The Portland Winterhawks announced in a press release today that they had acquired 1998-born defenseman Jared Frearich from the Victoria Royals in exchange for a conditional draft pick in 2019. The conditions were not announced, but likely revolve around Freadrich coming back to the WHL as an overage player and coming to camp for Portland.
Freadrich was brought in by Victoria from Red Deer in exchange for forward Jared Dmytriw last September. He scored 12 goals and added 20 assists for 32 points in 2017-18, tops amongst all Royals blue liners.
Freadrich manned the Royals second power play unit, working behind a top unit that had five forwards.
The right-handed, 5-foot-10, 177 pound Freadrich skated in 71 games for Victoria and compiled 164 shots on goal.
This is the third time that Freadrich has been dealt as he was originally a Bantam draft pick by the Regina Pats in 2013, 80th overall.
Freadrich has participated in 30 career playoff games between Regina, Red Deer and Victoria, scoring once and adding 12 assists. He had eight points in 11 games this postseason for the Royals.
Victoria was forced into a situation where they have to move 1998-born players due to having far more than the three allowed by WHL rules for this coming 2018-19 season.
The Royals had forwards Braydon Buziak, Jeff de Wit, Noah Gregor, Dante Hannoun, Lane Zablocki and Matthew Phillips, defensemen Freadrich and Ralph Jarratt and goalie Griffen Outhouse all eligible to return for the 2018-19 season. That is nine, so six could not return.
Phillips and Gregor both have signed NHL entry-level contracts and thus should be playing professional hockey in their overage season, but that still left seven players for three spots. Moving Freadrich gets that number down to six for them but more moves will need to be made.
Freadrich gives Portland another overage defenseman for next year as Brendan De Jong should be back. The other overage spot for Portland would seem to be locked down by top-line forward Skyler McKenzie. Both De Jong and McKenzie are NHL-drafted but Carolina and Winnipeg respectively have yet to sign them, nor do they have to until June of 2019.
Conor MacEachern and Connor Barley finished the 2018 season with Portland, but both are not likely to return as overage players for Portland.
The deal also appears to give some credence to the rumor that 1999-born Henri Jokiharju will not return for the 2018 season as he is reportedly eligible to play in the AHL, due to being loaned to Portland by his Finnish club and thus being drafted to the NHL from there. The CHL-NHL agreement regarding players under the age of 20 would thus not apply to him.
Though Jokiharju has not signed with Chicago yet and if he does, could end up playing in the NHL at 19.
Quenneville wasn't ruling out Henri Jokiharju jumping to the NHL next season. "It’s possible. I know that young defensemen, it’s a big step. Juniors to pros—it’s a big hurdle sometimes. But you don’t want to take that away from anybody."
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) April 3, 2018
