TRURO, N.S. – The Truro Bearcats made a big splash at the Maritime Hockey League trade deadline Friday, adding talent, experience and a prospect in three separate deals with the Miramichi Timberwolves.
The new Bearcats include 20-year-old forwards Jason Imbeault and James Walker. Imbeault, who played parts of four seasons in the Quebec major junior league, sits seventh in MHL scoring this season, with 29 goals and 44 points after 33 games. Walker, a native of Long Point, Inverness County, was Miramichi’s third-leading scorer, with eight goals and 26 points in 31 games this season.
Ben Sheffar, the 18-year-old forward whom the Bearcats acquired from the Timberwolves, will remain with his hometown Sackville Blazers of the Nova Scotia junior B league for the second half of this season, said Truro coach and general manager Shawn Evans.
The immediate addition of Imbeault and Walker signals the Bearcats mean business in their push for a playoff berth in the MHL’s South Division. Friday’s moves come just four days after Truro lost two forwards as Matt Gordon was called up to the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles and Stewiacke’s Carson Lanceleve was traded to the Yarmouth Mariners, at his request.
“We make these deals for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is to help the players that I have,” Evans said as he finalized his roster Friday. “Simple as that. These deals are to help the players first.
“Maybe to a fault, I’ve always been loyal. The boys that are here, we wanted to show them that we care and that we wanted to be better than a fifth-place hockey team. Now, we’ll see what happens.”
Imbeault and Walker joined the Bearcats in time for a pair of home games this weekend, Friday night against the Campbellton Tigers and Saturday night versus the Valley Wildcats.
Truro now has nine 20-year-olds, including physical defenceman Jacob Bourchier, the player acquired Thursday in a trade with the Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan junior A league.
“We were just looking for a good, strong stay-at-home defenceman that takes care of business in his own end,” Evans said. “We think he might add a different element than our other group of defenceman have. He’s just here to be another spoke in the wheel for us. Hopefully, he’ll be a solid spoke.”
The Bearcats traded “future considerations” to gain Bourchier, a West Kelowna, B.C., native who was a Melville teammate of Truro forward Jaden Hewes earlier this season.
In the deadline-day deals with Miramichi, the Bearcats gave up the rights to three forwards now with QMJHL teams. Gordon and Logan Camp joined Cape Breton this week, while Evan MacKinnon landed with the Gatineau Olympiques, his fourth QMJHL team in as many seasons.
The Timberwolves received the Bearcats’ first- and second-round draft picks in 2021, along with future considerations.
Truro has been one of the hottest teams in the MHL for the past month, but the club has been heavily reliant on Ben Higgins, G Blackmore and Spencer Blackwell for most of its offence. The Bearcats gain scoring punch and leadership with the arrival of Imbeault and Walker.
Imbeault is second only to the Summerside Western Capitals’ Brodie MacArthur in goals scored this season. This is the fifth year of junior hockey for Imbeault, a native of Sainte-Flavie, Que., who played 162 regular-season games in the QMJHL with the Sherbrooke Phoenix and Rimouski Oceanic. Sherbrooke selected him in the second round of the 2015 QMJHL draft with the 30th overall pick.
“Imbeault is one of the top players in the (Maritime junior A) league,” Evans said. “Walker is a really good two-way hockey player. (Imbeault) was the captain of Miramichi and (Walker) was an assistant captain. We feel very fortunate to add them to our team.
“We gave up a lot of future pieces that are unknown, and they’re good pieces. I think Miramichi (also) did damn well in the trades. They got a lot of future assets that time will tell for them.”
Camp, 17, split last season between Truro and the QMJHL’s Baie-Comeau Drakkar, with whom he began this season before joining the major midget Halifax McDonald’s and eventually Cape Breton in the Q.
Walker, who played at Rothesay Netherwood private school in New Brunswick, was in his second season with Miramichi after beginning his junior A career with the Brockville Braves in Ontario.
Sheffar, formerly of the major midget Cole Harbour Wolfpack, had two goals in 16 games during his second season with Miramichi before returning home to play junior B with a contending Sackville team.
“He’s a prospect,” Evans said of Sheffar. “We hope to have him at training camp in September and see if he can crack our lineup.”
MHL ROUNDUP
In other deals on the final two days of the trade period:
Halifax Mooseheads prospect Michael Sack, a defenceman from Indian Brook playing major midget with Cole Harbour, was traded to the Amherst Ramblers from Campbellton, which acquired the rights to Weeks Major Midgets goaltender Oliver Arnfast, a Rimouski prospect from Valley, Colchester County.
In that same trade, Amherst gave up a sixth-round pick in 2021 and future considerations, while Campbellton relinquished its 2020 draft choices in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds.
The Tigers also acquired forward Max McPeak from Melville of the SJHL in exchange for future considerations.
The Pictou County Weeks Crushers traded former Charlottetown Islanders major junior forward Sullivan Sparkes to the Trenton Golden Hawks of the OJHL in exchange for the CJHL rights to Kingston Frontenacs major junior forward Dennis Golovatchev and future considerations. A day later, the Crushers dealt Golovatchev to the Pembroke Lumber Kings in return for future considerations.
@JohnnyMacHockey
Bearcats make a splash at trade deadline
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