The Battlefords North Stars received some extra firepower to their lineup Tuesday.
Forward Coby Downs, who was third in team scoring last year with 73 points, has rejoined the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League club after a brief stint with the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League.
“He’s an exciting player that can play in all situations, and any time you can add a 20-year-old player that can do that, it’s very exciting,” North Stars head coach and general manager Nate Bedford said.
“I think Coby’s excited about coming back and to play some minutes.”
Downs, who is from Montclair, California, suited up in five games with the Lancers and had an assist on Friday in a 6-3 win over the Sioux Falls Stampede.
“He has school aspirations and I think it’s important for anyone to get as much ice as you can in your last year of junior hockey,” Bedford said.
“I think he’s also seen that we’re going to be a successful team and he can see where he will fit into that.”
In addition to the return of Downs, the North Stars also acquired 19-year-old forward Ben Allen from the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons.
Allen, who was born in Allen, Texas and has duel citizenship, had four points in four games for the Oil Barons after putting up 23 points for the Dallas Stars U18 program last year.
“He was the captain for his team down in Dallas, so he has leadership capabilities and he’ll add some scoring depth for us as well,” Bedford said.
With the addition of two new forwards to the lineup, Bedford will be forced to make some tough choices when it comes to the North Stars roster over the coming days.
“We’ll juggle things around a bit, but at the end of the day we’ll have to make some decisions on some guys,” Bedford said.
“There’s certain guys that haven’t been playing a ton up until this point and the addition of a couple of bodies will make things even tougher to crack the lineup. I think we’ll have difficult conversations in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Downs and Allen will be arriving in North Battleford later today and both players will be practicing at the Civic Centre Wednesday.
The North Stars will be back in action Thursday in Wilcox against the Notre Dame Hounds as they continue a five game road trip.
In other news, two North Stars players received accolades from the SJHL Tuesday.
Connor Sych received the defenceman of the week award after his three-point performance Saturday in a 3-0 win over Flin Flon.
Joel Grzybowski earned rookie of the week honours following a pair of wins over Melfort and Flin Flon.
Chris Van Os-Shaw of the Humboldt Broncos and Nathan Hargrave of the Weyburn Red Wings received the player of the week and goaltender of the week awards respectively.
