The Winkler Flyers stood pat at the January 10th trading deadline and will maintain their current 23 man roster. Sitting in third place in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League standings with a 26-9-3 record, the Flyers will head into the stretch run with the team that got them there.
It was a very slow deadline in the MJHL with very little movement among any of the 11 teams.
”In terms of bigger deals and working to improve our team that way, we worked real hard on a lot of different deals and it was a case where nothing came together,” said Winkler Head Coach and General Manager Ken Pearson, “The net result is we march forward with our existing group.”
The Flyers, as they currently sit are near the top of every offensive and defensive category in the league.
”I think this year’s team has a lot of growth left, just based on getting our full lineup playing time together and that type of thing,” said Pearson “That’ll be our focus now, trying to improve our team as much as we can through the remaining part of the regular season and then, obviously, into playoffs.”
The Flyers roster going forward consists of 23 players. Nine 20 year olds, six 19 year olds, five 18 year olds, two 17 year olds and one 16 year old. Winkler will carry two goaltenders, eight defenseman and 13 forwards.
Winkler has 22 regular season games left and have eight games in hand on the teams in front of them in the standings (Steinbach, Portage).
The Flyers will play their first home game in nearly a month when they host the Portage Terriers on Tuesday, January 12th. Puck drop at the Winkler Recreation Complex is 7:30pm.