JASON PARKS Picton Gazette/ EDITOR
The signing of former Wellington Coach and General Manager Derek Smith by the Trenton Golden Hawks is prompting the Ontario Junior Hockey League to look into a series of trades between the two clubs hours prior to Smith’s resignation from the Dukes.
Ontario Junior Hockey League commissioner Marty Savoy told the Gazette hours after the Trenton Golden Hawks announced the signing of Smith to be the club’s Coach and GM in 2023-24 that “The league is aware of the situation and are currently looking into the matter.”
“Once that process is completed, the league will be in a position to make a formal statement,” said Mr. Savoy.
In an interview with Wellington’s new coach Kent Lewis, the Powell River, BC native told the Gazette he wasn’t in much of a position to comment on the flurry of trades that sent Corbin Roach, Luke Lapalm, Barret Joynt and Ryan Cutler to the Golden Hawks and then see the person who made the moves on behalf of the Dukes join the opposing side a few weeks later, other than to say he’s “never seen anything like it happen” in his three decades of being involved with Jr. hockey.
Several Jr. A hockey sources said that in addition to the Wellington Dukes lodging protests with the OJHL over the deal, other OJHL clubs are upset with the optics of the method in which Smith traded off several high end players to Trenton, resigned from Wellington and then signed up to coach the Golden Hawks within a four week span.