Canadians' hope deadline moves will strengthen hockey club for stretch run
Posted Jan 14, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
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Tweet ThisEMC Sports - Carleton Place Canadians added three players prior to the Sunday midnight junior hockey trade deadline and the head coach is hopeful the newcomers will provide some of the spark needed to get the team into the playoffs in their first campaign in the Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL).
Jason Clarke, who led the former Carleton Place Legion Kings Junior B team (now Almonte Thunder) to back-to-back Valley Division championships the past two seasons, is hoping another past Valley Junior B star will add offensive strength for the stretch run. With 17 games remaining the expansion Canadians are just four points behind Kemptville 73's who hold the eighth and final playoff place in the 12-team Junior A loop.
"We have our second draft choice, Ryan Legace, back from Shawinigan," an obviously elated Clarke told the EMC Monday.
Legace, who starred for Shawville Pontiacs of the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League last season, was chosen by Carleton Place in the second round of the CJHL entry draft last May 30. Legace, who is from the Aylmer sector of Gatineau, Quebec, was also chosen by Shawinigan Cataractes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The 18-year-old left winger opted to pursue the opportunity in Shawinigan, but it didn't work out very well for him.
Legace had appeared in just 19 of Cataractes 43 games (as of Sunday) and he collected just one goal in limited playing time, along with 10 penalty minutes. Last season in Shawville he was fourth in team scoring in his rookie campaign in junior hockey, netting 12 goals and adding 35 assists in just 31 of Pontiacs' 40 regular season games.
Shawville finished fourth during the campaign but lost in six games to Arnprior Packers in the quarter final playoffs.
"He has good speed. He's a very good player," Clarke says in reference to Legace. He is hopeful the speedy winger will add some scoring punch to an anemic Carleton Place offence.
"In the Quebec league he was playing five or six minutes a game. Here he will get between 15 and 20 minutes of ice time. It will be good for his development as a player," Canadians' head coach predicts.
Last Friday, two days before the trade deadline, Carleton Place engineered a deal with league-leading Brockville Braves, acquiring right winger Bryan Warner.
He has seen limited playing time with the Robinson Division and league leaders who are currently on a record setting 25-game win streak. With Brockville Warner, a 19-year-old from Moncton, New Brunswick, appeared in 28 games scoring six goals and adding five assists. He also picked up 26 penalty minutes.
Clarke is hopeful the 6' 1", 185 pound winger will help Canadians' checking game and will also add some physical presence up front.
ADD GOALIE
Also Sunday, in a move engineered just prior to the annual (Jan. 10) trade deadline, Carleton Place acquired veteran goaltender Francis Dupuis from Gloucester Rangers. In exchange Canadians' sent veteran forward Sam Coyne to Gloucester.
Dupuis has appeared in 20 games for Rangers this season compiling an 8-10 mark. He was listed 12th among CJHL netminders Monday with a 3.81 goals against average (GAA).
He stood two places below Carleton Place workhorse goalie Scott Shackell who has a 3.43 GAA and leads the league with five shutouts this season.
Clarke says "our goaltending has not been solid lately.
"We hope adding Francis will improve us," he observes, noting that having a veteran puck stopper in the line-up should create some healthy competition as well.
With the addition of Dupuis, a 19-year-old Orleans native, Carleton Place sent back-up goalie Morgan Barr to Almonte Thunder of the Valley Division of the EOJHL. Barr, who is from Almonte, has appeared in 17 games for Canadians. He had two wins and 10 losses in a dozen CJHL decisions. Barr starred for the former Carleton Place Legion Kings in Junior B the past two seasons.
Coyne is likely to add some offence to a Gloucester team which was second in the Yzerman Division Monday. The 20-year-old centre had 12 goals and 20 assists in 39 games for Carleton Place, the third best total on the club.
Carleton Place also tried to land much coveted defenceman Scott Dawson from Nepean Raiders. But Clarke says a trade his team had worked out for the 18-year-old could not be consummated.
"He refused to report," Clarke says. "We were told he would only play for Brockville or Pembroke."
Braves and Lumber Kings are 1-2 in the league so far this season and are expected to battle it out for first place overall the rest of the way.
Saturday Dawson was traded to Brockville. He, along with several other players, had asked to be traded or released by Raiders in the wake of the departure of Nepean's entire coaching staff just before Christmas.
Dawson supported head coach Garry Galley, the former National Hockey League star, who left the club (along with the rest of the coaches) in a dispute with Raiders' owner.
Galley's son Wyatt, the club's No. 1 goaltender, asked for and received his release. He will play in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League for the remainder of the season. Wyatt Galley starred for Carleton Place Legion Kings early last season before moving to Junior A with Nepean.
A frustrated Clarke is still confident his Canadians can qualify for the playoffs in their inaugural season, if the level of play can be elevated in the remaining 17 games.
"Our standard of play has slipped lately," he admits. "Our best players have been awful.
"There have been far too many neutral zone turnovers. And we don't shoot the puck often enough. That has to change.
"We (management) are tired of using the 'expansion terminology'. We haven't treated this season that way at all," Clarke states.
"We expect to make the playoffs. If not it will have been a wasted year."
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