Everett has traded goaltender Luke Siemens to Moose Jaw in exchange for forward Matt Grant and third-round picks in both the 2012 and 2013 bantam draft.
The 19-year-old Siemens served as Everett’s back-up last season and backstopped the Tips in the playoffs when Kent Simpson was injured. Last
season the Delta, B.C., native was 7-13-2-0 with a 3.03 goals against average and .917 save percentage. This season he stopped 36 of 38 shots in his lone start, a 3-2 season-opening shootout loss at Portland.
This is the second straight year Everett has traded a goaltender to Moose Jaw. Last season the Tips sent Thomas Heemskerk to the Warriors in exchange for defenseman Chad Suer.
This leaves Simpson and 16-year-old Austin Lotz as Everett’s goaltenders this season.
Grant, who’s in his 18-year-old season, played in 58 games for the Warriors last season as a rookie, tallying five goals and four assists. The 6-foot-3, 207-pound native of Ladysmith, B.C., did not return to Moose Jaw this season and is currently playing for the Cowichan Valley Capitals in the BCHL, where he has two goals and two assists in five games. I have yet to talk to Tips general manager Doug Soetaert, so I don’t know if Grant is expected to join the Tips or remain with the Capitals.
All-in-all, a pretty big haul for a back-up goaltender, one the Tips acquired from Chilliwack (Victoria?) for the cut-rate price of an eighth rounder back in 2009. Soetaert has a history of trading away his third-round draft picks, so seeing Everett get two third rounders in one deal is unusual. However, as I’ve said before, this doesn’t appear to be a very good season for goaltenders in the WHL and Siemens is better than a lot of other team’s starters, so I’m guessing there were multiple teams in the bidding. And this will be a great opportunity for Siemens as presumably he’s headed to Moose Jaw to be the starter.
More later …
— UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.
Just a couple other notes about the trade after talking to Soetaert:
– Siemens is going to Moose Jaw to be the Warriors’ No. 1.
– The deal was originally scheduled to go down during the offseason, but then Simpson suffered that knee injury. So the deal was put on hold until Simpson was healthy again.
– Soetaert said the return was so large because there weren’t many options available for teams looking for a goaltender.
– Soetaert does not yet know whether Grant is open to coming to Everett. Grant didn’t go back to Moose Jaw because he wanted to play closer to home. Everett is closer to Ladysmith, which is on Vancouver Island. But is it close enough? We’ll see. Regardless of whether Grant reports or not, Soetaert said the key to the deal was the two third rounders.
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