LEWISTON – It’s a move that could be construed many ways, and nearly every prognosticator may get a piece of it right.
For now, though, the Lewiston Maineiacs prefer to call it an experiment.
Since last Sunday’s game against Chicoutimi, a new face has appeared at the Maineiacs’ practices. The skater, a bigger-than-average 19-year-old forward who, according to Maineiacs assistant coach Ed Harding “won’t back down from anything,” started skating with the team this week after arriving over the weekend from Rhode Island.
His name is Alex Hager.
Hager is famous (or infamous depending with which circle you run in Rhode Island) for being the captain of the 2004 Toll Gate team that knocked off Mount St. Charles for the first time in 26 years in the state’s high school hockey championship game.
“He’s a kid that we recognized and looked at earlier, so much as a year ago,” said Harding. “We’re in the process of putting all of his paperwork together. I don’t think he’ll be in the lineup Friday night, but he potentially could be in the lineup on Sunday, but we want to make sure all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted.”
The bigger question, though, with Hager in town, is what might happen to the rest of the roster. Shane Peterson, the tall, lanky defenseman from New Brunswick, has gone to play AAA hockey in Halifax. Sure, Alex Sousa is on the shelf until mid-January at the earliest, but still in the stands for many of the team’s games is defenseman Mathieu Ricard.
Derek Bailey is close to returning from an upper-body injury, and the addition of Hager will give the team two spare forwards
“It’ll probably create a logjam, but we want competition,” said Harding. “We know what he have in McCarthy and Paquet and they know what the deal is. Bailey’s been hurt, so basically we’ve had 12 forwards, so if anyone else went down we’d be in trouble. You know, competition’s not too bad to have, either.”
And then there is Scott Geoffroy, another 19-year-old and a local product. He has yet to be signed by the team, and Harding admits that the team is paying careful consideration to Geoffroy’s situation.
“We’re still evaluating him,” said Harding. “(Maineiacs assistant coach) Jeff (Guay) has been watching him very closely, and we’re not sure what we’re going to do with him. The big thing we have to be careful of is that he’s 19-years old. I don’t want to be the one to potentially ruin his chance to play college hockey. Would he be here to potentially play as a 20-year-old? Probably not, so that’s what really weighs in the back of our minds.”
The obvious turn some fans will take is looking ahead to Sunday night or Monday morning, the opening of the league’s trade period. Rumors are flying about potential trades involving 20-year-old defensemen Jonathan Paiement and Brandon Roach, and even 19-year-old forward Olivier Legault, who seems to fit a role similar to Hager’s.
“A lot of teams have contacted us, but nothing is done,” said Harding. “We’re just sitting here listening right now and I’m smiling. We think we have a pretty good hockey team. If we need to add a component to this team here or there, we’ll do it. We think we may have added that with Alex Hager without giving anything up, and it gives us a little bit of depth.”
Harding did hint at a piece of the team’s trade-season strategy Wednesday, though, asserting the team’s position regarding future draft picks.
“The only thing I can tell you is that we’re pretty happy where we stand as far as draft picks are concerned,” said Harding. “I don’t think we’re going to sit there and try and give players away for draft picks and just stockpile draft picks. We also have a couple of good young kids that we think will be on this team next year, for example (Patrick) Cusak and (David) Taylor, so we don’t need to have a ton of draft picks. I got a couple of calls last night saying, We can offer you this draft pick or that draft pick,’ but we’re not going to be interested in that. Other than that, we’re fairly happy where we sit.”
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