Riga / Toronto Come Together for Big Trade

[tcookie 934]

With the Riga Reign continuing to struggle in the European Conference, and the Toronto Legion suffering a similar fate in the North American Conference, the two teams hooked up for a blockbuster mid-season deal that both teams hope will change their fortunes.

 

The Reign sent winger Addison McLaren (the S75 8th overall pick) along with defenseman Han Jae Kuk and two 3rd round picks in the S80 draft to Toronto, in exchange for defenseman Jolly Greene Giant (the S75 2nd overall pick), forward Oh Sens, and an S79 2nd round pick.

 

It's a deal that makes sense for both sides on the surface, as Riga boasted a slightly forward-heavy lineup while Toronto's was slightly defenseman-heavy. Both teams are a little more balanced with the main premise of the trade being the McLaren/Giant swap.

 

Giant and McLaren were teammates on the Founders Cup winning Philadelphia Reapers squad in S75, then made their VHL debuts in S76. Since then, Giant has put up 158 points, 462 hits, and 464 blocked shots in 196 games with a -25 rating on the back end of the Legion. McLaren has piled up 119 points, 751 hits, and 81 blocked shots in 195 games with a -34 rating, playing multiple roles and an effective defensive game, but has left something to be desired offensively.

 

As for the other pieces, Oh Sens, heading to Riga, is a veteran winger in their final VHL campaign who has three point-per-game seasons and 321 points in 342 career games to their credit. They've struggled a little bit more offensively this season, but should still bring a spark to the Riga offense. Han Jae Kuk is a very good defensive defenseman but doesn't boast a ton of offense, also a VHL veteran who may have a little more left in them than Sens.

 

"I'm sad it didn't work out in Riga," says McLaren. "I had it in my mind when I was drafted that it was the perfect spot, going there, reunited with Cabe, playing with some of the other guys from the S75 class, we were going to grow together, be a contender and win some Cups there and hopefully I'd spend my entire career there. Obviously, it didn't work out that way. I will say, though, that I'm excited for a fresh start and that Toronto wanted to bring me in, and I'm also excited to finally get to play with a good friend of mine in Scotty Kaberle, and I actually know quite a few of the guys there and I think it's also a pretty great group. Hoping I can be a part of the winning combination there and that we get this ship turned around."

 

While the immediate returns for both teams haven't been impressive - both teams continue to struggle and have fallen to seventh in their respective conference - the roster switch is one that makes sense on paper and sets both teams up pretty well going forward. With four seasons left in McLaren's career after this one, he is hopeful for the future.

 

"I'm obviously not getting any younger - it's weird to say that already, but now I'm coming up on the second half of my career and definitely want to start winning. I think Riga was in a position where on paper they should have been getting better results and didn't, and I think Toronto is in a similar position now. We've got talent here and whatever happens this season, I think we need to just start building some momentum. We've got a good team and like Riga, a group that's still pretty young. We've got some good hockey ahead of us I think."

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

Review: Again, a really nice media spot! I really like the incorporating the team colours into the player's font thing. It pops out and helps the player's quote stand out. Your paragraph lengths are great and the content is great. You have a really good choice of words and it is impressive to see how professional this media spot looks. Your grammar looks good for the most part and your media spot just flows really well. There isn't any sudden jumps and no rambling. Surprisingly, not much repetition here and every single sentence is important. I can't really notice any areas that you used as filler, other than the stats of course, which are important in their own right

 

9.6/10 Media Spot!