Monday, November 9, 2009

Crawford trots to new colors

With the Sunday recap serving as a proper lead-in, the Saginaw Spirit announced on Monday that they have traded D Nick Crawford, D T.J. Brodie, and a 2010 third round draft choice to Barrie for D Ryan O'Connor and F Michael Sgarbossa. Crawford and Brodie and currently ranked third and second respectively in OHL scoring for defensemen.
Both Brodie and Crawford are in their fourth season in the Ontario Hockey League and are joining their second team, after each has spent their last three seasons in Saginaw. T.J. Brodie was a fourth round pick of the Calgary Flames in 2008. The 6’1”, 173 pound defender has 23 points in 19 games so far this season with the Spirit. The Dresden, ON native has 107 points in 170 career games played. Nick Crawford was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the 6th round of the 2008 NHL entry draft, the Caledon resident has 21 points through 19 games so far this season and has played in at least 63 games in each of the past three years. Sophomores Michael Sgarbossa and Ryan O’Connor spent just over a season with the Colts. O’Connor had 35 points in 62 games played last season, while Sgarbossa had 43 points in 67 games played in 2008-09. Sgarbossa has seven goals so far this year, and was fourth in team scoring with 20 points in 19 games played. “Well we are definitely excited to have these two players join the team,” said Colts Head Coach Marty Williamson. “They are two great defensemen and two pieces of the puzzle that we were looking for. There both having great seasons so far and we are looking forward to having them.” The teams also swapped conditional second round draft choices in 2011, both newcomers are expected to arrive in Barrie today and should make their debut when the Colts host the Wolves on Thursday night.