The Dauphin Kings completed a blockbuster trade on Wednesday.
They sent 20-year-old Ashton Paul to the Melfort Mustangs of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) in exchange for Rylan Ringor and a player development fee. Paul had a slow start to the season this year with seven goals and six assists. He was unable to find the form that he had last year when he joined Dauphin. He had 32 points in 25 games with the Kings in the regular season last year.
Paul will join a Mustangs team that is on top of the SJHL. The defending SJHL champions have an eight-point gap over Battlefords for first place in the league. They also possess Will Munro and Bo Eisner of Swan River.
Doug Hedley commented on the departure.
"When a player loses confidence like Ashton did, it's a struggle mentally," said Hedley. "He wanted to get closer to home. The original request was for him to join the Blizzard and that's what we were attempting to do. They weren't interested in giving up an adequate replacement in the top six. He said he wanted to try Melfort and that was done."
In nine games with the Mustangs this year, Rylan scored twice and added six assists. He started this year in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) with the Devon Xtreme. In each of the past three seasons, Ringor recorded at least 30 points with the Winnipeg Freeze, Lloydminster Bobcats, and Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Rylan is from Winnipeg and is expected to join the Kings in the coming days.
"We believe he will help us. He has a high hockey IQ, moves the puck well and could fit in our top six here," ended Hedley. "He's a good player for us and I wish Ashton Paul all the best, hopefully, things work out in Melfort for him."
The Kings return to the ice on Saturday when the Steinbach Pistons come to town. It will be a battle between the top two teams in the league. Steinbach is on top with a record of 20-4-1 while Dauphin is in second with 19 wins in 26 games.
It's also Hockey Card night and the puck drops at 7:30.