Rebels adding youth, speed and skill ahead of trade deadline
By DANNY RODE – The Red Deer Rebels have quickly become one of the youngest teams in the WHL.
Rebels Owner, President and General Manager Brent Sutter made three trades on Friday, bringing in three 17-year-olds and an 18 year-old.
Add to that he made a trade with the Edmonton Oil Kings a little over a week ago to add 17-year-old forward Poul Andersen for 19-year-old Jaxon Fuder. The club also brought in 17-year-old defenceman Noah Chadi from the Grande Prairie Storm of the AJHL.
Friday’s flurry of moves saw Matthew Gard go to the Seattle Thunderbirds for 17-year-old Cameron Kuzma, defenceman Keith McInnis to the Kelowna Rockets for impressive 17-year-old winger Kalder Varga, and rearguard Luke Vlooswyk to the Everett Silvertips for 18-year-old forward Cole Temple and 17-year-old rearguard Cameron Dillard.
The Rebels also picked up several draft picks.
“We traded away some good players but got some good players back,” Sutter said following Saturday night’s Rebels win over Seattle. “We only won four games at home and felt we needed a shakeup, wanted to add in some areas and when you add something you need to give up something else.
“We wanted to add some things up front, some speed, some skill. It’s tough to win in this league when you’re only scoring a little over two goals a game. You have got to produce, and I think you see tonight some of those guys know how to score some goals.
One of the spectacular goals for the Rebels in their 5-3 win over the Thunderbirds, came off the stick of Varga when he deked a Seattle player at the blueline and then ripped a shot from the right circle to the far side on goalie Grayson Malinoski.
One area the Rebels have changed the most is on defence with the departures of McInnis and Vlooswyk and additions of six-foot-four, 218-pound Dillard and five-foot-10, 170-pound Chadi.
Only Jake Missura returns from last year. Nate Yellowaga and import Matus Lisy joined the team in training camp with Aleksey Chichkin coming in in a trade with Prince George. Veteran Derek Thurston was traded away in November.
“It’s different for sure,” added Sutter. “Both Keith and Vloos are good kids. Keith was outstanding for us on the ice and in the room. But again, it was a situation were we looked at the D and how to reshape it. In today’s game you want young guys who move the puck and with Chadi he’s a real puck mover and will be a heck of a player in this league.”
Chadi was someone Sutter and his scouts have had their eye on for some time.
“The scouts see a lot of games and now with technology I was able to keep an eye on him and watched his progression,” said Sutter. “I also had guys around the league who said we should watch him.”
Sutter indicated none of the departed players asked to be traded and that it was a matter of making smart hockey moves.
“I had to look at all angles. Fuder was the first and Dallas told me he won’t be back next season, he’s turning pro. From there I looked at where I needed to go to get younger and add to areas we lacked in. It’s never easy to trade great kids. Those were three good kids moving on, but we got some good kids back and got some draft picks we can put into our cupboard.
“But these were hockey trades where we hope it works out for all the teams and all the players.
“Now it’s up to the coaches to get these guys together and to form a team,” Sutter added.
The Rebels are young with only two 20-year-olds – Chichkin and Talon Brigley – and one 19-year-old – Samuel Drancak. They have eight 18-year-olds and 12 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old in Grayden Peterson.
16-year-old blue liner Nikolas Ferry has been reassigned to the Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL).
“We wanted him to get more playing time so he can take that step where he’ll be a regular for us next season,” said Sutter.
Can Rebels fans expect any more moves ahead of Thursday’s WHL Trade Deadline (6 p.m. MT)
“It’s been a long couple of days,” he said. “You have to focus on so many things. These trades just don’t happen there’s a lot goes into them. So now we’ll see what happens between now and Thursday. I like our group and where we’re at, but we’ll look at things … we’ll see.”
