The Estevan Bruins snagged one of the premier scorers in the SJHL last week prior to the league's trade deadline.
The club brought in left winger Michael Sagen from the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Jan. 7 in exchange for defenceman Brett Blatz and cash.
"He's exactly what we've been looking for, an offensive-minded left-side guy," Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood said of the Kenaston native.
"He's a big body, he's good down low. Not a real physical player as far as banging and crashing, but he's a good player down on the boards, and we needed another left-handed shot for our power play. I think to add a talented left winger like Sagen has made our team a lot better."
Sagen, 20, had 13 goals and 28 points in as many games with the Ice Wolves. Prior to an off-season trade to La Ronge, he accumulated more than 30 points each in two seasons with Melville.
Sagen, reached Thursday on his way to Estevan, said he was eager to make the move after asking for a trade from La Ronge.
"It's not only a nice town, nice city, nice rink, but also I think a good team. I'm excited," he said of Estevan.
"It was mutual. I feel like my time was up in La Ronge. I didn't want to be there anymore."
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound winger said he thinks of himself as a power forward and added he's excited to play with top scorers Austin Daae and Tanner Froese.
"I'd describe myself as a hard-nosed guy, not scared to go in the corners. It's fun and dandy to score big goals, but it's also fun to throw big hits."
The addition of Sagen will give the Bruins a third dangerous threat up front and help take some of the load off the top line, with Lewgood pointing out that Daae and Froese have accounted for about 35 per cent of the team's scoring so far.
"We now have some offensive depth. When you look at our top line as it is, they've obviously carried the load. Now you've got a guy like Sagen, a healthy (Lynnden) Pastachak, and then you have some good young players who are able to chip in like (Jason) Duret. I think that makes for a better second half than what we had in the first half, offensively."
In Blatz, the Bruins lose a 20-year-old top-four defenceman who had been acquired last season from Kindersley for Austin Yano.
"To get a quality guy like Sagen, you've gotta give up a significant amount," Lewgood said.
He said the Blatz situation began earlier this month when he had a deal in place to send the defenceman to Whitecourt (AJHL) for 18-year-old forward Clay Spencer. That was a three-way deal that fell through when Blatz wouldn't report to Yarmouth (MHL), where Whitecourt would have flipped him.
"At that point we felt we had to do something with Blatz, and La Ronge was a real good fit, I thought. They were excited to get him, as you can tell by the fact they gave up one of the top players in the league. That tells me that Blatz has a good place to go and play," Lewgood said.
Trading Blatz put the team in a tight spot on the back end though, as blue liners R.T. Rice and Kyle Bird were injured the next night against Notre Dame.
Adding a defenceman at Friday's trade deadline became a high priority, but Lewgood wasn't able to acquire one.
"They just weren't available. We had about six deals pending at one point, literally six, I'm not even exaggerating. In the end, everybody just pulled their guys off the table and said they weren't doing it."
That left the club with only four healthy defencemen for a pair of weekend games, and they had to call up Jason Hengen as an affiliated player.
"I wouldn't say they're quite in the day-to-day stage yet, but they're not too far out," Lewgood said of Rice and Bird.
With the likes of Hengen and midget AAA prospects Mason Benning and Josh Rieger available to help fill in, Lewgood said the injured players won't be rushed back.
