Post by Ric O. on Aug 9, 2017 19:23:25 GMT -6
The rebuild is a necessary evil in junior hockey and Tuesday’s trade of defenceman Logan Stanley to the Kitchener Rangers for five conditional draft picks was a necessary step in that process for the Windsor Spitfires.
When the club’s current ownership bought the team in 2006, veteran assets were dealt away to build through drafts in 2007 and 2008 that paved the way for back-to-back Memorial Cup titles in 2009 and 2010.
The club missed that stepped in 2011 and opted to hold on to veterans Ryan Ellis and Zack Kassian and that prevented the club from making a title run in in 2013.
However, Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel got back on track in 2014 getting a pair of first-round picks in Stanley and Logan Brown and the 2015 draft brought Gabriel Vilardi and Mikey DiPietro, who were key to this year’s Memorial Cup title.
Now, for the only team in junior hockey with three Memorial Cup titles this century, it’s time to start putting the pieces in place for another possible run in two or three years.
“It’s one of those things where we’re rebuilding,” Rychel said of the Stanley deal. “We’ll still have a really good team, but we have to integrate young players and I just thought it was the right time.”
The build and rebuild of junior hockey is something every player understands and that includes Stanley.
“It’s tough to get up and go, but that’s part of the game,” the 19-year-old Stanley said. “You have to roll with it.
“The Windsor organization has to do a bit of a rebuild. If Warren feels it’s best for the organization, you trust him to do the best.”
The five conditional picks Windsor received from the Rangers will be handed over once Stanley, who was a first-round pick of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets in 2016, plays one game for the Rangers.
If he fails to crack Winnipeg’s lineup and is returned to junior, as expected, the Spitfires will receive Kitchener’s second-round pick in 2023 and 2024, its third-round pick in 2023, its fourth-round pick in 2020 and its 15th-round pick in 2018.
“It’s kind of tough,” the six-foot-seven, 231-pound Stanley said. “I never asked for it. I figured I would be traded this year, but I didn’t think it would be this early in the year.”
... rest of the article at
windsorstar.com/sports/hockey/spitfires-trade-stanley-to-kitchener-for-five-conditional-draft-picks
