By paNOW Staff

Raiders acquire D Gwinner for pair of picks

Jul 6, 2012 | 5:08 PM

Jeff D’Andrea

paNOW Staff

The Prince Albert Raiders added to their defence core Friday by acquiring Shayne Gwinner from the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for a fourth round pick of the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft, and a sixth rounder in 2014.

Raiders general manager Bruno Campese said that adding Gwinner also means adding depth and experience on defence, something the Raiders need for this upcoming season.

“We certainly feel that we want to make every position as competitive as possible and we’re trying to acquire experience and depth and Shayne’s a guy we’ve known for a while,” said Campese. “He’s gone through the bantam draft, is a second round pick to Moose Jaw several years back (in 2009).

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“We’ve watched him closely for the last couple of years and we felt as a rookie last year in the league that he had his ups and downs, at times he played really well and at other times he got caught behind a very strong core in Moose Jaw and wasn’t able to get the minutes he needed.

“I think our situation on the backend, we feel we may be able to provide him with more of an opportunity than Moose Jaw.”

Gwinner appeared in 51 games with the Warriors last season as a 17-year-old and posted two goals and 11 points.

Barring any other trades, Gwinner will likely be one of three 18-year-old defencemen in the Raiders lineup, joining Sawyer Lange and Riley Guenther, who also made their rookie appearances as 17-year-olds last year.

Campese hopes all three can take big steps forward this season.

“We’re hoping, they all have to,” said Campese. “Those were guys that were rookies last year and were guys that certainly have to take the next step for us to take the next step.”

Overage obstruction on blueline

Although Campese said the Gwinner trade had little to do with their 20-year-old defence situation, it’s still something he and the Raiders will have to deal with by the end of training camp.

With Antoine Corbin, Tyler Hart and Tyler Yaworski entering next year as overagers, the Raiders cannot afford to hold on to them all, especially with 20-year-olds centreman Anthony Bardaro and recently acquired goaltender Luke Siemens also on the team.

“You look at our 20 year old situation and Siemens and Bardaro seem to be locks as 20’s,” said Campese. “Then we got some competition going on for our last spot.

“That basically leaves then us with three 20-year-old defencemen in Corbin, Yaworski and Tyler Hart. You can’t keep all of them, there’s going to be room for one guy so we’ll see how that works out here in the next little while.”

Campese did leave the option open for possible trades involving Corbin, Yaworski or Hart in order to not only acquire some assets and picks, but to cut down to three overage spots.

“Are we going to take all three guys into training camp, at the moment, yes. But if there’s an opportunity to move one or two of those guys to get rid of the logjam, that’s what we’re going to do,” said Campese. “We are exploring some options in moving one or two of them, and if we have to come to camp with an extra (overage) player there to fight it out for a spot, that’s what we’ll do.”

Corbin has the most offensive pedigree of the three, as the 6’2, 194 pound blueliner scored 12 goals and 25 points last season with 112 penalty minutes.

Yaworksi had three goals and 20 points on the season, while leading the team in penalty minutes with 188. While battling knee injuries last year, Hart registered six points and 96 PIM’s in just 43 games.

The Raiders Training Camp starts on Aug. 28 for rookies and Aug. 31 for veterans at the Art Hauser Centre.

jdandrea@rawlco.com

Twitter: @jeff_dandrea