After being quiet on the trade market, the Humboldt Broncos made a few changes to their roster before the January 10th trade deadline.
A week before the deadline, the Broncos added 20-year-old goaltender Dazza Mitchell for 19-year-old forward Josh Sale and 19-year-old goaltender Ty Matonovich.
Then just before the deadline, the Broncos acquired 20-year-old forward Cade Kennedy from the Estevan Bruins for Player Development Fee (PDF).
Humboldt also made a change to their blueline with a three-team deal, sending Tristan Serrao to the Drumheller Dragons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and acquiring 20-year-old defenceman Liam Rodman from the Melville Millionaires.
Broncos head coach and general manager Brayden Klimosko said the circumstances worked out for the swap of defenceman, with Serrao, from Calgary AB, asking the team to play closer to home, while Rodman wanting to remain in Saskatchewan after the Millionaires originally traded the Saskatoon product to Drumheller.
“It worked out,” said Klimosko, “sometimes you need a bounce, and I don’t think we’ve had enough bounces go our way this year.”
Rodman suited up for the Broncos on the weekend in their two matchups against the Flin Flon Bombers.
This season in Melville, Rodman has nine points (5G-4A) in 28 games with 53 penalty minutes.
Kennedy was previously the captain of the Estevan Bruins before he was moved to Humboldt and Klimosko believes the Regina product can add some necessary depth to the team’s forwards.
“I thought we could use some meat in our bottom two lines, a little bit of hard work, a guy who could play 200 feet.”
Klimosko added, “Looking forward to having someone like himself (Kennedy) come in and being an experienced guy back there, who knows what it takes to win.”
In Estevan, Kennedy had 12 points (5G-7A) in 31 games.
With the poor road conditions on Saturday, Kennedy’s arrival to Humboldt was delayed until Saturday afternoon, pushing the forward’s debut back until Sunday.
It didn’t take Kennedy long for him to make an impact with the green and gold, as he scored in Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Flin Flon Bombers.
After dropping their first three games of 2025, the Broncos will look to bounce back into the win column on Wednesday night when they travel to Wilcox to meet the Notre Dame Hounds.
Coverage on Bolt FM begins at 7:15, opening faceoff is 7:30.