Signings of Jardine and Swan open busy week
Over the weekend Islanders General Manager, Jim Hulton announced the signings of Maxwell Jardine and James Swan.
Jardine, is a six-foot, 185 lbs defenseman from Miramichi, New Brunswick. He most recently played for the Miramichi Timberwolves of the Maritime Junior Hockey League.
The 18-year-old had six assists through 22 games this season. Over three seasons with the Timberwolves, Jardine tallied 40 points across 108 games, including six goals and 181 penalty minutes.
“Maxwell is a guy that we’ve been tracking for the better part of six weeks here. We were looking to add to our defense core and Max is a guy that slipped through the cracks to us,” said Hulton. “We were quite confident he could step in and play at our level. Obviously, a small sample size but the first impression was very favourable yesterday.”
James Swan comes to the Islanders after having stints with the Halifax Mooseheads and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
Across three QMJHL seasons, Swan has posted 34 goals and 90 points across 150 games. Swan comes from St-Laurent, Quebec but has both Canadian and Greek roots. He participated in the Development Series this year as a member of Team Greece “A”. While at the tournament he played in three games and recorded two assists.
The Quebec native measures in at 5’8” and 181 lbs. Swan is playing in his age-19 season but just turned 20 years old on Jan. 2.
“James is a kid we know well from his time with the Halifax Mooseheads. He’s an offensive player out of the Montreal area who is short in stature but he plays the game the Islanders way. He’s tenacious, gets after the puck and he’ll add some experience at 19 and offense which is much needed,” said Hulton.
Swan was taken 28th overall in the 2020 draft by the Mooseheads. The same class where the Islanders selected P.E.I. native Isaac Vos.
The Islanders return to action on Thursday night where they’ll take on the 24-10-3 Victoriaville Tigres. The Tigres currently sit third overall in the West division behind the Voltigeurs and Huskies.
Victoriaville is led offensively by Tommy Cormier who has tallied 19 goals and a total of 49 points. The Tigres also traded for Joseph Henneberry over the trading window who had spent the past two and a half seasons with the Titan. Fans will also get to see Noah Warren who just returned from the 2024 World Juniors in Gothenburg, Sweden where he played for Team Canada.
Thursday is also the first and final Student Night of 2024. Tickets to the game for students are just $5 and drinks for those 19+ are also only $5. Students from Holland College and UPEI will have a shot at a $500 tuition credit at the game as well. More details on the tuition credit to come.
The puck hits the ice Thursday at 7 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets by calling the Eastlink Centre box office at 902-629-6625 or by going to the Eastlink Centre website.
