PR - Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings Welcome Seven to the Realm

The Wheat Kings staff celebrated late into Sunday night after what was one of their busiest drafts in history. By the end of the day the Kings had added five players at the cost of one off their pro roster.

Their biggest move of the day was the somewhat suprising deal sending Duncan Keith, along with Craig MacDonald and Alex Ponikarovsky, to the Aces for their first, Joel Kwiatkowski, and Lance Ward. Coupled with an earlier move which saw the Kings dispatch farmers Jason Pominville and Andrei Alberts to the Blackhawks for Sergei Zubov and a fifth rounder (Martin Bartos), the Kings added three solid veteran d-men while losing the mercurial Keith.

"Absolutely exstatic," GM Tyler Young summed up his feelings about the day, "I think we finally have a roster in place which has no real holes, this is a team which can develop and grow together into a dominating force."

In acquiring the 12th overall pick the Kings were able to nab their top two most wanted.

"We had our list for the 10th, Mueller was first by hair, we also really liked Frolik and one other player," Young said, "when the opportunity came up to get two of the three guys we wanted we leapt at the chance, even at the cost of a player of Keith's talent."

Peter Mueller and Michael Frolik are both slated to play pro next year. The Kings' other two picks, both of whom were first on the Kings' priority lists for those two spots, John de Gray and Martin Bartos, will be assigned to the farm. De Gray is a superb stay-at-home d-man with top four potential and Bartos was one of the best pure goal scorers in the draft.

"A year on the farm would probably be wasted on Mueller and Frolik; there'll be no pressure for them up in the bigs since they'll get icetime with guys like Bernier and Kaz, they'll be able just to smile and ride shotgun" commented the GM.

The additions of Kwiatowski, Ward and Zubov give the Kings their deepest d-core in history with eight solid pro d-man.

"We should be tough defensively, which is what I like, aggresive and mean," said Young, "Zubov we got for his skill, we think he will be a more reliable offensive player than Keith and he also provides veteran leadership and experience."

The Kings were rumoured to have been extremely active in the week preceeding the draft seeking deals to help improve their team. The Wheaties diligently sought both draft picks and veteran talent.

"To be honest I was looking at filling out our roster now and not looking to free agency," Young stated. "If there's someone there whom we like for the right price, we will look into it, but now we don't need to worry."

It has been suggested that the Kings may seek to sign or deal for a veteran goaltender, but those are rare and the price may exceed the value of adding one; for all intents and purposes the Kings are planning to go into next year with the firm of Howard and Weekes.