As NHL teams were sorting out their rosters ahead of the 2018-19 regular season, the London Knights were making a trio of roster moves themselves. They picked up defenceman William Lochead, traded forward Lucas Rowe and placed Vladislav Kolyachonok on waivers.
The first deal of the day on Tuesday saw the Knights bring aboard some London blood in Lochead in exchange for a third-round draft pick. The former Jr. Knight is an overage defenceman who spent the past three season with the Niagara Ice Dogs.
He was an 18-year rookie when London and Niagara met in the 2016 OHL championship and he had to watch as the Knights swept his Ice Dogs. Lochead has played 156 career games and he has played each one of them with an edge. He has 221 career penalty minutes.
He was set to play for the Western Mustangs this season, but now gets a chance to return to his hometown team for a final year of Major Junior.
London’s next move addressed their Import situation. Last year, the Knights drafted Adam Boqvist and Jesper Bratt in the 2017 CHL Import Draft and also held the rights to Olli Juolevi as he went off to training camp with the Vancouver Canucks.
The thought process held that Bratt would need a year of junior to develop before joining the New Jersey Devils’ organization.
If Boqvist elected to remain in Sweden (which he did) there was a chance that Juolevi would be returned to the Knights by Vancouver (which he wasn’t).
Bratt wound up needing exactly one OHL pre-season game before being deemed ready for New Jersey where he would go on to record 35 points in his rookie season in the NHL.
In 2018, the Knights drafted Matvey Guskov and Kolyachonok with their Import selections and because Boqvist was made a first-round pick of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, he was able to remain on a protected list while he attended training camp and played pre-season games for Chicago.
London’s fortunes went for 0-for-3 in the fall of 2017 to 3-for-3 in 2018 and all three players wound up on the Knights roster.
With the import limit set at two, the Knights were forced to waive one of the three players and on Tuesday, that’s what they did with Kolyachonok. Teams with two imports already cannot make a claim. Teams with an available spot can.
The final move of the day saw the Knights trade Lucas Rowe to the Flint Firebirds for a conditional third-round selection.
Rowe is in his draft year and much like London’s trade of Ryan Bangs to the Firebirds last week, Rowe will get an opportunity for more ice time in Flint.
An injury and a veteran roster for much of the season limited the Etobicoke native to 25 games in his rookie season.
He will be looking to recapture what helped him to a first-round selection by the Knights in 2017 after helping the Mississauga Reps to win the OHL Cup.
Evan Bouchard and Alex Formenton are the final two London players still with NHL teams. Bouchard is in Germany where he will play in the NHL’s Global Series against Kolner Haie on Wednesday. Formenton is set to play in Ottawa’s regular-season opener on Thursday at home to the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Knights will play back-to-back games this week. They play the Spitfires in Windsor on Thursday and return home to host Owen Sound on Friday at Budweiser Gardens. The pre-game show for both games will begin at 6:30 p.m. on 980 CFPL at 980cfpl.ca and on the Radioplayer Canada app.
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