Yahoo Sports 
London Knights add Brady Austin, in possible tipoff about Olli Maatta’s status
The London Knights could have waited another four months to staff their open overage slot, yet they cashed in their chit early by adding to their roster.
Brady Austin, a Buffalo Sabres selection who helmed the Belleville Bulls' blue line to no small acclaim during their playoff run in the spring, has the winning raffle ticket among the legion of 20-year-old defencemen with hopes of capping their junior run by competing in the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The deal went down during the same news cycle in which Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Olli Määttä sent "signals ... that he can play at this level" by thriving in his third NHL game. London GM Mark Hunter also typically is able to avoid overpaying for an in-season addition, but in this case he had to part with Dallas Stars second-rounder Remi Elie, a promising power winger.
From Ryan Pyette:
The timing of the trade doesn’t smell simply like a run-of-the-mill beefup of the blue-line. It smacks of the Memorial Cup hosts buying a security blanket in case a certain 19-year-old Finn makes the NHL for good.
“We just didn’t have enough D, period, so we brought in an older guy,” London head coach Dale Hunter said. “You need more D so the younger guys don’t have to play so many minutes. They’re learning, they’re getting better, but it still takes time.”
Austin, a versatile 6-foot-4, 225-pounder from Peterborough, will make his Knights debut Thursday night in Sarnia. London GM Mark Hunter compared the five-year OHLer’s game to Tommy Hughes and former captain Scott Harrington — a reliable, big-bodied shutdown-type of defender. (London Free Press, Oct. 9)
If Määttä comes back, bonus.
It's a bit of a challenge trade wherein each player has a perhaps unfulfilled area of his potential. Austin needed two cracks at the NHL draft before he was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in 2012. Covering the Olympic-sized ice the Bulls play on can turn a defenceman's physicality against him, since it puts a premium on positional play. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Austin is back in junior to use that size to good effect; going to London also matches him up with another behemoth Buffalo pick, first-rounder Nikita Zadorov.
Last season, Elie was the quintessential rookie fourth-liner whom more often than not would work his way up in London's rotation, showing a confluence of physical play, defensive savvy and skill. It's almost like he developed backwards: the typical second-rounder from the OHL shows his offensive side first. Elie needs an opportunity to be counted on to score consistently. The surfeit of scorers in London got in the way of that. In Belleville, which has bid adieu to a lot of its scoring from 2012-13, he should get a wide-open opportunity.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.
