It took some doing, but the Melville Millionaires got their man.
Not wanting to settle for a lesser player, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Mils worked out a three-way deal with the Drumheller Dragons and the Grand Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
The Millionaires sent Melville product Tyler Kreklewich to the Dragons in exchange for 19-year-old forward Evan Rochowiak. Rochowiak, from Livonia. Mich., was then swapped for the Storm’s Tristan Paquette, an 18-year-old forward.
Paquette, who hails from Airdrie, Alta., has four goals and 10 assists in 26 games this season between the Storm and the Calgary Mustangs.
“We accomplished what we want to with the trade, in getting a ’98 forward who has some skill,” said Mils bench boss Devin Windle.
“We’re all about being a young team that’s going to grow together and establish some roots in the community and in the league, so he’s just one more building block for us.
“He’s got good size. He’s six-feet tall, 170 pounds and he moves well and sees the ice well. From what we’re hearing he’s a pretty complete player.”
The Mils brass is gambling that Paquette has some upside.
“He’s only been playing hockey since he was 10 or 11 years old,” said Windle. “When you think about where he is today, with only playing that long, to project his ceiling, this bodes well for him.
“We think he has a high ceiling and that’s all part and parcel of why we wanted to acquire him.”
Paquette isn’t an overly physical player, but his style makes him a perfect fit for his new club.
“He’s not going to run anyone through the glass, but he uses his size to his advantage,” added Windle. “He can play the game the way we play it, as far as going north-south and having an edge with some grit.”
The addition of another forward to the team is huge for the Millionaires, who have some injury issues and have been playing a few guys out of position.
“We’ve been doing some things differently, particularly with (Kyle) Joswiak playing forward for a couple of nights for us,” said Windle.
“It hasn’t been ideal with the injury front, but I didn’t want to trade for just anyone.
“I wanted to find the right guy and at this point we believe we found the right guy and we’re excited about it.”
The line of Melville native Taylor Elmy, Cory Schillo and Joswiak has turned plenty of head in the Millionaires’ last few contests.
“There’s a lot of energy with that group, specifically with Cory (Schillo) and Taylor (Elmy) which is what we knew them as,” Windle added.
“We knew with those guys, we’d get a physical element and they’d finish every single check.
“Jaws (Joswiak) fits right in with that. That line is a huge energy catalyst for us and the guys on the bench get fired up with the knowledge that those guys go out there and bust their backs for us.”
Three raw rookies rarely make strides the way this threesome has of late, to the point where they’ve been the team’s starting line at times.
“We look at where we were at the start of the season, maybe these guys haven’t put up 15 points, but their ability to work hard in practice and play that heavy kind of game is huge for us,” Windle said.
“They’ve done so much for us and they’ve come a long way.”
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