Spits GM fielding calls as trade deadline nears
Deep down, Aaron Luchuk was hoping the Windsor Spitfires would go in a different direction this season.
Prior to his trade Thursday to the Barrie Colts, Luchuk held hopes the club’s surprisingly strong start this season might have Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel thinking of making a run to try to match the team’s back-to-back Memorial Cup titles in 2009 and 2010.
“I thought there was a chance I might stay the whole year and maybe (they) add a couple more players and we make another run,” Luchuk said.
In reality, the Spitfires simply aren’t really in position to make such a run.
“We don’t really have anything to give,” Rychel said.
Last year’s run to a Memorial Cup title cost the club 22 draft picks, with 13 of those being second-round picks and another four of them being third-rounders.
“Last year, we had to do what we had to do because we were hosting,” Rychel said. “We went all in to do it.”
Now, Rychel must do what’s necessary to get the club’s house — and it’s draft cupboard — back in order.
It started in the summer with the trade of defenceman Logan Stanley to Kitchener and netted the club a pair of second-round picks, a third-round pick and a fourthrounder. The club got another fourth-round pick from Oshawa for Hayden McCool, which is the same round in which the Spitfires selected Luchuk.
Now, the club has parlayed Luchuk
into a solid 17-year-old prospect in Curtis Douglas, who is sixfoot-eight and 231 pounds, as well as another two future picks in the second round and a third-round selection.
“Now, this will get us back to even,” Rychel said.
Not quite, but don’t expect the Spitfires are done dealing by any means.
The Spitfires still have plenty of assets that would help other Ontario Hockey League teams in search of a championship in 2018 and each has the added bonus of having a Memorial Cup title on his resume.
“I’ve got to look at everything,” Rychel said. “Every day I answer the phones and take a look at everything.”
Timing will be everything before the Jan. 10 deadline — and Jan. 9 for overage players — and there is a trade freeze that will go in effect over the Christmas break as well as rules that do not allow world junior players to be dealt until after the tournament.
Like Luchuk, most players say
they would prefer to stay in Windsor where they have grown and flourished.
“I’ve had no talks (with management),” Spitfires centre Logan Brown said before heading to the United States world junior camp. “We’ll see what happens.
“I’d like to stay here. It’s been a good four years. I know the guys and the organization.”
But what team wouldn’t covet a six-foot-six centre like Brown, who is also an NHL first-round pick and signed?
Brown has signed his NHL deal with the Ottawa Senators and won’t return to Windsor next year. The same goes for defenceman Sean Day. The former exceptional status player, who was a close friend of Luchuk’s, has signed with the NHL’s New York Rangers and won’t return next season.
“I have no idea,” Day said when asked if he thought he might be the next to go. “This (Luchuk) trade was a shock.”
Overage defenceman Austin McEneny is underrated and would quietly improve any blue-line in the league.
If Rychel opts to get radical, forward Gabriel Vilardi, who is set to return from injury after Christmas, and goalie Mikey DiPietro could both command huge returns on the open market. Each has been drafted by an NHL club, but both are 18-year-old players who could return to the league next season.
“People, I think, our fans are pretty educated,” Rychel said. “They understand you have to look out for the future. We’ll see what happens.”