London Knights lose Olli Maatta to Pittsburgh Penguins permanently, while Nikita Zadorov nets first NHL goal

Last Saturday, while the London Knights faithful basked in the reflected glory of Olli Määttä getting his first NHL goal and Nikita Zadorov making his debut with the Buffalo Sabres, their actual beloveds finished out a game with winger Brett Welychka playing defence.

London's potential to go into the Memorial Cup next May as the Ontario Hockey League's first three-peat champion in two generations was always contingent on (A) getting all of its stars back from The Show and (B) whatever pieces GM Mark Hunter would go out and get at the January trade deadline. Now, with London in a funk by its standard after a winless week, there is confirmation that the 19-year-old Määttä is no longer a junior player. It's not a surprise, since he is averaging 15 minutes per game with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The vision likely was that Määttä would slide right into the No. 1 defenceman role that Scott Harrington, a fellow member of the Penguins organization, manned to some critical acclaim over the past two seasons. Meantime, one could foresee the hulking 6-foot-5 Zadorov performing functions similar to Jarred Tinordi (now in the Montreal Canadiens organization, shuffling between the Habs and the AHL) on the Knights' 2012 OHL championship squad.

Zadorov played more than 17 minutes and scored a goal during his second career NHL game on Wednesday. It wasn't exactly on a screened, deflected slapshot from the blueline, either.

Two games is too soon to make a judgement on whether Zadorov is staying up with the Sabres, who have already dressed four teenagers this season, a first in the NHL this century. As a rule of thumb, a young defenceman can always benefit from more seasoning in major junior or minor pro if it is a good teaching environment, which London certainly has proven to be over the last decade.

On the flip side. Buffalo does not have much going for it, unless you count John Scott gooning it up as performance art. so perhaps it decides to keep Zadorov. The earliest his ninth game, the last he can play before Buffalo has to commit to burning off the first year of his NHL entry-level deal, will not be until Nov. 7.

[Previously: Calgary Flames keeping Sean Monahan; door for joining Team Canada left slightly ajar]

That amounts to two more weeks of London guesstimating what its defence corps will look like by December, before the trade talk heats up. The Knights already went out to add overages Alex Basso and Brady Austin to fortify their blueline, but might need more.

Overall, though, Määttä making the NHL full-time is a coup for both he and the Knights. In hindsight, he should not have dropped down to the No. 22 overall selection at the 2012 draft.

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.