Trade with Barrie

[kingpin794]

Our new GM goes back to his old team for this one:

“@toddcordell: The Barrie Colts have announced they've traded C Matthew Kreis to Saginaw in exchange for a '16 3rd, '17 3rd and '16 6th.”

That's a lot IMO for a guy most people think is a bust (me included). If he believes that he's due for a breakout, by all means trade for him but don't give top 6 forward picks for a gamble like that. Stephens could be moving to wing as well based on recent international play which would mean we would need a center. But again, for those picks, get a better more established player. This seems like we got shafted.

[ohlhcky]

Bad deal two 3rd picks for a guy that can't make in the East. We have plenty of forwards IMO. Go get a difference maker if you want to add a forward.

[SaginawGensFan]

I hope stats don't tell the whole story because if they do, we got hosed.

www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=170139

[ohlhcky]

AGREED ...... Wow

[dannynoonan]

Last October Saginaw traded defenseman Brandon Prophet to Barrie for a 3rd round pick in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection and a 3rd round pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection.

The Spirit are basically returning those picks to Barrie for Matthew Kreis. So the trade is essentially Prophet and a 6th round pick for Kreis.

[ohlhcky]

Would rather had the picks we got for Prophet. Both have been disappointments.

[Disco Stu]

I am where I usually always am as soon as a deal like this is announced. Optimistic, not completely sold. I am already sold on the new rookies because I saw them at rookie camp. Perhaps after I see him play a little but I can move forward in the decision making process. It boils down to this. The team has faith in the new GM and the new GM has faith in this kid he picked.

I did some reading up and saw he played for Halton AAA in his OHL draft year. 22 goals and 28 assists in 38 games. For comparison's sake, here are some of our other players and how they did in their minor midget OHL draft year. Clarke I did not include because he played with 15 year olds as a 14 year old, and with 16 and 17 year olds when he was 15.

Tye Felhaber 38 goals, 34 assists, 30 games played
Brady Gilmour 28 g, 33a, 61gp
Dylan Sadowy 33 g, 45 a, 53 gp
Mitchell Stephens 44 g, 40 a, 58 gp
Matthew Kreis 22 g, 28 a, 38 gp
Adam McPhail 40 g, 34 a, 60 gp
Kirill Maksimov 16 g, 17 a, 28 gp
Connor Brown 30 g, 31 a, 53 gp
Jesse Barwell 34 g, 45 a, 71 gp
Mitchell Webb 34 g, 30 a, 60 gp
Devon Paliani 20 g, 54 a, 73 gp
Cole Coskey 9 g, 8 a, 23 gp
Kris Bennett 14 g, 15 a, 50 gp
Jack Webb 5 g, 10 a, 39 gp

And since someone will want to know this:
Andrew Jackson 6 g, 6 a, 36 gp

Of course, not all these midget players will carry their success over to the junior level. The cages are off and the visors are on and the opponents are older. But the other point is that some kids have to get older than half their opposition to break out. Another point is that these above stats were generated when all of these guys were getting way way more icetime than they got in their 16 or 17 year old seasons in the OHL.

McPhail, for example, was a big scorer as a 15 year old but only played 4th line minutes as a 17 year old. Sure, he has to earn his ice time, and Kris Bennett is a great example of a kid who worked his butt off to earn more time, but the thinking is, McPhail knows how to find the net and therefore, if he works hard and gets more ice time, he could still become a real success. The same thing applies to Kreis.

I was wondering who his Halton teammates were at 15 because sometimes kids score huge in midget (Jeremiah Addison) because they had incredible teammates (Connor McDavid, Josh Ho-Sang, Sam Bennett, Mitchell Stephens). Addison had 28 goals and 18 assists in 32 games with the Marlies.

So here are the players from the Halton team when Kreis was a 15 year old. Kreis was the leading scorer, right behind him were these forwards:
Josh Dickinson, round 8 Sudbury Wolves, 0 OHL games
Christopher Klack, plays for Muskegon in the USHL, 0 OHL games
Mitchell Prentice, 0 OHL games
Ben Morris, 0 OHL games
Aleks Rapp, 35 OHL games with Guelph, 0 points
Michael Andlauer, 0 OHL games
Cameron MacKenzie, 0 OHL games

And the defensemen:
Twin brother Marc-Andre Kreis, 7 games with the London Knights over 2 seasons. His real name is Mitchell so I feel like we are guaranteed to trade for him because of that fact alone. 2 assists in those 7 games.
Brandon Marinelli, 0 OHL games
Matt Mercer, 0 OHL games
Michael Goddard, 0 OHL games
David Kiss, 0 OHL games
Kyle Kaldenbach, 0 OHL games
Tyler Nother, played 8 games in minor midget that year because he was only 14, went on to be drafted by the London Knights and played 40 games as a 16 year old, scoring 2 assists, matching the career output of his fellow Knight Marc-Andre Kreis.

Point is, with all this talent around him, Kreis managed to score 1.32 points per game in his 15 year old season, which amongst current Spirit forwards puts him 5th out of a group of 15. So the talent is there. Maybe he needs the icetime. Maybe he needs to become older than half the league, which he will do this season. Maybe he needs to go to a team that will help him focus better on working hard to become a better player. Maybe in Saginaw he will have the right role models. Like I said earlier, I want to see him play before I decide on whether or not it is a good add.