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Sudbury Wolves win Trevor Carrick derby, as OHL’s Eastern leaders eye side door to Memorial Cup

Neate Sager

Since their first blueline beef-up when they added Craig Duininck in November, the Sudbury Wolves have gone 14-4 to take over the No. 2 playoff seed in the OHL's Eastern Conference.

That's made a go-for-it year for the first time in nearly a decade in the northern Ontario city and the Wolves have scooped up one of the more coveted 19-year-old defencemen available. Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Trevor Carrick, who leads OHL rearguards with 16 goals — four more than the Wolves had from their entire blueline corps — is coming north from the Mississauga Steelheads. Missy's return includes promising 17-year-old defenceman Stefan Leblanc, who hails from the Toronto area, along with three second-round picks.

The Wolves are also rumoured to be very interested in adding Kitchener Rangers centre Radek Faksa, the Dallas Stars first-rounder and three-time Czech national junior team member.

Bell, a Sudbury native, is committed to playing in the NCAA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The Wolves have paid a premium, as is the reality of a Memorial Cup year, particularly when the Windsor Spitfires are keeping Tampa Bay Lightning first-rounder Slater Koekkoek and reducing the already scarce supply of 19-year-old defenders. Hving Carrick's ability to range up into the offence and get point shots through traffic, among other his qualities, ought to make Sudbury a more dangerous team. One caveat is that the Wolves, who have allowed 130 goals over 38 games (just fewer than 3.5 per), don't have the tightest ship in their defensive zone.

This might not completely close the gap between the Wolves and the conference-leading Oshawa Generals, whom Sudbury beat 2-0 in a possible playoff preview last week. (The Gens were without their linchpin Canada-Canada-but-not-Captain-Oshawa Scott Laughton, a candidate for the league's most outstanding player award.)

The Generals, while it's unofficial, might have snapped up 6-foot-4 Buffalo Sabres defence prospect Alex Lepkowski to bolster their blueline. That would give Oshawa an, by Eastern Conference standards, imposing back line with 6-foot-4, 215-pound captain and Florida Panthers selection Josh Brown, Lepkowski and fellow overage Colin Suellentrop.

Lepkowski helped the Barrie Colts come within a single victory of winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup last spring. He has played only 10 games for Buffalo's farm clubs.

Meantime, as far as the race between the two division leaders in the East is concerned, the die has been cast, with the Wolves as irresistible force and Oshawa as the immovable object, I guess.

From Jeff Giffen:

On the weekend, [Sudbury GM Blaine] Smith admitted his wish list for the Wolves definitely includes some muscle. It wasn’t hard to see that despite Friday’s 2-0 win over the visiting Generals as a few Wolves players struggled with Oshawa’s size.

At 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, big winger Hunter Smith is a handful for any junior defenceman. Similarly, Generals captain Josh Brown is listed at 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, and is an intimidating presence on the blueline.

The Wolves can match anyone’s skill in the conference, but outside of winger Connor Crisp, there aren’t a lot of players on the current roster that can stand up to the likes of Smith and Brown. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what Oshawa’s strategy would be if they end up in a series against a smaller Sudbury team. Adding some size to compete physically is one strategy, and finding players to enhance the power play is another. Making a team pay when you have the man advantage is a surefire way to force a tougher team to put its muscles in its pockets during a playoff series. (Sudbury Star)

A Faksa deal would be the second big trade in as many years between the Wolves and Kitchener Rangers. Sudbury's No. 1 goalie, Franky Palazzese, came in via last season's eight-player Frank Corrado deal.

Overall, it's been viewed as a quiet deadline. Many big names — Vancouver Canucks first-rounder Brendan Gaunce to Erie, Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder Kerby Rychel to Guelph, et al., — were traded before the holiday break.

The deadline falls Friday at 12 noon ET.

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.