While his team鈥檚 executives hammer out a new lease for the 2015-16 sa国际传媒 Hockey league season, Victoria Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon continues to press forward in preparation for the upcoming campaign.
He鈥檒l have a couple more holes to fill after it was recently announced that the future considerations shipped to the Cowichan Valley Capitals in the deal for Thomas Gobeil at the trade deadline, include defenceman Chris Harpur and forward Ayden MacDonald.
鈥淲e had some names [on a list] of guys that could go to Cowichan. All of them were guys that you never know are coming back the following year,鈥� said Didmon. 鈥淏oth Harpur and MacDonald improved as the season went on and became big parts of our hockey club on and I know we鈥檒l miss them.
鈥淏oth kids were thankful for what the Grizzlies did for them and felt that they developed here as players. They understood the conditions when we made that trade on Jan. 10 鈥� that the team made the trade and we live with those decisions.
鈥淐ertainly, Thomas came in and made us a better team,鈥� added Didmon. 鈥淲e would have liked him to get that overtime goal on the breakaway [in the 5-4 double-overtime loss to Powell River that eliminated Victoria from the playoffs], but at the end of the day, it is what it is and I know we鈥檒l be a strong team, regardless.鈥�
Adding to the two losses are the departures of Brett Gruber to Green Bay of the USHL and captain Shawn McBride and goalie Sean Cleary, who took scholarships and will not be back.
鈥淗arpur and MacDonald were no surprise, but with Gruber and McBride, they are top-six forwards, so we鈥檙e working hard to replace them. Fortunately, there are a lot of guys wanting to play in Victoria,鈥� said Didmon.
The Grizzlies had already announced the recruitment of several additions in late February, among them Matt Baker of Upper sa国际传媒 College in Toronto; St. Andrew鈥檚 College products J.D. Falconer, Cal Walker and goalie Matthew Galajda; and Lake Forest Academy鈥檚 Joey Visconti and Jake Stevens.
Galajda was the most valuable player of his team鈥檚 playoffs.
鈥淲hen we did our recruiting, we knew we were making this type of deal and we compensated with some of the defencemen coming in and the forwards,鈥� said Didmon, who also has defencemen Kevin Massy, Cody Van Lierop and Tomba Huddleston coming back on the blue line.
As far as the new lease for The Q Centre is concerned, the the Grizzlies and West Shore Parks and Rec were still hammering it out on Thursday and a deal may be made today.
鈥淧rogress is being made,鈥� said Grizzlies president and alternate governor John Wilson.
鈥淚鈥檓 preparing as usual. I have to,鈥� is all Didmon would say.
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