EVERETT — On Monday the Everett Silvertips picked up a defenseman and moved out a forward.
Everett made two roster moves Monday. First the Tips acquired defenseman Lucas Grayson from Red Deer. Then the Tips reassigned center Tyler Giebel.
Everett acquired the 17-year-old Grayson in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. The 6-foot, 176-pound native of Port Hardy, B.C., was originally a sixth-round pick by Red Deer in the 2009 bantam draft. He played for Team Pacific at last year’s U-17 World Hockey Challenge, where he partnered current Tips defenseman Nick Walters.
Grayson appeared in 40 games for the Rebels last season as a 16-year-old rookie, registering one goal, one assist and 71 penalty minutes. However, Grayson struggled to break into a deep Red Deer defense this season, appearing in just one of the Rebels’ first eight games.
“He’s more of a stay-at-home, puck-moving defenseman,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said of Grayson. “He a very physical and very mean defenseman. He’s only 17 and this is an opportunity for him because we were looking to bolster that age group.”
Soetaert said he expected Grayson to step straight into the lineup.
Meanwhile, the Tips bid farewell to Giebel. The 18-year-old from Balgonie, Saskatchewan, was an expensive draft pick by the Tips in 2008, when Everett traded a third-round pick to Prince Albert to move up four spots in the second round to grab Giebel. But Giebel never became the playmaker the Tips were hoping. Last season he had four goals and two assists in 49 games as a rookie, then he went pointless in eight games this season. He was a healthy scratch in Sunday’s 6-3 victory over Tri-City.
“We feel some of our (16- and 17-year-old forwards) kind of passed him,” Soetaert explained. “That’s the direction we’re going in, and this is the unfortunate part of the game because Tyler is a really good kid.”
Giebel was reassigned to Yorkton of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The moves keep Everett’s roster at 26 players. That’s one more than the limit, but the Tips have a waiver because center Manraj Hayer remains on the long-term injury list with a broken leg.
By bringing in a defenseman and moving out a forward the Tips created a logjam on defense. Everett currently has nine defensemen on the roster, which means three would typically be scratched each game. Soetaert said he expects to make a move to alleviate the jam later this week.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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