PLAYERS TRADED HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE
London Knights tough guy Victor Terreri was up against his old team, the Oshawa Generals,Friday night at the John Labatt Centre.
By Ryan Pyette The London Free Press
Trades are, from time to time, a controversial part of junior hockey.
How fair is it to draft and recruit a kid to play for your team, then one day send them packing with hardly a moment’s notice?
Hockey at the pro level can be a meat market. Some believe it shouldn’t be that way in the OHL ranks.
But without the wheeling and dealing, there would never be those wonderful stories of redemption — of kids who finally fit in after being considered an extra piece somewhere else and players given up on gaining the ultimate revenge by coming back to haunt their old clubs.
It’s what every player — junior or pro — thinks about before facing a team full of their old friends and familiar faces. It’s exactly what London Knights tough guy Victor Terreri said before facing Oshawa Friday night at the John Labatt Centre.
The young-and-fast Generals dealt him to the Knights last month.
“I want to show the coaches what they’re missing,” Terreri said. “Hopefully, you score a goal. You always want to play a good game against the team that traded you away.”
Oshawa is full of former London guys like Terreri. Coach and GM Chris DePiero built a team with a nucleus acquired during the John Tavares blockbuster two years ago.
Oshawa goalie Michael Zador, a former Knights first rounder, usually plays a strong game against his old London club. But the result often comes down to how much the Gennies help him out.
Rough-and-tumble defender Scott Valentine, who’s better than a point a game this year, sat out Friday while serving an automatic one-game suspension for a slew-foot. He didn’t want to miss this one. But over-ager Tony DeHart, who became an NHL draft pick for the Islanders after leaving London, has been a key guy in Canada’s Motor City.
And then, there’s Christian Thomas — Stumpy’s son and future New York Rangers gunner — the ex-Knights first rounder who chatted up London’s Jared Knight before the contest. They broke in as rookies at the JLC two years ago.
Both are capable of scoring 50 this season.
“In training camp this year, I was really impressed with Thomas,” Terreri said. “He didn’t get much bigger, but he got faster. He was quick to begin with and it seemed like he added another gear over the summer. And he’s never been afraid to go to the net.”
With Dorchester’s Boone Jenner playing alongside Thomas, it was a no-brainer who the Knights would throw out against them. The Chris DeSousa-Stephen Sanza-Tyler Brown veteran shut-down line, plus defenders Michael D’Orazio and Scott Harrington.
Jenner roomed with Harrington during Canada’s under-18 gold medal win at the Ivan Hlinka tournament this summer. They got to know each other pretty well.
Harrington is, Jenner said, exactly as advertised. “Straight-laced, no quirks at all,” he said. “A good guy to room with.”
The 20-year-old D’Orazio, Harrington’s year-and-a-half D-man partner, said the potential first rounder is one of the most mature kids he’s ever been encountered.
“We hang out off the ice and he’s got a really good head on his shoulders,” D’Orazio said. “He acts and thinks way older than he is. Even last year, he was 16 and you’d never have known it.”
It’s an example even for guys older than him like 18-year-old rookie blue liner Cody Donnay.
The Knights were high on younger brother Troy Donnay, the six-foot-six 16-year-old, and drafted him last spring. Then, GM Mark Hunter went out and acquired Cody’s right from the Peterborough Petes and added brothers to the London roster.
So when the Knights are in Peterborough Saturday, stay-at-home defender Cody Donnay will have the chance to show Petes fans what might’ve been if he reported.
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