”
Oke said he examined different avenues from buying to selling.
“We looked at the short-term, the mid-term and the long-term and in each of those scenarios, with the moving parts, it didn’t make sense,” Oke said.
He said the club got off to such a good start at 10-5-1 there wasn’t an urgency to make changes.
“The difficult part this season is with the injuries and when they occurred we were still trying to determine exactly what we were,” Oke said.
The expectation was when the team got healthy they’d regain their form.
“We were confident the group would start to show the same form we displayed earlier in the year,” he said. “We weren’t getting the results we anticipated.”
With very few of the players having played up to expectations, Oke said he feels there is room for improvement and with the recent moves, including a coaching change, he’s still hopeful.
“I’m confident and the coaches are confident in the group of players who are here that we’re going to be able to regain that form,” Oke said.
Oke said they released Svoboda because they couldn’t guarantee him playing time.
“He loved Peterborough and really enjoyed his billets and felt he had become a part of the Peterborough community but he wants the opportunity to play and to play more. We’re just not able to afford him that opportunity here,” Oke said.
The Petes host the Guelph Storm at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Memorial Centre.