The Bombers have completed two trades to send away pending 20-year-old players this offseason.
The first trade was announced June 3, with the Bombers moving forward Jerome Gilbert back to his former team, the MHL’s Yarmouth Mariners, for a player development fee. The deal came less than six months after the Bombers traded for Gilbert from Yarmouth, sending cash and defenceman Fabrice Bourgeois to the maritimes.
In his time in maroon and white, Gilbert had nine points in 22 regular season games, including three goals. Gilbert was a near non-factor for the Bombers come playoff time, going 11 playoff games without a point and being scratched for the final three games of the Bombers’ SJHL final loss to Melfort.
The second deal took place last month, closing the loop on last year’s trade that sent defender Anthony Bax to Flin Flon from the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings. In addition to picking up forward Ashton Paul, the Kings were also owed future considerations in the trade. Dauphin collected in June, picking up Bomber forward Dawson Karol to end the deal.
Not long after acquiring his rights, the Kings then moved Karol back to his home province, trading him to the Kindersley Klippers in exchange for a player development fee.
The Bombers and Klippers faced off against each other in last year’s playoffs, playing in the opening round. Flin Flon won the series in a four-game sweep, in the process ending the junior A career of former Bomber Brock Mueller, who was also moved to Kindersley when the Bombers found themselves with too many 20-year-old players.
Karol played games over three seasons with the Bombers, suiting up 56 times in the regular season for the club and scoring 12 points, including six goals. Last year, Karol had four goals and 10 points in 36 games, playing mainly on the team’s bottom-six. Karol played three of the four games between Kindersley and Flin Flon during playoffs, logging no points but bringing the Whitney Forum crowd to its feet in Game 2 with a fight against now-teammate John Vanden Elzen.
Next year’s Bomber roster originally had a logjam of 20-year-old players - teams allowed to dress a maximum of eight 2004-born players, while the Bombers headed into playoffs last season with 10 2004-born players. With Karol moved out, Gilbert back in Nova Scotia and Alexi Sylvestre scheduled to debut for the NCAA’s Bemidji State Beavers, the Bombers are now down to seven 2004-born players - defencemen Aiden Chow and Cole Tanchuk and forwards Carter Anderson, Liam Bridger, Keefe Gruener, Kylynn Olafson and Anthony Piccininno. Bridger’s future with the Bombers may also be in doubt - the Newfoundland-born player was drafted by a team in an American junior A league last month, going in the seventh round of the NAHL’s annual player draft to the league’s Northeast Generals. The Bombers had two former players jump ship to join the league last year, both forwards - Brent Gulenchyn and Jeremi Tremblay.
In the meantime, the Bombers also signed a pair of players late last month, both defencemen, then added two more prospects up front. First came the announcement of Jonah Marshall’s signing June 20, an SJHL draft pick by the Bombers in 2022. Marshall, an 18-year-old native of Saskatoon weighing in at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, had 12 points in 44 games on the blueline with the U18 AAA Warman Wildcats. Marshall has appeared at both of the Bombers’ last two training camps and has played preseason games with the club.
The second signing was announced June 25, with the Bombers bringing in Quebecois defenceman Natan Meunier-Roberge. A six-foot-one, 17-year-old defenceman from Boucherville, Quebec, Meunier-Roberge played last year with the Saint-Hyacinthe Gaulois in Quebec’s U18 AAA league, scoring 13 points in 40 games and earning a short call-up with Granby in Quebec’s junior A league.
Next up was the signing of forward John DelVerne, a 2006-born forward originally from Sylvania, Ohio. Del Verne's signing was announced by the Bombers July 8.
DelVerne played last season with the Victory Honda AAA program in Michigan, the same program former Bomber Trevor Stenglein played with - DelVerne and Stenglein played together briefly following Stenglein's departure from the Bombers last season. In 80 games with Victory Honda, spread out between two leagues, DelVerne had 71 total points, including 24 goals, good enough for sixth in scoring on his team.
DelVerne boasts a 4.2 GPA, according to his former team's website, and played bofh powerplay and penalty kill time for the squad. Victory Honda was ranked as the U.S.' number one U18 AAA program for much of last season, winning a Michigan AAA state championship and reaching the semifinal at a national championship tournament.
The next recruit for the Bombers was forward Rhett Ewen, who was officially signed July 10. Ewen is a former fourth-round pick of the La Ronge Ice Wolves in the 2022 SJHL draft - his rights were acquired by the Bombers from the Ice Wolves in a trade during this year's SJHL draft, where the Bombers picked him up for a player development fee and future considerations.
Ewen played last season for the Saskatoon Contacts U18 AAA team, putting up 33 points in 38 games and leading the team in scoring. Ewen won’t be the first member of his family to play for the Bombers - he is a cousin of ex-Bomber forward Joel Kocur, who was a key member of the Flin Flon team that reached the SJHL final in 2016.
