Rangers stock up at trade deadline, but, “hockey games aren’t won on paper,” says GM

By cceolin

It was a busy OHL trade deadline for your Kitchener Rangers who were buying and selling until the eleventh hour.

Just before the Wednesday noon deadline passed, the East Avenue Blue traded forward Cole Carter to the Mississauga Steelheads, in return for two future third round picks and a sixth round selection in 2020.

General Manager Mike McKenzie tells the Mike Farwell Show, the organization felt it was only fair Carter get the chance to play a key role on another team, instead of sitting on the bench and playing limited minutes in a Blueshirt.

“You have to look at guys like Eric Guest and Jonathan Yantsis and Michael Petizian — we have to get these guys some ice time too,” McKenzie says, “to make sure that we’re developing them quicker so they’re not coming in next year basically as rookies again.”

Kitchener will carry Mario Culina, Austin McEneny and Kole Sherwood as overage players for the rest of the season, but adding three new experienced players to the Rangers lineup didn’t happen with intent.

“When a guy like Kole Sherwood became available it was too good to pass on,” he says. “We did lack a little bit of depth in older stability on our back end … Austin fits that for us.”

McKenzie says Mario Culina was a good option given their goaltending injuries, which led to the unfortunate release of Anthony Dumont-Bouchard and Luke Opilka.

In his first year on the job, McKenzie acquired a total of six new players — one deal at a time — without selling off too many future second and third round picks.

“We were able to add a lot of good players and lose one prospect only,” says McKenzie, referring to defenceman Grayson Ladd. “But we just weren’t looking to part ways with guys that are going to be really key pieces on our team a year or two down the road. Guys like Riley Damiani and Giovanni Vallati, so we’re very happy with how it turned out.”

While the Rangers officially enter the second half of the year with a very good team on paper, McKenzie says, “hockey games aren’t won on paper.”

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