EVERETT — The Everett Silvertips made a move Friday designed to ease the crowding on their defense.
Everett traded defenseman Griffin Foulk to the Seattle Thunderbirds in exchange for fourth- and sixth-round picks in the 2014 bantam draft. The sixth-rounder returns the pick Everett surrendered to Seattle in October in exchange for goaltender Daniel Cotton.
“We’ve had too many defensemen here for some time, and it’s one of those things where you’re trying to make it work for everybody,” Everett general manager Garry Davidson said. “I investigated some other options out there to see what we could create, maybe getting another forward in return, but there was nothing that made any sense. This way we get two pretty decent picks out of the deal and get ourselves at a more manageable number as well.”
Foulk, a rookie from Broomfield, Colo., was originally acquired in the deal that sent winger Tyler Maxwell, Everett’s career goal scoring leader, to Edmonton last season. Foulk was pointless in 14 games with the Tips this season.
Everett had been carrying nine defensemen since picking up overager Connor Cox at the overager deadline on Oct. 11, creating a logjam on the blue line. Part of the problem was alleviated by injuries. But the Tips had resorted to using defensemen at forward, and on several occasions Everett had multiple defenseman as healthy scratches for games.
“Where we were it was tough to get everybody in the lineup on a consistent basis,” Everett coach Mark Ferner said. “Griffin was a good kid for us, no question about it. Hopefully he can go down to Seattle and have a lot of success there.”
The move leaves Everett with a roster of 23 players, and overcrowding on defense is no longer an issue. Captain Ryan Murray is out long-term with a shoulder injury, and overager Landon Oslanski has settled in as a right winger. With Foulk traded, the Tips have just six healthy defensemen available for the foreseeable future.
Ferner said Oslanski would remain at forward unless there’s another injury on defense. Ferner said winger Lucas Grayson, who was converted from defense to forward during the preseason, also could be an option.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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