NEWS FILE PHOTO
Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Luke Cozens plays a puck in the Medicine Hat Tigers end in the first period of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference championship series April 26 at Co-op Place. Cozens was traded to Medicine Hat on Wednesday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers added to their offence Wednesday morning.
The Tigers acquired 19-year-old forward Luke Cozens from the Lethbridge Hurricanes in exchange for 18-year-old defenceman Kyle Heger.
The two Highway 3 rivals, making a second trade with one another in the last 16 months, also swapped conditional 2028 fourth-round picks in the deal.
Cozens led the Hurricanes in scoring with 17 goals and 44 points in 39 games this season, a career year for the Whitehorse, Yuk. product. In 150 career WHL games he has 21 goals and 61 points. He had one goal and six points in 16 playoff games last year during the Hurricanes run to the Eastern Conference Championship series.
“We’re excited, we’ve played against Luke a few times and he’s a good hockey player,” head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said. “He’s having a great year. I just felt he’s a guy who could give us some scoring up front.”
Cozens’ 17 goals is fourth on the Tigers and his 44 points sits fifth in team scoring.
The Tigers lead the WHL in goalscoring with 181 goals in 38 games, 19 goals more than the Prince Albert Raiders and 20 more than the Edmonton Oil Kings. They have been led offensively from the blue line, with more than a third of their goals (68) coming from defenceman, headlined by captain Bryce Pickford’s league-leading 28.
Cozens, the younger brother of Hurricanes’ alumni and Ottawa Senators forward Dylan Cozens, will be the second Whitehorse, Yuk. product to suit up for the Tigers following Gavin McKenna’s three years with the club.
Desjardins joked with Cozens about his success with Yukon products.
“I told him I’ve had good luck with guys from Whitehorse, so we expect some big things,” he said.
The Cozens addition comes after Calgary Flames prospect Andrew Basha was reassigned from the AHL to the Tigers, a pair of offensive additions Desjardins says give them a different look up front.
“It’s exciting, the guys we had were good as well, it’s just that these two guys, Basha coming back from pro and Luke, it’s hard not to pick up guys like that.”
Going the other way in the trade, Heger has tallied five goals and 15 points in 35 games in his first WHL season. The Eagan, Minn. product was selected 135th overall by the Tigers in the 2022 WHL Draft and signed with the WHL club over the summer, joining them from the Shattuck St. Mary’s U18 Prep team.
Desjardins says the ‘B’ rated prospect says it’s hard to move a player like Heger in the division but he says the blue liner was looking for a bigger role.
“He obviously wanted to spend more time on the power play, he’s a really talented defenceman and he just wanted more opportunity,” Desjardins said. “That’s something, in hockey, that happens.”
Desjardins says the steps defencemen Riley Steen and Tyson Moss have taken this season helped make the trade possible.
“Both of those guys have come a long ways,” Desjardins said. “They’re both good players and I just felt we need to give them an opportunity.”
The Tigers enter today, the WHL trade deadline day, with 16 forwards, seven defenceman and two goalies. They also remain with four 20-year-old players, Basha, forwards Ethan Neutens and Misha Volotovskii and defenceman Josh Van Mulligen.
To get under the overage cap of three, the Tigers have a pair of options. They have until the 6 p.m. MST deadline today to trade one to another WHL team or they can release one, so that player can find a team before Saturday’s roster freeze takes affect across junior hockey.
