Troops add Thomson from Kitchener
NORTH BAY, Ont. – Left winger Ben Thomson, acquired in a trade Friday with the Kitchener Rangers, has stepped right into the leadership group with the North Bay Battalion.
Overager Thomson has been named an alternate captain, serving alongside assistants Matt MacLeod and Marcus McIvor under captain Barclay Goodrow, said Stan Butler, the Ontario Hockey League club’s director of hockey operations and head coach.
The Battalion got Thomson and Kitchener’s fourth-round pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection for left winger Brandon Robinson. It was the Troops’ second trade in four days, after they acquired defenceman Miles Liberati, 18, from the London Knights on Tuesday for the OHL rights to overage defenceman Zach Bell and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2016.
Thomson, six-foot-four and 220 pounds, has played four-plus seasons since Kitchener took him in the eighth round of the 2009 OHL Priority Selection from the Mississauga Reps minor midgets. The New Jersey Devils chose the Orangeville, Ont., resident in the fourth round of the National Hockey League Draft in 2012.
“I’m really excited to be here,” said Thomson, who battled inclement weather on his trip to the Gateway City, arriving just before practice.
“This is a team that’s stocking up for a run. I’ve been told North Bay is an awesome hockey town and the fans love their hockey. This will be a great place to grow as a player and have a chance to win. It was tough to leave Kitchener, but this is a fresh start. I grew up there and spent so much time there, but this is what was best for both parties.”
Thomson has played 260 OHL games, scoring 41 goals and earning 70 assists for 111 points while accumulating 427 penalty minutes. In 44 playoff games over four seasons, he has six goals and nine assists for 15 points, with 60 penalty minutes.
“He’s a big, strong power forward, which is something I feel we’ve been lacking on our team so far this year,” Butler said of Thomson, who has three goals and three assists for six points in 12 games this season.
Said Thomson: “I’m a big guy who’ll go out there and protect the puck and play down low. I’ll hit and stick up for my teammates. I’ll bring a competitive edge to the team every game I play.”
Battalion defenceman Brenden Miller also hails from Orangeville and has been a lacrosse teammate of Thomson, who completes the Troops’ three-man overage contingent, which also numbers right wingers Goodrow and MacLeod.
Thomson and Liberati are expected to make their Battalion debuts when North Bay visits the Barrie Colts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Troops have a won-lost-extended record of 11-12-1 for 23 points, fourth in the Central Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.
“I know the Battalion had a tough start to the season with all those road games while the renovations were going on,” Thomson said of the early schedule necessitated by work at Memorial Gardens. “But we have a good schedule the rest of the way, and the conference is wide open. We have a good chance.”
The Troops have played only nine of their 24 games at home, having opened the season with nine straight road dates.
In Robinson, the Battalion gave up its first-rounder from the 2011 OHL Priority Selection. The Pickering, Ont., resident was chosen seventh overall from the Toronto Jr. Canadiens minor midgets.
“I think Brandon’s a great player, but you have to give up something to get something, and we have enough good young players in North Bay that we could afford to make a trade like this,” said Butler.
Robinson, who turned 18 on Oct. 13, had four goals and four assists for eight points in 15 games with the Troops this season. He missed nine games with a knee injury suffered Oct. 17 in a 3-2 overtime loss to the visiting Plymouth Whalers.
In two-plus seasons with the Battalion, the first two when the club was based in Brampton, Robinson played 134 games, scoring 36 goals and adding 26 assists for 62 points with 71 penalty minutes.
