The Chilliwack Chiefs have moved out a player to make way for another player arriving later this week.
The junior A club dealt 20-year-old forward Wyatt Schlaht to the West Kelowna Warriors Thursday, receiving future considerations in return.
Schlaht’s Chiefs tenure was just eight games long. He came over from Surrey in an offseason swap after helping the Eagles punt Chilliwack out of the BCHL playoffs last spring. Chiefs hockey boss Brian Maloney wanted to add a player with a ‘heavy game’ to the lineup.
Schlaht produced two goals and 10 penalty minutes in extended training camp action.
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Maloney would have liked to keep the Colorado native, but he had to make a move with another 20 year old on the way. The team is only allowed to carry six and it came down to forwards Schlaht, Nick Cherkowski and Tommy Lyons, D-men Jackson Munro and Luke Krys or goaltender Mathieu Caron.
“First and foremost, we want to thank Wyatt for everything he did for our team in the time that he was here.” Maloney said. “Unfortunately, this decision was solely based on numbers and the roster regulations that we must adhere to. This has absolutely nothing to do with Wyatt as a player, or a person. This was a really hard decision for our staff to make, as Wyatt has literally done everything we had asked of him and then some. He truly is a classy, professional individual that showed our young players a lot of different things in the time that he was here.”
The team is not ready to announce the mystery player replacing Schlaht on the roster, but given Maloney’s previous statements about not bringing in major junior players, it’s a good bet to be someone coming from NCAA men’s Div 1 hockey.
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