The London Beat London, Ontario’s stream of consciousness
The London Knights and Peterborough Petes completed a trade today that will see defenseman Matthew Timms coming to the Knights, in exchange for two priority selections.
Timms has spent four seasons with Peterborough, and the former second round selection scored 35 points in 46 games last season. He had a tough year and battled through some injury issues, after netting 63 points in 68 games in 2016-2017. That season earned him a tryout with the Las Vegas Golden Knights last year; however, an injury to his shoulder suffered in the playoffs of 2016-2017 resulted in him failing a physical before he even had a chance to skate at the Golden Knights’ development camp last June.
Timms was healthy for Petes camp, and ready for another strong OHL season, but he hurt his ankle in Peterborough’s season opener and missed the next six games. He also took on a new role of facing other teams’ top lines, and at times struggled. He finished the season with a plus-minus of -28.
The Waterdown, Ontario born blueliner will be hoping new surroundings, and a fresh start can return him to the form that he showed the season before, where he was one of six finalists for the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s best defenseman.
“We are very excited to welcome Matthew to London,” said Knights’ General Manager Mark Hunter. “Matthew will bring in a strong offensive puck-moving skill set from the blue line and will be a respected leader within our locker room. To have scored nearly a point-per-game as a defenseman demonstrates the level of skill he will bring to our roster. We are very pleased to be bringing in a player of Matthew’s calibre to our team.”
The other half of the trade has the Knights surrendering two draft picks in the 2019 OHL Priority Selection to the Petes – a third round pick and a fourth round pick. The third round pick came via Owen Sound, in an oddball deal from the Attack for overage forward Josh Sterk.
At the time, the Knights sent Sterk to the Attack for Owen Sound’s conditional 15th round pick in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection.
The conditions were, if Sterk reported to main camp for Owen Sound, the 15th round pick became Owen Sound’s 8th round pick in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection. If Sterk played in one OHL exhibition game, the 8th round pick moved to become Owen Sound’s 3rd round pick in the 2019 OHL Priority Selection. If Sterk played in one OHL regular season game, not only would London receive Owen Sound’s 3rd round pick in 2019, but London would also receive Mississauga’s 2nd round pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection.
Sterk played in 64 games for the Attack that year, resulting in the 3rd round pick that London sent to Peterborough today.
Incidentally, the Knights selected Andrew Perrott at number 34 overall with that 2017 second round selection from Mississauga, that was also part of the deal. Perrott played 62 games for the Knights last year.
