Spitfires deal for Canadian world junior captain Shane Wright before OHL deadline
Frontenacs acquire 2 players, 7 draft picks for star forward, Kraken prospect
The Windsor Spitfires on Monday night acquired Shane Wright fresh off his winning world junior hockey gold with Canada.
Windsor also received a conditional 14th-round pick in 2025 from Kingston, which added forward Ethan Miedema, defenceman Gavin McCarthy and seven priority selections, or draft picks, including a second-rounder (from Ottawa) and third-rounder (Sault Ste. Marie) in 2023.
The Ontario Hockey League trade deadline was Tuesday at noon ET.
Wright captained the Canadian squad to a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic last Thursday in Halifax for its fourth gold medal in the past six years. Dylan Guenther scored twice and Wright had the other goal on his 19th birthday.
WATCH | Guenther's OT winner in world junior final:
A native of Burlington, Ont., he scored four goals and seven points in as many games at this year's tournament after being drafted fourth overall last summer by the NHL's Seattle Kraken.
He had a goal and assist in eight games with the Kraken and four goals in a five-game conditioning stint with their American Hockey League affiliate in Thousand Palms, Calif., before Seattle loaned Wright to Canada and subsequently returned him to Kingston after the world juniors.
Frontenacs draft pick haul for Wright
- 2nd round 2023 (acquired from Ottawa)
- 3rd round 2023 (Sault Ste. Marie)
- 4th round 2024 (Niagara)
- 4th round 2025 (Niagara)
- 6th round 2024 (Niagara)
- 5th round 2024 (Hamilton) *conditional
- 6th round 2025 (Erie) *conditional
At the time, Kraken general manager Ron Francis said reassigning Wright to Kingston would give him the opportunity to win a Memorial Cup.
'Calculated risk' made sense
Windsor GM Bill Bower also wanted to see Wright win a Memorial Cup, just in a Spitfires jersey. He contacted the Frontenacs to tell them he was interested and then started looking at what assets Windsor could send east in a deal.
"When you're sitting where we were as a hockey club in the standings, and a Shane Wright is available, you just weigh the options and make some decisions," Bower told the Canadian Press on Tuesday. "You take all the information in and to me it's a calculated risk that our team and our management felt made sense.
"It gives our fans and our city and our team a real good boost here to have some real fun here for a good playoff run."
"There's risk in any transaction but ultimately, it makes sense to our organization at this time to do this," he said. "I'm confident we'll have a very good hockey club next year.
"There's ways to recoup picks. Obviously, the draft cupboard is a little empty, we'd like to stock it and get some of our picks back, but we will."
Wright was granted exceptional-player status in April 2019 after dominating midget triple-A and entered the 2019-20 OHL season as a 15-year-old skater — a year earlier than normal — and amassed 39 goals and 66 points in 58 regular-season contests.
'Highly touted NHL prospect'
Miedema, 17, has posted 25 goals and 69 points in 101 OHL games (all with Windsor) including 31 points in 36 contests this season.
"Ethan is a highly touted NHL prospect that will play in the [Jan. 25 CHL/NHL] Top Prospects game," Frontenacs general manager Kory Cooper said in a news release. "He is a big bodied [six-foot-four, 201-pound] skilled forward that will fit in well with our group. We know the player well and his strong work ethic matches the identity of our team.
Ethan is a player that is … constantly looking for ways to make himself and his teammates better. He is capable of playing top line minutes immediately."
"We are looking forward to having Gavin play in Kingston," Cooper said, "especially with the potential of hosting the Memorial Cup in 2024. "He is a talented, highly rated defenceman for the upcoming NHL draft."
In the Western Hockey League, the Kamloops Blazers (22-8-6) got defenceman Olen Zellweger — another member of Canada's world junior team — and forward Ryan Hofer, both NHL prospects from the Everett Silvertips on Sunday for forward Drew Englot, defencemen Kaden Hammell and Rylan Pearce, prospect Jack Bakker, and nine selections in future WHL Prospects Drafts as well as one conditional pick.
As Memorial Cup host, Kamloops has an automatic berth in the national major junior championship.
Earlier that same day, the WHL-leading Winnipeg Ice (29-5-0) traded for Ottawa Senators prospect Zack Ostapchuk, who had been Wright's teammate on the junior champions. Winnipeg sent forwards Skyler Bruce and Connor Dale, prospects Owen Brees and Hudson Landmark, as well as four draft picks to the Vancouver Giants in return.
WATCH | Canada captures world junior gold in Halifax:
Vancouver assistant GM Peter Toigo said the Giants weren't considering trading Ostapchuk until the offers became too good to pass up.
"Perhaps that's why it ended up costing so much to acquire Zack, because we really didn't want to trade him," said Toigo. "We weren't actually shopping [Ostapchuk], it was just people kept bugging us about him.
"We kept saying, 'Oh, we don't really want to trade him' but the offers that came in just got to a place where it's kind of hard to not look at how that helps set up future teams in future years."
With files from John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
