The Halifax Mooseheads acquired 19-year-old centre Linden Bahm at Saturday’s draft in Sydney in the hopes he’ll be a big contributor on a young team in 2008-09.
Bahm, a 6-foot, 188-pounder, came over from the Shawinigan Cataractes for a sixth-round draft pick in 2009. He had nine goals and nine assists in 67 games last season.
Bahm, an Ottawa native, also dished out 98 hits, but struggled on faceoffs, with just a 38.7 per cent success rate.
“He was Shawinigan’s third-line centre and in the games we played against him he was very intense, involved,” Mooseheads general manager Marcel Patenaude said. “He’s the type of player we really like. He has very good hands too and he could put up a lot of points for us, and that’s what we need.”
Patenaude said it’s possible Bahm could evolve into an over-ager for the Mooseheads in 2009-10.
The Mooseheads also traded veterans Guillaume Monast and Peter-James Corsi on Friday to complete December blockbusters for Brad Marchand and David Bouchard.
Monast, a top defenceman, went to the Quebec Remparts and Corsi, a high-scoring forward, to the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Both will be 20-year-olds next season. In return, the Mooseheads recouped some lost draft picks.
Patenaude called the picks “important for the future.”
He said he tried to make deals on the draft floor but nothing materialized. Although he wouldn’t elaborate, the buzz was that he was after the sixth overall pick to grab blue-liner Garrett Clarke. The Lewiston Mainieacs won those sweepstakes.
There were a handful of trades, but the one of highest profile saw the Quebec Remparts deal star forward Angelo Esposito to his hometown team, the Montreal Junior. Jean-Simon Allard went the other way, along with a handful of draft picks.
The P.E.I. Rocket also acquired veteran goalie Bobby Nadeau.
