Wheat Kings send Bukarts to Portland

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This article was published 30/10/2015 (3712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the return of injured overage forward Tim McGauley on the horizon, the Brandon Wheat Kings dealt 20-year-old import Rihards Bukarts to the Portland Winterhawks on Thursday for a pair of Western Hockey League bantam draft picks.

The move allows Brandon to meet the Western Hockey League’s quota of three overage, 20-year-old players when McGauley, a first-team Eastern Conference all-star last season, returns to the lineup.

The other overagers are defencemen Colton Waltz and team captain Macoy Erkamps.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said the team had to trade a very good player in the Latvian left-winger.

“We were going to get to a point where we had to make a 20-year-old decision again as Tim McGauley gets closer to full health,” McCrimmon said. “This was an opportunity to add some value back to our organization in the way of draft picks and at the same time get Rihards a good place to play.”

The picks are both third rounders, with one coming in 2017 and the other in either 2016 or 2018. The uncertainty comes because Portland’s 2016 third rounder was a conditional piece of a previous deal with the Saskatoon Blades.

Portland had a spot available because Swedish forward Carl Ericson suffered a leg injury and underwent season-ending surgery earlier this month.

The five-foot-nine, 192-pound Bukarts has five goals and four assists in 10 games this season, after putting up 33 goals and 41 assists in 62 games last season.

In his three-season Wheat Kings career, Bukarts scored 66 goals and added 71 assists in 137 games.

“Rihards was a really good player for us,” McCrimmon said, noting how his production improved.

The wildcard remains the health of McGauley, who was injured in the opening game on Sept. 25 after falling awkwardly to the ice after a faceoff.

“He’s still going to be a while before he’s ready to play,” McCrimmon said. “As much as it maybe would have worked to keep Rihards right until that time, if Portland acquires another European or 20-year-old player elsewhere, then you let that deal slip through your fingers. We would realize no return or less return for Rihards and Rihards might not end up with a place to play.”

The Wheat Kings could still potentially have a second import in their lineup if the Calgary Flames choose to send 18-year-old Swedish defenceman Oliver Kylington down to the WHL. Brandon’s first-round choice in the last Canadian Hockey League import draft is currently skating with the Stockton Heat of the American Hockey League, where he has a goal and an assist in four games and a plus-minus of minus-2.

McCrimmon said he has had no contact with the Flames about Kylington.

The Wheat Kings, who sit in second in the East Division with a record of 9-3-0-2, trail the Prince Albert Raiders by three points.

Brandon returns to action tonight as they visit the Kootenay Ice, a team they defeated 13-1 on Oct. 9 at Westman Place. Kootenay is last in the Eastern Conference with a record of 3-11-1-0.

McCrimmon said he isn’t worried about complacency among his players, particularly after their 5-0 loss to the Winterhawks and a 7-2 drubbing by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the last week.

“We’ve taken a couple of lickings ourselves since then,” McCrimmon said of the lopsided win over the Ice. “That’s a long time ago. We’re in game seven of an eight-game trip and we’ll need to be good if we’re going to have any success here. Kootenay has steadily improved since we played them.

“I look at that game as a little bit of an outlier, something can happen occasionally early in the season. I expect (tonight) will be a lot more of what we’re used to seeing.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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