Kings strike deadline deals
Team focused on defusing Caps
The B.C. Hockey League trade deadline came and went Wednesday at 8 p.m., and the Prince George Spruce Kings decided to play let’s make a deal.
They picked up 19-year-old forward Sam Anzai in a deal for future considerations from the Vernon Vipers and also acquired 20-year-old defenceman Oliver Lester in a trade from the Coquitlam Express in exchange for 17-year-old winger Ryan Stack.
Anzai started the season as captain of the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and was the second-leading scorer for the last-place Thunder when he was traded Nov. 21 to Vernon for futures. The Los Angeles native was in his second season at Drayton Valley and had four goals and nine assists for 13 points in 22 games. He played 14 games for the Vipers and had three goals and two assists.
“Ryan is a great young player but with the season we’re having this year and the possibility of a good playoff push here I wanted to increase the depth up front,” said Spruce Kings GM Mike Hawes.
“It gives us that experience and Sam has leadership abilities so to add an older guy with skill like Sam is definitely going to benefit us as we head down to the rest of the season. He was playing in Vernon lots but they’re a deep team up front so the icetime was spread around and I think he’ll get more opportunity with us.”
Lester has had several junior assignments since he graduated from the Calgary Buffaloes triple-A midget team in 2014. He played the 2014-15 season in the AJHL for the Brooks Bandits and had one goal and 13 assists in 47 games. He split the following season between the Calgary Mustangs (AJHL) and Dauphin Kings (Manitoba Junior Hockey League), totaling six goals and 17 points. In 2016-17 he played in the North American Hockey League and had three assists in 11 games for the Minnesota Wilderness, then moved on to the Central Canada Hockey League to play for the Hawksbury (Ont.) Hawks.
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He finished with five goals and 14 points in 41 games.
The six-foot, 185-pound native of StTherese, Que., who makes his off-season home in Calgary, started this season in the NA3HL with the Atlanta Capitals and had three goals and seven points in six games before he returned to Canada to play for Coquitlam. He was held without a point in seven games with the Express.
“Certainly he’s bounced around a bit – we did some research on Oliver and he’s a good all-around d-man who skates well and Coquitlam is having a bit of tough year this year but he was actually playing in their top pairing down there,” said Hawes.
“He had some injury problems earlier in the year but he’s OK now and we did see enough of him to know he’s going to come in and provide some depth for us on the blueline. He can chip in a bit offensively but he’s more an all-around d-man who will defend well and he skates and moves the puck well.”
The Kings brought Lester in to give the team a seventh defenceman, joining a blueline crew which includes Chays Rudy, Layton Ahac, Liam Watson-Brown, Tyson Slater, Dylan Anhorn and Jay Keranen.
Stack, a product of the Burnaby Winter Club academy program, joined the Spruce Kings in August and saw limited icetime as a fourth-line winger. The five-foot-eight, 165-pound native of West Vancouver played in 25 games and had two goals and three assists. As a 16-year-old affiliated player last season Stack was called up to the Spruce Kings for nine games and produced three assists.
Coming off a busy weekend in which they took four of a possible six points on the road in Penticton, Vernon and Salmon Arm, the Spruce Kings have just one team to worry about this weekend – the Cowichan Valley Capitals – who play the Kings tonight (7 p.m. start) at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The Spruce Kings, who lead the Mainland Division with a 21-12-4-4 record, will have payback in mind for the 5-2 defeat the Capitals handed out to them Dec. 17 in Duncan, just before the Christmas break.
“We spend so much time on the road with three-game weekends where essentially we’re playing three games in 2 1/2 days,” said Hawes. “So to have this bit of a break where we play just one game this weekend gives the boys a Saturday and Sunday off to rest up and at this time of the season I think that’’s going to be beneficial for them.”
The Capitals (7-28-3-2, fifth in Island Division) have lost four of their last five games since they beat the Spruce Kings and rank last-overall in the 17-team BCHL.
The Spruce Kings and Langley Rivermen (19-11-10-2) are tied in points, each with 50, but Prince George has more wins and has played one fewer game than the Rivermen. Since the start of November the Kings have a 7-2-2-1 record and they’ve been tough at home from the start of the season, compiling a 15-3-1-1 record at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, second only to Penticton (16-3-1-1).
Prince George has 17 games left this season, while the Rivermen, who play the Eagles tonight in Surrey, have 16 games remaining. Surrey is just four points back of the Spruce Kings/Rivermen and has one game in hand over Prince George and two over Langley.
The Spruce Kings knocked off the firstoverall Vernon Vipers 3-2 Saturday in Vernon in the last hockey game ever to be played in the 80-year-old Vernon Civic Arena. Jarod Hovde’s goal late in the third period provided the margin of victory in front of 2,380 witnesses.
“The atmosphere in the building was unbelievable – you couldn’t fit another person in that place and it was rocking,” said Hawes. “The tiny little ice surface (180 feet X 80 feet) at the old Civic Arena probably worked in our favour a but. We’re kind of used to playing on ice that size. We had a rough start (in the first period the Kings were outshot 26-9 and outscored 2-1) but we withstood their pressure and (goalie) Evan DeBrouwer did a great job and then we were able to get things figured out in the second and third and came put of there with a huge victory for our team.”
The Kings started the weekend with a loss to the Penticton Vees in double-overtime and also lost to the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, 3-2 in overtime Sunday afternoon.
“To go down on a trip like that, those buildings haven’t been too friendly to us over the years, and we got four out of six points on that trip, that was very positive and productive for us,” said Hawes.
He had some injury problems earlier in the year but he’s OK now and we did see enough of him to know he’s going to come in and provide some depth for us on the blueline.