EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips warmed up for the looming WHL trade deadline by making a deal Thursday, sending winger Trent Lofthouse to the Victoria Royals in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft.
Lofthouse, an 18-year-old from Surrey, B.C., was in his second season with the Tips. The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder was added to Everett’s 50-player protected list after he went unselected in the 2009 bantam draft. This season Lofthouse had nine goals and three assists in 34 games, including a hat trick in Everett’s 4-1 home victory over Vancouver on Dec. 8.
Everett general manager Garry Davidson said Lofthouse was a victim of the numbers game.
“It was one of those things that with the arrival of (Mitch) Skapski and potentially (Logan) Aasman, we’ve got a couple of younger forwards and we need to find them some ice time,” Davidson said. “I thought we were starting to get a bit of a logjam up front, so we had to move someone.
“It’ll give Trent a fresh start in a new place with a new approach, with a coaching staff that hopefully he can go forward with and have some positive success, because he’s a great kid.”
Thursday’s deal came a week before the Jan. 10 trade deadline. Everett, in Davidson’s first full season in charge, has already made seven trades since training camp. Those trades have seen the Tips receive two players and six draft picks, while sending out seven players and one pick.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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