Skip to content

Oilers send young forward to Dragons

The roster crunch has forced the Okotoks Oilers into a difficult decision.
Forward Braydon Jenkins was traded to the Drumheller Dragons for future considerations last week.
Forward Braydon Jenkins was traded to the Drumheller Dragons for future considerations last week.

The roster crunch has forced the Okotoks Oilers into a difficult decision.

Needing to cut down its roster to the league maximum and facing a surplus of forwards Okotoks traded sophomore centre Braydon Jenkins to the Drumheller Dragons for future considerations in a transaction made last week.

“It’s a numbers game. We had to be down to 24 on our Hockey Canada registrations,” said Oilers president Brad Robson. “With the players we have in and (Jenkins) being a veteran it wasn’t fair to him that he would be in and out of our line-up.

“We tried to move him. Drumheller contacted us in regards to another matter and they took him.”

Jenkins, who was the youngest player and lone 1999 born skater on the roster last season, tallied eight goals and 19 points in 57 games as a freshman in 2015-16.

Okotoks added to its forward depth in a major way in the off-season, bringing in import Jamie Ramin from Michigan, Ontario Hockey League veteran Nicolas Romero along with rookies Kyle Gordon, Regan Doig, Demetrius Kambeitz and Austin Wong.

Along with a healthy dose of 2000 born affiliate players and the positional flexibility of defenceman Riley Mathies, the team’s options up-front are plentiful.

“With the two 2000s we have in our line-up and the six we’re going to AP. That one position we will be able to fill with players a year younger than (Jenkins),” Robson added.

In return, the Oilers acquire a future considerations package which can either be a player or cash. On Jan. 5, the Dragons have to supply a list of players available to go back in the trade.

If none of the players are of interest to the Oilers, they will receive cash considerations after that date.

The team might not be done making moves. Robson expects one more forward to be traded in the near future to get down to the 13 or 14 mark.

Okotoks also made a roster move on the back-end.

Defenceman Travis Verveda returned to the club after being cut loose by the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings. The smooth-skating 19-year-old should add a puck-moving element to an already mobile defence corps. The Alix native potted three goals and 19 points in 40 games last season with the Oil.

Add Verveda to the strong play of veterans Jordan Davies, Carson Beers, Reece Soukoroff and rookies Jacob Bernard-Docker, Ryan Roberts and Ayden Roche-Setoguchi and the defence looks poised to be a major strength for the green-and-gold.

For more information go to okotoksoilers.ca


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks