London Knights: A trade and a training camp primer

When he became General Manager of the London Knights in 2000, Mark Hunter’s first official trade was made with the Peterborough Petes. He acquired forward Mike Clarke and defenceman Josh Chambers. After returning to the position following time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hunter’s first trade ended up being with the very same team.

Hunter added overage defenceman Matthew Timms from the Petes on the eve of training camp in exchange for a third round pick and a fourth round pick. Timms brings four years of OHL experience and all kinds of offensive skill. He is from Waterdown.

As camp begins, here are a few things and a few players to keep your eyes on.

The top four picks from the 2018 Priority Selection

The London Knights wasted no time bringing the first four players they selected in April into the fold.

Luke Evangelista a highly skilled forward with excellent hockey sense. He can make plays on the ice that other players don’t even see.

Antonio Stranges is an electrifying offensive threat who skates very well and dazzles in one-on-one situations and on breakaways. He has the ability to score and to make plays.

Sahil Panwar was London’s second 2nd round pick and has skill, ability and character. For someone born in 2002, he is already over 6’1″.

Gerard Keane was taken in the 4th round by the Knights. He is the brother of Joey Keane of the Barrie Colts. Gerard is an excellent skater who can skate the puck out of danger and has the vision and ability to make plays in all zones.

The return of the import picks

Last season the Knights did not make use of a single import player. Jesper Bratt wound up in New Jersey, Olli Juolevi was assigned to Finland by the Vancouver Canucks and Adam Boqvist elected to remain in Sweden. This year is very different already. Boqvist has signed with London but will still attend training camp with the Chicago Blackhawks and could dazzle them enough to stay in the NHL. Matvei Guskov is a 17-year old forward with all kinds of skill and Vladislav Kolyachonok is a 17-year old puck-moving defenceman. OHL teams are permitted to play two import picks in a game.

Between the pipes

London has all kinds of experience in the crease. Joseph Raaymakers ended 2017-18 as the Knights’ only 1998-born player. He has more OHL experience than anyone on the roster. He is joined by 18-year old Jordan Kooy, who was Raaymakers’ backup last season. Kooy is now a draft pick of the Vegas Golden Knights and will be looking to create a 1 and 1A situation in net.

There’s always room for one more

The Knights have received permission from the Saginaw Spirit to invite defenceman Brock Hill and forward Kyle Bollers to camp. Both are 19 years old. Ben Badalamenti spent last year in Saginaw and is attending training camp with the Kitchener Rangers.

Last season recap

The 2017-18 London Knights season will be remembered as much for moves off the ice as it will for things that happened on the ice.

Over the course of a few short days in January, London’s veteran roster was transformed. Robert Thomas, Max Jones, Cliff Pu and Sam Miletic turned into Connor McMichael, Nathan Dunkley, Sergey Popov and eight 2nd round draft picks (three of them conditional) and four 3rd round draft picks (one conditional).

Most of those selections have yet to be made, still London will have another injection of talented young players to start the 2018-19 season.

Rob Simpson, now associate General Manager Mark Hunter, had been very clear about what the Knights were doing at the time of the trades.

“By no means are we saying that this is a rebuild. We have a competitive team here that can win. We got a little bit younger for the future but we feel good about where our team is at now as well.”

Simpson ended up being very prophetic as London actually had a better winning percentage following the trade deadline. The Knights did bow out in the first round of the playoffs against a more veteran-laden Owen Sound squad, but new players got a key taste of tight playoff experience in four on-goal losses to the Attack.

Fans who would like to watch training camp scrimmages are invited to enter Budweiser Gardens through Gate 1. Here is the on-ice schedule:

Tuesday, August 28, 2017

Time      Game

8:00am-9:30am                 Team Black vs. Team White

9:40am-11:10am               Team Gold vs. Team Green

1:00pm-2:50-pm               Team White vs. Team Gold

3:00pm-4:50pm                 Team Black vs. Team Green

Wednesday, August 29, 2017

Time      Game

8:00am-9:30am                 Team White vs. Team Green

9:40am-11:10am               Team Black vs. Team Gold

1:00pm-2:50-pm               Team White vs. Team Gold

3:00pm-4:50pm                Team Black vs. Team Green

Thursday, August 30, 2017

Time      Game

9:00am-11:00am               Team Green vs. Team Gold