The Trail Smoke Eaters completed the Scott Davidson deal last week, adding talented forward Kurt Black from the Chilliwack Chiefs to the roster.
The 20-year-old played two years with the Chiefs and finished tied for fourth in scoring with Davidson on the Mainland division champion Chiefs, netting 18 goals and 45 points in 56 games this season.
The addition completes the futures part of the trade that brought defenceman Evan MacEachern to Trail in the January deal for the former Smokie captain and Trail native.
“If you look at the deal, that’s kind of how it had to happen,” said Trail Smoke Eater coach Nick Deschenes. “For us to move Scott it had to be two good players, and Evan is half-a-point a game d-man, and Kurt is pretty much a top-three scorer for us.”
Black, a Winfield native, is familiar with the area having played with the Beaver Valley Nitehawks in 2012-13.
The six-foot-one, 185 pound forward also adds some grit collecting 78 penalty minutes with the Chiefs last year while adding two goals and three assists in 10 playoff games.
With the addition of Black, Deschenes says the Smoke Eaters look promising up front, and will concentrate on shoring up the defence and goaltending along with his coaching staff as the Smokies look to add a new full-time assistant coach to the team. Fortunately, current assistants Barry Zanier and Craig Clare aren’t going anywhere, but another full-time presence will help with the day-to-day operations, says Deschenes.
“It’s going to be good, we’ll have four bodies on board and one of the big things is just being competitive with the other teams in our division and a lot of them have that full-time assistant.”
The Smoke Eaters are now gearing up for their Spring Camp in Whistler from May 29-31, which should help identify more prospects for their main camp in August.
“If you look at last year to this year, you just don’t find Dallas Calvin, Craig Martin, Jake Lucchini, and Charlie Zuccharini just around the corner, it’s going to be a bit of a different look for the team . . .
“No one ever comes as you project, and the following season you always have some players underachieve, but we’ll work hard through the summer to make sure everyone is dialed in and knows what’s expected of them, so it should be interesting.”
