SPOKANE, Wash. - The Spokane Chiefs announced today they have traded Hungarian defenseman Tamas Laday to the Medicine Hat Tigers in exchange for an 8th Round pick in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft.
“This trade was initiated on a couple of fronts,” said Chiefs General Manager Tim Speltz. “First, we have an abundance of good, young defensemen that we feel are ready to play. Second, with the 26th pick in the upcoming import draft, we are only allowed to draft an import player if we have an available import spot.”
Spokane now has one European import roster position to fill heading into Tuesday’s CHL Import Draft; Austrian forward Dominic Zwerger occupies the second. The 26th overall pick marks the highest import draft position the Chiefs have held since 2005. Laday was originally acquired by the Chiefs as the 42nd overall pick in the 2014 CHL Import Draft.
“Tamas improved greatly last year after adjusting to the North American game,” Speltz continued. “We appreciate his contribution and wish him the best with his opportunity in Medicine Hat.”
Laday played 60 games for the Chiefs last season, recording six assists while piling up 104 penalty minutes (second-highest on the team). He added an assist and 12 penalty minutes in six playoff games.
Thoughts
Tamas Laday is a big guy standing 6'6 190lb. He was involved in 8 fights through 60 games in his rookie season. Laday spent most of the season bouncing up and down between the 2nd and 3rd defensive pairing with spokane. We could expect him to jump into a 2nd pairing role providing some toughness and grit.
Defensive group
Ty Stanton(20) Ty Schultz(18)
David Quenneville(17) Tamas Laday(19) (interesting potential pairing)
Brad Forrest(18) PROSPECT
PROSPECT
PROSPECT
An 8th round pick is very cheap. If he can prove to eat 2nd line minutes that will be considered an excellent value deal.
We will find out tomorrow if the Tigers kept last year's import Michael Spacek. If they have, they won't be drafting anyone in the import draft. I've heard unconfirmed reports that he was dropped, which would be disappointing as it looks like he wants to come over this season. If he was dropped the Tigers will be able to draft another euro in the draft.
2 comments:
My nightshift thoughts - I like this trade. Tigers rarely, if ever play an 8th round pick. They basically gave up nothing. I like that he is big and physical, that is exactly what the tigers needed.
Stanton staying? I know that he is the only real vet right now on defence but I just do not think he warrants an overage position. Would rather see them keep Cox, Sanford and Hunt. I think we could trade for a Stanton quality player for not a lot of loss. Tigers also need to shed some 20 year old weight and with that they should be able to muster up a decent defenceman.
I was expecting some moves to be made, would like to see a few more before camp!
The paper says that the Tigers are picking once in the draft. This must mean that they have dropped the other player? Or does it? Last year we had both spots taken up and we still drafted - I am just not sure how you can tell if we have dropped the Czech that they drafted last year.
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