Chiefs, Rivermen, and Vees come together for a big trade

 

The eight-player, four-team trade from Tuesday now has tentacles that reach two other teams, involve two more players, and another batch of future considerations.

The roots of Wednesday’s deals start with the Chilliwack Chiefs acquiring 2004-born forward Andrej Kovacevic from Coquitlam via Prince George.

Concurrently, the Penticton Vees sent 2001-born forward Ryan Upson to the Chiefs for future considerations.

Then, Chilliwack packaged Kovacevic, Upson, and future considerations to the Langley Rivermen for 2004-born forward Cameron Johnson.

The Vees are the only team to come out of these moves with only future considerations. They gave up Upson, who is entering his overage season in the BC Hockey League.

The West Vancouver, BC product had a solid sophomore campaign with Penticton, scoring six goals and 21 points in 20 games during the pod season.

He had three goals and 12 points as a rookie with West Kelowna in 2019-20 before being traded to the Vees as part of another three-team deal last June.

In Johnson, the Chiefs know exactly what they are getting as he played 20 games with them as an affiliate on loan from the Rivermen during the pod season. As a 16-year-old, the Vancouver native put up three goals and 11 points.

Johnson, who is committed to Harvard for September 2023, was loaned to Chilliwack in March when Langley opted out of the pod season.

Kovacevic lands in Langley

When it comes to Kovacevic, his details were extensively covered in our article outlining the deals that saw Chilliwack end up with his rights.

The Coles Notes version is that the Vancouverite was a rookie with Coquitlam during the pod season and as a 16-year-old, put up a respectable two goals and nine points in 20 games.

He was traded from Coquitlam to Prince George to Chilliwack to Langley in the span of 24 hours, which might be some sort of record for player rights transactions in such a short period of time.