The St. Thomas Stars were one of three GOJHL Western conference teams to trade away their top scorer as the league’s trade deadline came down Monday night.
St. Thomas sent Tanner Dietz and Ben MacRobbie to Listowel in exchange for 18-year-old forward Jackson Phillips from Rockwood Ontario, who’s also a 3rd round pick of the Flint Firebirds.
Stars’ manager Joe Daniels said the club was honouring the request of MacRobbie and Dietz to play closer to home.
Phillips had 7 goals and 5 assists in 22 games this year with Listowel. MacRobbie had 11 goals and a similar number of assists while with the Stars and Dietz had 5 goals and 22 assists.
Daniels added you can’t take it personally when players come to you requesting a trade.
Strathroy and London were the other two teams to ship away their team’s top scorers at the deadline.
The main thing now, stressed Daniels, is getting the players back on the ice.
The Stars are scheduled to return to action Friday, January 28th, assuming the restrictions now in place are removed.
