Warren Rychel, Windsor Spitfires all-in at trade deadline
The OHL Trade Deadline is always a mish-mash of action. Like the NHL trade deadline, there are failed deals, trades that come out of nowhere to surprise everyone, and there are rumours that show up with nothing to them.
With the way things transpired Monday, there’s one thing that isn't a rumour: Warren Rychel and the Windsor Spitfires are going for it.
Again.
Winners of the past two Memorial Cups, the Spitfires swung seven deals between December 31st and the January 10th trade deadline. Included in those acquisitions was Taylor Carnevale, one of the most-covetted players at the trade deadline, and a thorn in the side of the Spitfires in last year’s OHL Final.
Carnevale had been thought to be on the move for a while. Failed deals were reported to both a top-seeded Western Conference and Eastern Conference team just days before the deadline. Then, Windsor came out of nowhere to swoop him up.
But was it because Rychel had felt the heat on Carnevale and wanted to move quickly? No. In our one-on-one interview, he explained how he just wanted the player that caught his eye.
“I never knew (about any failed trades for Carnevale). He’s one of those guys that just gets better all the time. After watching him in last year’s OHL final against us, I thought he’d be the perfect fit with (Ryan) Ellis and (Zach) Kassian. Especially on the power play.”
Many will recognize those last two names. Those familiar with the 2011 Canadian World Junior team will know Ellis as Canada’s captain, and now the highest-scoring defenceman in World Junior Hockey Championship history. Kassian meanwhile, is simply an absolute physical force of a junior player. It was no secret that there was the possibility both Kassian and Ellis would be finishing their junior careers somewhere else.
Entering the season, it was a state of flux for the Spitfires. They were missing Taylor Hall and Cam Fowler, top picks in the 2010 NHL Draft, and had dealt Marc Cantin and Justin Shugg to the Mississauga/St. Michael’s Majors for their own run at a Memorial Cup. Along with that they had graduated countless players to the ranks of professional hockey, which left the team wondering what the season would hold.
Rychel consistently and emphatically stated that he would not be undersold on his two biggest assets and worked for months on possible deals for the two of them. When it came down to the final negotiations though, things didn’t work out and Rychel wasn’t getting the value he should have for Ellis and Kassian. That made it easy for the Spitfires’ GM to hold on to his two sparkplugs.
With the two of them set to finish out their junior careers in Windsor, Ellis and Kassian have resumed their roles from last year as key pieces in a Spitfires championship run. While being able to hold on to both of them was a push in that direction, it wasn’t the only thing that factored into the decision to go for it.
“The West is definitely a wide open conference, so that influenced the decision for sure. I was also surprised of where we were in the standings and the emergence of players like Alexander Kohkhlachev, Tom Kuhnhackl and Nick Ebert. They’ve been big factors in our success to this point in the season.”
Along with keeping his star defenceman and forward and acquiring one of the most sought-after players in the league, Rychel acquired winger Jake Carrick from Sault Ste. Marie for four picks and a player, Adrian Robertson from Peterborough, Jeff Brown from Oshawa, son Kerby Rychel from Mississauga, and John Cullen and Brent Sullivan from Sarnia. The latter was dealt to the Greyhounds in the Carrick deal.
It was exactly what the Spits wanted to do. Already happy with its defence, Windsor had admired Carrick for a long time and were more than happy to snag the feisty winger. The offensive depth acquired in Jeff Brown, the youth and talent gathered in the younger Rychel and the experience and toughness of Robertson on the blueline rounded out a robust deadline day.
If Rychel had any cards left (slots available to add players to the roster), he would have liked to add another depth forward, but he was happy with who he got and what he accomplished. Overall, Rychel re-acquired two picks Windsor had dealt to Mississauga earlier and a pick from Plymouth, when they sent the Whalers Michael Whaley (another deadline-day move).
All the acquisitions he made cost him Steven Trojanovic, Troy Passingham, Eric Locke, Josh Malecki, and six draft picks (including one of the ones reacquired in the Mississauga deal).
While it’s a hefty price to pay, Rychel says that you can always recoup picks with good players, but that’s something he’ll worry about next year. The Spitfires have 30 games left in the season and while winning is the ultimate goal, Rychel and Spitfires’ management are concerning themselves with how the team plays down the stretch and getting the newest Spits integrated into the systems right away.
And even though the Spitfires have the chance to accomplish something truly significant in the history of the OHL, Rychel is concerned with his own league and conference first and foremost.
“For sure, if you’re going for it, you’re going for it and we built in the same fashion that we are doing now when we won our previous two Memorial Cups.
"We’re focused on the OHL Playoffs and winning another league championship though, so I’ll worry about the historical implications of what we might have the chance to achieve if we can win another OHL title.”
The Windsor Spitfires are all in, and there’s no one more experienced to hold the cards.
