Deadline deal pays off for Terriers

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This article was published 13/12/2022 (1012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Blake Spiller was playing the long game when he shipped his best player, forward Logan Calder, to the Dauphin Kings at the MJHL trade deadline 11 months ago.

Faced with the possibility of missing the playoffs for the first time in his 21-year tenure with the Portage Terriers while also armed with the knowledge his club was hosting the 2023 Centennial Cup national junior A championship, Spiller made the move and got right-winger Slade Stanick and defenceman Hayden Lacquette back in the deal.

In retrospect, the swap looks good for both clubs.

Calder helped the Kings win a league title and boosted a post-season run that got Dauphin to the semifinals of the national championship in his overage season while Stanick and Lacquette, both 19-year-olds, have become key cogs in Portage’s attack in 2022-23.

In fact, Lacquette’s impact has been off the charts.

He leads the team in scoring with 35 points, including 11 goals, in 29 games while Stanick has chipped in with 21 points in 23 games as the Terriers have stormed from the gate with a 20-6-1-1 record and sit third in the East Division, six points behind the front-running Steinbach Pistons.

Lacquette also leads all MJHL blue-liners in scoring while teammates Ben McCartney (29 points), Kian Calder (23 points) and the recently acquired Matt McLeod (20 points) are third, fifth and 10th, respectively, in scoring among MJHL defencemen. Austin Peters is the club’s highest scoring forward with 30 points in 26 games.

Lacquette’s offensive skill set is elite but Spiller wasn’t completely prepared for his production levels. As a rookie last season, Lacquette had 25 points in 40 games.

“He’s leading the team in scoring and he’s real talented and definitely offensively gifted, so it’s not a total surprise,” said Spiller. “But it’s not very often that a defenceman leads the team in scoring. Between him and McCartney and Calder, we’ve got some offence from the back end for sure.”

It didn’t take Lacquette long to adjust to life away from Dauphin, which is an hour south of Mallard, his hometown. He’s being used in all situations and with a variety of defence parings.

“It was a quick transition,” said Lacquette. “I was paired with different guys last year and it’s been on and off this year, too. I’ve played with (Jordan) Murray, a 16-year-old, (Tayem) Gislason and Calder.”

Lacquette, whose first cousin is former national women’s team blue-liner Brigette Lacquette, credits an off-season strength program and working for his uncle Terrence Lacquette’s (Brigette’s dad) construction company, for some of the on-ice improvements he’s made.

Although he’s only 5-11, 185 pounds, Lacquette appears to have no problem dishing out physical punishment. His 106 penalty minutes are the second-highest total, seven behind league-leader Sequoia Swan of the OCN Blizzard.

“Now that we’ve played every almost every team in the league, I know what most of the players will do,” said Lacquette. “I’ve had four fights already.”

Spiller hasn’t been shy about bringing in additional pieces for a run to the Cup national tournament. At the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Dec. 1 roster deadline, he added McLeod, forwards Jack Kaiser and Blake Boudreau and former WHL defenceman Tayem Gislason to the mix.

The Terriers should have forward Bryden Kiesmann (appendectomy) and Daniel Siso (undisclosed) returning from injured reserve after the Christmas break. Adding forward help is not necessarily a priority.

“I think once they come back, they’ll provide some offence,” said Spiller. “We have been scoring, but lately we’ve given up a few more than we need to. We definitely need to tighten up in that area.”

A good performance at the Centennial Cup, which will be a 10-team tournament again in 2023, could depend on what the Terriers add prior to the MJHL’s Jan. 10 trade deadline.

“I think the big thing this year is there’s lots of parity in both divisions of our league,” said Spiller. Nobody’s in a rush to build for next year. So it just depends on what’s available… We’re hoping that we can we can tweak it a little bit but to say we are satisfied with our lineup, I wouldn’t say that. But I think we’re close.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14