From the Stands
No matter how bad things were at the office today, Guelph Storm GM and coach Jason Brooks has had a much more difficult day enduring lengthy back surgery to try and bring an end to the immense pain he has been suffering for several months. He is having four vertebrae fused together while getting the bones cleaned up for good measure. The hope is that he’ll be feeling better as soon as tonight, than he has in a long time.
But despite the pain, there he was working the phones up to yesterday’s 12 pm trade deadline trying to figure out how to help his team make the playoffs. His biggest deal was completed on Sunday when he moved 1991 defenceman Ben Chiarot, a 6th and 11th round draft pick to Sudbury for 1990 defenceman Chris VanLaren and second round picks in 2011 and 2012. Combined with other trades and their own picks they now have four second rounders in ’11 and three in ’12. Despite the team’s awful performance this season Brooks still feels they can make some noise next year and he’ll use those picks to bring in some high end players.
“These second round picks will allow us to add pieces to our team on the trade front next season” said Brooks. “The nice thing is we can make the deals before the season, before Christmas or at the deadline. There will be teams out there looking to restock their draft picks.”
Barrie and Windsor are two teams that have parted with a lot of the future to make a strong run this season. The Colts have traded their second round picks for the next four seasons in two deals, with the Storm (for Matt Kennedy) and Niagara (for defenseman Alex Pietrangelo).
Brooks points out that almost every trade made for a major player this year has included two second round picks.
“You can’t trade your first round pick so it gives extra value to those seconds” said the GM who had tried to trade Chiarot earlier in the year to Kingston but the big defenceman invoked his no-trade clause.
“Ben has a lot of tools but we’ve been frustrated with his inconsistency and so has he” said Brooks. “At the time of the first attempted trade he was a little shocked and said he wanted to stay but when we got Gottschalk (in the Kennedy trade) he thought his opportunity would suffer and decided he would like to be moved. We got very fair value for him and wish him well.”
Chiarot was the third player selected by the Storm in the 2007 OHL drafted, 34th overall in the second round. He was taken after Peter Holland and Taylor Beck. VanLaren, described by Brooks as a “physical, rugged defensive defenceman”, will be asked to steady the backend this year and become a possible OA candidate for next season.
The Storm also traded second year forward J.P. Labardo to Oshawa along with a 6th round pick for fourth round selections in 2010 and 2011.
That trade had been in the works for some time but Brooks was waiting to get Carter Sandlak and Zack Mitchell back from the World Under-17 championships before making the move. The speedy Labardo had an assist in his first game with the Generals.
So with trades made Brooks will now be hoping to trade some downtime for the pain he has been suffering. Doctors say he could be in hospital for four or five days and it will be at least a month before he is able to get back on the ice with his team. Here’s wishing the surgeon’s are at their finest today.
From the Land of Oz….Lost in all the trade talk is the fact that goaltender Brandon Foote played his first two games of the season after returning from hip surgery. The Storm blew leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in Saginaw on Friday to lose 5-4. “It wasn’t Brandon’s fault, his teammates let him down” said Brooks. “Then he played very, very well making big saves when we needed them” in Guelph’s 6-3 win in Sault Ste. Marie. Michael Latta had the hat trick in that game with Tyler Carroll and Sam Lofquist picking up three assists each. However the Storm is still seven points shy of a playoff spot behind Owen Sound and they host the Attack Friday night at 7:30.
