After a disastrous start to the season with only 1 win in their first 13 games, the team really needed to shake things up. First to go were defenseman Kody Holles and right winger Jayce Petrie in return of Garland Newkirk and Abdel Sznajder. The Trident get a younger and more defensive minded winger in Garland and a 3rd pairing defenseman with Sznajder. After that, the biggest trade to date in the Trident's history: Dwitght Robichaud and Kory Nestor are sent to the Harfang in return of 21 y/o defenseman Reece Leinweber, 25 y/o left wing Dan Strom and 23 y/o center Jochen Sieger.
"Robichaud never really lived to our expectation unfortunately and while Nestor was great for us, he was needed in that trade for us to get what we wanted".
To replace Nestor, GM Bouchard then turned to the Laval Redbulls and traded their 3rd round pick for 26 year old defenseman Zachary Rothschild.
"The goal was to trade assests without touching players in our farm system as they are doing really well right now and we didn't want to stunt any players progression by calling them up and playing them less than they would with the Wolverines. We really think we can turn this season around. Kruus has been tremendous, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.79 GAA, its a wonder how we were not able to win more games."
With all those trades, here's what the Trident's lines looks like:
Lokhanov - Koonts - Larochelle
Schmidt - Flatley - Newkirk
Upton - Braaksma - Cyncar
Lenn - Juna - Tae-Gyong
Oikarinen - Rothschild
McChesney - Sznajder
Coombes - Girouard
Kruus Carlyle