NEWS FILE PHOTO
The Medicine Hat Tigers traded goaltender Evan May ahead of the WHL's trade deadline to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a third round pick in 2027.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The WHL trade deadline provided an answer to the Medicine Hat Tigers’ goalie trio question.
The Tigers’ first of two moves on deadline day saw them trade 19-year-old goaltender Evan May to the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for a 2027 third-round pick (originally Seattle’s).
The move leaves Medicine Hat with 18-year-old Zach Zahara and 17-year-old Ethan McCallum to man the crease. Head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says he’s been happy with all three goalies and wanted to give the two younger goaltenders the net.
“Evan has played well for us, we have a couple of younger guys here we feel need a chance,” Desjardins said. “It’s a little harder with three, so we just felt for the development of our younger guys, we needed to do it. It was no reflection of Evan, he’s a really good goaltender and he’s been great for our program.”
May was 9-7-2 this season with a 3.46 GAA and .884 save percentage and two shutouts.
In 40 games with the Tigers, May was 14-16-2 with a .886 save percentage and 3.44 goals against average after being acquired from the Everett Silvertips during the 2022-2023 season.
Desjardins says they’re excited for May to join a team in Moose Jaw also heading toward the playoffs. The Warriors sit in second place in the East division and third in the conference with a 22-15-0-2 record.
The Tigers made a second deal on the day, sending defence prospect Kolby Gapter to the Vancouver Giants for an eighth-round pick in the 2026 WHL draft.
The 17-year-old Gapter was selected by the Tigers 25th overall in the 2021 U.S. import draft and is in his second season with the South Alberta Hockey Academy, scoring four goals and 10 points in 17 games this year.
Desjardins says they didn’t have the spot for Gapter after signing 16-year-old Jack Kachkowski, and wanted to give him an opportunity elsewhere.
“Kolby has been awesome with us, he’s tried and he works extremely hard,” Desjardins said. “He had a really good Circle K tournament for SAHA and had some interest out of Vancouver. For us, we picked up Kachkowski who took that spot away in the middle of the year. So it’s about us trying to make sure he gets a chance to play and show what he can do.”
With other teams in the league and the Central division adding, Desjardins says it will be a challenge for their group and one they are looking forward to.
“We’re going to have to grow but that’s what we want to do,” Desjardins said. “If you want to be good, you have to get better in big games, and our challenge is cut out for us. But it’s fun, we’re young and we can go out here and we can see where we can end up.”
The Tigers did their work early with the acquisition of Marcus Pacheco from the Kelowna Rockets on Dec. 31, and didn’t have to make any other additions because they’re happy with their group, Desjardins says. They’ll run a shorter bench with only a few players scratched a night.
“That way, everybody gets a chance to play, so we’re hoping we can develop our guys and we’re looking for the challenge of the second half,” Desjardins said.
They are battling injuries as well, with forward Andrew Basha day-to-day after suffering a cut on his leg in Sunday’s 10-4 win over the Spokane Chiefs. Forward Cayden Lindstrom will remain out of the lineup for what could be a longer period of time with his upper body injury. He’s missed the Tigers’ last seven games since the Christmas break with the injury.
[…] since. James Tubb of Medicine Hat News reported back in January, just short of a month of Lindstrom’s last game, that he would be out for a “longer period of time.” At the point of that […]
[…] since. James Tubb of Medicine Hat News reported back in January, just short of a month of Lindstrom’s last game, that he would be out for a “longer period of time.” At the point of that […]