Floundering in the bottom of the standings, the Guelph Storm made a major shakeup Thursday, trading leading scorer and Anaheim Ducks prospect Sasha Pastujov to the Sarnia Sting.
In exchange the Storm receives 18-year-old forward Max Nemestnikov and four draft picks: a second in 2023 (Kitchener), third in 2024 (Niagara), fifth in 2025 (Sarnia) and a fifth in 2026 (Sarnia).
"I still believe in this team and I think we're capable of much better than we've shown so far," Storm general manager George Burnett said when asked if this was an indication the Storm is looking at what's best for next season.
"I don't think it should be taken as such. Obviously we're not where we want to be and anticipated in being ... we're expecting to still remain competitive and compete for a playoff season."
Burnett stressed that Pastujov wasn't asking for a trade and that he his time in Guelph had been nothing but a positive one from the club's perspective.
"There was nothing negative," he said. "He was a terrific player for us."
Burnett said Sarnia "chased pretty hard" after Pastujov and other teams have been calling.
"When you're where we at in the standings, everyone's trying to pick your pocket," Burnett said.
The Storm GM said waiting to trade a player until after Christmas can backfire. There's also the good chance Pastujov will be away at the World Juniors for a month.
"Being in the hole that we're in then losing our top scorer for an extended period of time is not a good combination," Burnett said. "You can leave things until after the World Junior tournament, but a lot of things can happen.
"For a lot of reasons, we felt it was good sense to make this happen."
He said the Storm was not looking to trade Pastujov.
Namestnikov, a five-foot-eight, 175-pound left shot centre, was the third overall pick in the 2020 OHL Priority Selection, nine picks before Guelph took Matt Poitras. He had 128 points his draft year playing with Detroit Honeybaked.
This season Nemestnikov had four goals and three assists in 18 games after scoring 16 goals last season.
Undrafted by the NHL, Nemestnikov is a year younger than Pastujov.
"The young man we've added to our group is a very dynamic player who has a chance to be a real good contributor for the next year and a half, maybe two and a half," Burnett said.
Pastujov had a team-best 11 goals and 19 points this season. Six of his goals came on the power play. Last season he had 34 goals and 76 points, both tops on the team.
Sarnia currently sits in fifth place in the Western Conference standings. Guelph is in last place.
The Storm hosts the Niagara IceDogs Friday and the Kitchener Rangers on Saturday.
