By Jeff D’Andrea

Breaking news drops bombshells in Raiderland

Oct 13, 2016 | 2:19 PM

Thursday turned out to be a huge breaking news day for the Prince Albert Raiders.

To start it all off late in the morning, the Raiders traded away 20-year-old goaltender Rylan Parenteau to the Tri-City Americans in exchange for 18-year-old Nicholas Sanders and a third round draft choice.

Then moments after details of the Parenteau deal were released, another bombshell dropped in Raiderland. Raiders 20-year-old sniper Reid Gardiner signed an AHL contract on Thursday with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Including the release of Kolten Olynek on Oct. 5, the Raiders are now left with just two 20 overagers on their roster—Austin Glover and Captain Tim Vanstone.

“Life goes on without Reid Gardiner for us right now as he sinks his teeth into the beginnings of a pro career and he gets a feel of what may or may not be available for him this season,” Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt said. “So for us, we’ll run with two [20-year-olds] right now and if there’s an opportunity to make our team better, we’ll look at those opportunities.”

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The Parenteau deal was one that was difficult for Hunt to make. Hunt has personally known Parenteau for the last five years through SaskFirst camps and teaming up on Team Saskatchewan for the second WHL Under-16 Challenge Cup in 2011.

“You watch him how he’s grown and matured, the person he is and the player he is. He was a big reason why we were a second place team last year,” Hunt said. “He’s a great kid, he was a great mentor I believe for young Scotty and young Meger. It’s hard. It’s hard because quality people, there’s lots of good kids. But his commitment to the community, his work at the school, his work ethic at the rink and how he represented himself as a Raider [are important].

“I told him when the smoke is cleared and he’s become a pro, which I believe he will be, to make sure he comes back. He’ll always be an alumni and he’s a guy that will always be welcome back.”

But difficulty aside, the emergence of 17-year-old goaltender Ian Scott made the Parenteau trade increasingly inevitable. Scott has been one of the brightest spots for the Raiders during their 2-5 start with a .922 save percentage. With Scott needing more and more time to play, especially in his NHL draft eligible season, and Parenteau needing to shine as a 20-year-old coming off a WHL All-Star season, the crease wasn’t big enough for the two of them.

“When you look at our group and you look at a young goalie like Ian, he’s a guy that at some point in time is going to push to take that job right away from Rylan or at least push him to be a 50-50 goalie,” Hunt said. “I think for our situation, at least my own personal feeling, when you have a 20-year-old goalie, you want him to play 60 games, 65 games… otherwise you have a veteran guy sitting on the bench.”

The 1999-born Scott, and two 1998-born goaltenders in the newly acquired Nicholas Sanders and Curtis Meger, who has yet to appear in a WHL regular season game, all crowd the Raiders’ crease.

Sanders was 9-6-0-1 last year in 23 games played with the Americans, with a .901 save percentage and 2.99 goals against average. He’s 2-1 this year with a .892 save percentage and 2.66 goals against average.

“We still have competition, there’s three goalies and two jobs,” Hunt said. “The funny thing about sports is you have to earn it every day. Now we’ve got some new competition and we’ll let that just play itself out.”

Familiar faces in Tri

Rylan Parenteau will know at least one former Raider in the Americans locker room. The Raiders dealt 20-year-old defenceman Dalton Yorke to the Americans on draft day for a third round pick they used to draft goaltending prospect Brett Balas.

Also in the Americans locker room is Prince Albert’s Riley Sawchuk, who has played four games as a rookie this season.

Raiders and Wheaties meet for two games this weekend

Last season, the Raiders saved their best hockey for the eventual WHL champion Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Raiders were 4-2 against the Wheaties, the only team in the East Division to not only post a plus-.500 record against Brandon, but also to register more than two head-to-head wins.

The Raiders will certainly hope they can recreate their head-to-head success against the lone Manitoban club in the league. It’s all the more important since the Raiders will come into this weekend’s home-and-home series Friday and Saturday on a three-game losing streak.

“We have to win, because we lost three games,” Raiders defenceman Vojtech Budik said. “We have to win against Brandon. In our next games, we have to improve everything—passing, shooting and our power play, too.”

The home leg for the Raiders will be on Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre. The Wheat Kings are 2-3-1 to start this year.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea