TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT
Jiri Hudler (50% retained)
Nicolas Deslauriers
Jordan Weal
Brandon Kozun
Scott Sabourin
Justin Auger
Maxim Kitsyn
Nick Ebert
Thanks to Jiri Hudler for what he did for us, played great and helped our young players a lot. We wanted to give him a chance to play with a contending team this year.
In our past trades, we brought a few top talents that are NHL ready (Eberle, Gardiner, Murphy, etc). With this trade we add a lot of depth to our prospects pool, we saw attributes that we really liked from these prospects, so we'll work with them to try to develop them into NHL'er.
Deslauriers was a guy we really wanted. We like him since his QMJHL day, was a big physical that can do it all. Logged big minutes each games, can coast-to-coast with ease, great power play guy with a great shot, also a big guy that hits hard and can fights. Now, he's playing as a left winger in the AHL, and playing really well. Plays a power forward type of game, can carries the puck very well with his awesome speed, can scores a lot of goals with his great shot and size in front of the net, hits hard. Still play on the point on the PP, which was one of his main strength when he was a defenseman. We believe he has top 6 forward upside, gives us a very versatile player with high upside.
Weal is a center with a high skill level, really good offensive game. While small, he's gritty and very good on the forecheck. Brings a good two-way game.
Kozun is a small offensively gifted winger who plays his junior here in Calgary. Competes very hard.
Sabourin playsa power forward type of game. Big, decent offensive player, hits hard and fights.
Auger is a 6'7" forward. You cannot teach size, will be a good project forward for us.
Kitsyn showed very good potential not so long ago. A big strong winger with a lot of skills. Hopefully a change of scenary with us will help him to reach his potential. We'll work a lot with him to do so.
Ebert was very highly touted a year before the draft, but felt a lot in his draft year. He's showing this year in the OHL that he can be a really good offensive defenseman. We'll work a lot with him in the next few years to hopefully help him to reach his upside.