Prior to Wednesday’s junior-hockey trade deadline, Surrey Eagles general manager Blaine Neufeld said his team would be a ‘buyer’ in an attempt to bolster the BC Hockey League team down the stretch and into the playoffs.
He wasn’t kidding.
Prior to the trade cutoff, Neufeld and his staff picked up three veteran players – a goaltender, a defenceman and a forward – two of whom come with extensive major-junior hockey experience.
First, the Eagles signed 20-year-old forward Dryden Michaud, a New Westminster native who has spent the last two seasons playing in the Western Hockey League, but was a recent cut of the Saskatoon Blades. The Eagles also acquired, through a future-considerations deal with the Coquitlam Express, the playing rights to former WHL blue-liner Ty Schultz, who hasn’t played this season due to injury.
And to cap the flurry of transactions was what is likely considered the team’s biggest deal – trading forward Dominic Dumas and future considerations to the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Georgetown Raiders in exchange for 20-year-old goaltender Mario Cavaliere, whom Neufeld called that league’s top netminder.
“He’s a premier goaltender,” the GM said. “He has incredible numbers in the OJHL.”
