On June 1, the Powell River Kings conducted a trade with the Nanaimo Clippers where they acquired 2006-born goaltender Massimo Urbani for future considerations.
This transaction completed an earlier trade from the British Columbia Hockey League trade deadline on Feb. 10. In that deal, the Clippers acquired 2005-born forward Remi Gelinas from the Kings for future considerations.
With this transaction, the Kings add a new goaltender for the 2024-25 season. 2004-born Justin Katz is off to attend Cornell University while 2004-born Vincent Lamberti is eligible to return next season.
This article is about Urbani’s path to Powell River, but before that, I will look at other trades it completed in June. The Kings moved 2005-born forward Alex Sandhu to the Coquitlam Express for future considerations and they also traded 2005-born defender Owen Thomas to the West Kelowna Warriors for futures.
In 90 games for Powell River, Sandhu notched nine goals and 15 assists. As for Thomas, he played 45 games for Powell River and put up two goals and nine assists.
From Burnaby to West Vancouver
For two seasons from 2019 to 2021, Urbani played at the Burnaby Winter Club. He played 17 games for the BWC U15 Varsity team in 2019-20, and then, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, his playing time was limited in 2020-21. Urbani only got into four games for the BWC U15 Prep team.
The following season, Urbani moved to West Van Academy, playing 20 games for the U18 Prep team. In 2022-23, Urbani returned to the Burnaby Winter Club to play for the U18 Prep squad. In 13 games, the Coquitlam, B.C. product finished with a record of 11-2-0 and a 2.35 goals-against average.
One of three netminders in Nanaimo
At the start of the 2023-24 season, the Clippers had three goalies on their roster. Urbani sat behind the goalie tandem of Thomas Kiesewetter and Tyler Hodges. After Kiesewetter’s departure in December, Chazz Nixon joined the team from the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Urbani didn’t get much playing time in Nanaimo, only appearing in one game all season. Truthfully, playing time for third goalies in the BCHL last season was scarce.
Alberni Valley’s third goaltender Evan Leggett played one game for the Bulldogs before leaving the team in February to seek other opportunities. Penticton netminder Sharky Nowek was behind Will Ingemann and Andrew Ness in the Vees crease and saw action in only one game.
Things will change with the 2024-25 season as the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League is now independent of Hockey Canada and BCHL teams can now freely place affiliates with teams in that league. It means goaltenders can get more playing time on VIJHL teams, which is something that all BCHL teams can benefit from.
The upcoming season
Urbani joins a Kings team with new logos for the upcoming season. The team unveiled new logos on X (formerly Twitter) at the end of June. Powell River’s stylized wordmark now has a crown above the letter “K”.
Their secondary logo is a crown, which matches a previous logo the team used from 2006 to 2023. With their new look, the Kings hope to improve upon their 2023-24 season where they didn’t make the playoffs and finished last in the BCHL.