Greyhounds quiet as overage deadline passes

The overage situation for the Soo Greyhounds is set.

As the Ontario Hockey League’s trade deadline for overage players passed at noon on Wednesday, the Soo Greyhounds did not make a move, which in turn means the Greyhounds will end the season with defencemen Mac Hollowell and Jordan Sambrook along with forward Keeghan Howdeshell as its overage players.

Greyhounds General Manager Kyle Raftis said Wednesday afternoon that the team wasn’t close to anything on the overage front as the deadline passed, acknowledging the impact by the three current players.

“We’re always trying to upgrade our roster, but the way Sambrook, Hollowell, and Howdeshell (have played), it didn’t make much sense to upgrade there,” Raftis said. “For us, all three are major parts of our team right now.”

There were a trio of deals involving overage players on Wednesday morning including a major deal between the Guelph Storm and Owen Sound Attack.

The Storm acquired high-scoring forward Nick Suzuki along with overage defenceman Sean Durzi and forward Zachary Roberts from the Attack.

In return, Owen Sound gets overage Barret Kirwin, Mark Woolley and overage forward Zach Poirier as well as a second round pick in 2022, a third round pick in 2021, a fourth round pick in 2019 and a conditional third rounder in 2022.

The Barrie Colts dealt overage forward Lucas Chiodo to the Ottawa 67’s for Shaw Boomhower, a second round pick in 2024 (originally Kingston’s), and a third round pick in 2021 (originally belonging to the Greyhounds).

The Hamilton Bulldogs dealt overage defenceman Nicolas Mattinen to the Oshawa Generals in exchange for overage forward Eric Henderson, a second round pick in 2020 (originally London’s), and a third round pick in 2022 (originally Peterborough’s).

The Sudbury Wolves were involved in a deal on Wednesday morning with the Sarnia Sting that saw the Wolves bring in Adam Ruzicka in exchange for a second round pick in 2021 (originally Erie’s), a third round pick in 2020, and a third round pick in 2021.

With Wednesday’s overage deadline passed, the focus shifts to Thursday’s deadline for all other players.

“It’s tough to gauge what’s going to happen,” Raftis said.

With major players being move ahead of Thursday’s deadline, Raftis said the cost of making such moves hasn’t been a surprise if only because of how it fluctuates from season to season.

“There are definitely some teams that have been aggressive but I don’t think some of the elite talent has gone for what they’ve gone for in the past but that fluctuates from year to year.”

With the OHL implementing new rules with regards to the trading of draft picks, it has had an affect on deals in terms of how many deals teams can make.

“That could play a factor into (deals) and it’s going to take some time to adjust to,” Raftis said. “It really just played into a couple of the top teams just really only adding small pieces. There are some teams that are a little further down in the standings trying to recreate and adding in a large bulk of their roster at the deadline. That’s what’s changed it a little bit

In other news, Raftis said he doesn’t expect Rasmus Sandin to join the team after an injury at the World Juniors while playing with Team Sweden.

Sandin is expected to be out potentially up to six weeks due to a sprained elbow,

On Tuesday, Toronto Marlies Coach Sheldon Keefe told Toronto media that the injury was “a significant blow.”

“Due to his injury, I don’t forsee him joining us here,” Raftis said.

The Greyhounds confirmed that Jaromir Pytlik, a Czech-born forward selected in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft last summer, has committed to the team