Rebels acquire goalie, veteran forward in separate trades Monday

“We felt that we needed to upgrade our goalkeeping situation,” said Rebels President and General Manager Brent Sutter. “With Connor, it gives us a guy that can push to be a number one goalie, he just needs an opportunity, needs to play more.”

Ward, a native of Lloydminster, collected six points (two goals, four assists) in 22 games with Red Deer during the 2020-21 WHL season. The 6-foot-5, 217-pound rearguard has 16 career points in 83 games over two seasons with the Rebels. He is the son of former Rebels defenceman and NHL veteran Lance Ward.

Sutter said the fact that the Rebels have a lot of 19-year-old blue liners made the trade possible to make. He also gave a nod to Hunter Mayo as a young defenceman he has high hopes for.

“We just felt we had lots of depth, that we were working from (a position of) strength. They wanted Mason and we wanted the goaltender, so it made sense to do a one-for-one deal.”

At this point, Sutter expects a three-way battle for the starter’s spot at training camp between Ungar, 20-year-old Byron Fancy and 18-year-old Chase Coward, but says the team’s next coach will have a say on how it all shapes out.

The Rebels focused on their forward ranks with their second trade of the day that saw them acquire 20-year-old forward Liam Keeler from the Edmonton Oil Kings in exchange for 19-year-old forward Jaxsen Wiebe.

Keeler, an Edmonton native, spent parts of five seasons with the Oil Kings after being their first round, 22^nd overall selection in the 2016 WHL Draft. In 214 career games, Keeler racked up 74 points (26 goals, 48 assists) and was the team’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2020-21.

“We now have a 20-year-old that can play in all situations. In Edmonton he was playing on the second power play and he was their top penalty killer. He’s a centreman, can take faceoffs and win draws, and play the wing if he has to.

“He’s been in league since he was 16. He’s been in one organization, an organization that has won some games the last couple years and had some success. So he’s gone from seeing the tough times in Edmonton to the good times, and we felt that experience would be huge for us.”

Wiebe, who is from Moose Jaw, is 6-foot-1, 195-pounds and has played 73 career games with the Rebels, posting 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) and 98 penalty minutes. Wiebe was selected in the seventh round, 141st overall by the Rebels in the 2017 draft.

“’Wieber’ can skate and plays a heavy game and they were looking for a winger that could play like that,” Sutter explained.

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Sutter touched briefly on the team’s search for a new head coach after he stepped down from the role on April 9.

He says they’ve talked with several assistant coaches across the Western Hockey League so far and expects things to pick up once business in the American Hockey League wraps up for the year.

“It’s been really good, but it’s a process, right, it takes time. We have time on our side. It’s good to do the due diligence that we need to do and make sure we have a really good strong list of candidates, and then we’ll dig deeper into it. And it’s getting to that point.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen in the pro level (yet). There’s a lot of changes been made at the NHL level, and how is that going to impact the minor league systems with coaches and so forth? We just need to be patient with it.

“There are certain boxes that I’ve said from the start that I want to see a coach check off, and whether he has pro experience as a coach or not at this point in time is irrelevant. It’s just all these other boxes I want checked off in terms of what we’re exactly looking for as a coach, so we’ll just see where it goes.”

by Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels acquire goalie, veteran forward in separate trades Monday

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