Hockey is a business. No one should ever forget it. Junior Hockey is every bit as much of a business as professional hockey. Every team wants to win, and finding the winning combination is not always an easy thing to do.
Doug Gilmour, who has been the GM of the Ontario Hockey Leagues Kingston Frontenacs since taking over for Larry Mavety in 2012 is trying to find a winning combination.
The former Leafs standout who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, played 20 seasons in the NHL. He put up career totals of 450 goals and 964 assists with seven teams.
Doug drafted his son Jake Gilmour in the eighth-round of the 2012 OHL draft. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound forward spent last season with the Brampton (Ont.) Bombers junior B team, where he picked up eight assists in 43 games.
Doug has also now traded Jake to the Niagara IceDogs along with goalie Blake Richard and a conditional 12th-round pick in 2015, with Niagara sending a 12th round pick in 2015 back the other way.
Jake is not widely seen as a top-level prospect, if he were, he would not be playing Junior B as a 17-year-old. The move is likely an opportunity to give him and the goalie included in the trade an opportunity in a new environment. A fresh start can sometimes help get more out of a player.
The lesson to be learned here is a simple one.
It does not matter if you are the son of a hall of famer. If you are not developing or seen to be progressing, you are expendable. Junior hockey is a business, there is no clearer example than this.
