The Brandon Wheat Kings have added some veteran presence to their back end.
They added 20-year-old defenceman Dominic Schmiemann from the Tri-City Americans. Going the other way was was a fifth-round pick in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft and a conditional sixth-round pick in 2022.
The 6'4" James River Bridge, Alberta native has seven goals and 39 points in his career. He's also added 268 penalty minutes. Schmiemann already had one goal with Tri-City this season.
"Dom has a ton of experience in this league. Watching our team play, we had to make a change to the makeup of our defence," said Darren Ritchie, general manager. "We're pleased to add a guy like Dom to our lineup."
"Our team will be able to rely on him," added Ritchie. "He'll be a good guy in the dressing room for our young guys to look up to. It should be a good place for him to play."
Adding Schmiemann does mean Brandon has to make a change. They currently have four-2004 born players. Jiri Patera, Connor Gutenberg, Zach Wytinck, and now Schmiemann. As per league rules, the club must trim that down to three prior to 12:00 p.m. on Thursday.
This can happen through a trade, or the player will go on the Waiver Wire.
"It's going to be a hard decision what we have to do," concluded Ritchie. "All three guys are great kids and good players. We have some work to do in the next 24-to-48 hours and we'll get to work on it right away."
Schmiemann is expected to play this weekend when Brandon welcomes Saskatoon on Friday.
