Storm stands pat at trade deadline
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury
In the end, Guelph Storm general manager Mike Kelly decided not to try to keep up with the Jones.
The Ontario Hockey League trade deadline came and went Thursday without the Guelph Storm making any more trades other than the acquisition of overage defenceman Saverio Posa the day before.
With London, Owen Sound and Plymouth all loading up for a run at the Western Conference title, Kelly decided it was best to stay the course with the team he has now and go for it next year.
“I like our team. I like our players and I like our future,” said Kelly, who has final say in any player personnel decisions.
“We don’t want to be reactionary. We want to chart our own course and not make decisions based on somebody else’s decisions.”
Kelly said by not making any deals on Thursday while others did, he doesn’t want it to be seen as giving up on this season.
“I don’t want to give anybody the impression that we can’t compete this year. We think we can,” Kelly said, adding that once everyone is back in the lineup the Storm might be a team that is “waiting in the weeds.”
The Storm GM said that next year’s trade deadline will likely be a very different scenario, as two teams from Ontario qualify for the Memorial Cup and Guelph’s core group of players will be in their final year of junior.
“I think we can probably project that at the trade deadline next year we will probably be one of the more aggressive teams. This year there’s only one team going to win and there were four or five teams that were being aggressive. Next year there will probably only be a couple of teams being aggressive and I can pretty much assure you that we will be one of them.”
In addition to acquiring Posa from Windsor for a fourth-round draft pick Wednesday, the Storm signed free agent goaltender Michael Nishi, 19, to serve as the team’s backup. They released Keegan Wilson.
Nishi, who had brief OHL stops with three teams, was recently released by Gatineau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Kelly said the team was not close to making any deals Thursday.
