GEORGESON TO BULLDOGS

3 year veteran forward Justin Georgeson has been traded to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs as future considerations to complete the January 10th trade that saw the Express acquire Lars Hepso and the rights to forward Adam Rossignol.

Georgeson played three seasons with the Express. Last season Georgeson played all 56 games for the Express finishing as the teams leading scorer with 14 goals and 39 points. During his three seasons with the Express he scored 37 goals and 87 points in 164 games.

After coming from the Western Hockey League Adam Rossignol scored 4 goals and added 18 assists for 22 points in 18 games and at the end of the season was named the Top Forward at the year end awards for the Express.

Lars Hepso did not report to the Express following his acquisition from the Bulldogs.

Good luck Justin in Alberni Valley.

KYLE TURRIS DOES IT AGAIN

For the second straight year Express alumni Kyle Turris has scored a playoff overtime winning goal. In 2012 he scored the overtime winner in game 4 vs. the New York Rangers. In 2013 he did it again in game 4 scoring last night against Peter Budaj to give his Ottawa Senators a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens to put the Sens up 3-1 in their best of 7 series.

Here's his goal from last night.

Click below to re-live his OT winner last year vs. the Rangers.   

VEES TRADE COMPLETED

The final trade the Express made on January 10th was recently finalized with the Penticton Vees that sent John Siemer to the Vees.

In return as the future considerations the Express picked goaltender Nic Renyard (94) and forward Michael Rebry (93).

Rebry will be a 20 year old next season, he is the prize catch of the Express future considerations of all the deals that they made. He is expected to be a top forward for the Express next season. Last year in his first season in the BCHL the Clear Creek Ontario native scored 19 goals and 36 points in 35 games. He stands at 6'2 and is committed to Western Michigan University for the fall of 2014.

Victoria native Nic Renyard had good numbers in 20 games last season with the Vees posting a 10-6 record with 1 shutout, a 2.24 GAA and .919 save percentage. He also has some pretty decent size for a goaltender standing at 6'1.

Now all the trades the Express made on January 10th sending Mitch Nardi to West Kelowna, Phil Zielonka to Chilliwack and John Siemer to Penticton have been completed. In return the Express have acquired a total of 7 players. Garrett Forster, Ben Israel, Shay Laurent, Matthew Berry, Brent Lashuk, Michael Rebry and Nic Renyard.

BARRY WOLFF INTERVIEW

Tuesday I spoke with the new Head Coach of the Coquitlam Express Barry Wolff about his new role. We discussed how he got the job, what he sees in the Express roster he takes over. And what is next when it comes to re-building the Express.
    

WOLFF NEW EXPRESS HEAD COACH

A veteran of BCHL experience is the new Head Coach of the Coquitlam Express. Tuesday the Express announced Barry Wolff is the new bench boss.

See the full press release from the Express:

The Coquitlam Express are proud to announce Barry Wolff as the new Head Coach. Barry is the 5th coach in the history of the Express organization.

The Kelowna, B.C. native comes to the Express highly recommended from numerous members of the NCAA coaching fraternity. He has spent the last year as Head Coach & G.M. of the Fernie Ghostriders, of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. Wolff earned KIJHL Coach of the Year honours, leading the Ghostriders to a 35-13-1-3 record and an Eddie Mountain Division Championship this past season.

Barry has 10 years of head coaching experience, 3 of which were spent with the Quesnel Millionaires from 1996 to 1998. His career highlights include a BCHL Coach of the Year Award (1998), a Fred Page Cup Championship (2005, Surrey Eagles) and international experience as a member of Team Canada West’s coaching staff (2010, World Junior ‘A’ Championships).

"I am very excited to be joining the Coquitlam Express hockey organization. The Express have a strong track record for developing great players and a winning tradition that dates back to the Royal Bank Cup Championship. I would like to thank the Express ownership group for giving me this opportunity to build on such a strong foundation in a great community!" – Barry Wolff.

EXPRESS AND WARRIORS TRADE COMPLETED

The second of the three January 10th trades the Coquitlam Express made is now complete.

With the elimination of the West Kelowna Warriors from the Interior Conference Finals by the Penticton Vees, it has now been finalized and released who the Express acquired as the future considerations in the deal that saw the Express send captain Mitch Nardi to West Kelowna.

The future considerations the Express received in the deal are defenceman Matthew Berry-Lamontagna (93) and forward Brent Lashuk (94).

Berry-Lamontagna will be a 20 year old defenceman next season. The Vancouver native stands 6'0 and weighs 200lbs. In 65 career BCHL games split over the previous two seasons with the Warriors he has 2 goals and 13 assists for 15 points. In the playoffs he added 5 assists in 10 games this season. He also has 51 games of WHL experience with the Prince Albert Raiders where he scored 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points.

19 year old Brent Lashuk will be entering his second BCHL season this fall. In his first season in the BCHL the 6'2 Kelowna native scored 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 42 games. He dressed for 6 games during the playoffs this year adding two assists.

The Express would like to welcome Brent and Matthew to the club.

The final trade to be completed that the Express made on January 10th is the one that sent forward John Siemer to the Penticton Vees. The details of the future considerations the Express acquired in that trade will be released shortly following the conclusion of the Vees season.

EXPRESS ACQUIRE LAURENT

The first of the future considerations the Express acquired in the January 10th trade deadline deals with Chilliwack, Penticton and West Kelowna is now known.

The Express have acquired defenceman Shay Laurent (93) from the Chilliwack Chiefs to finalize the trade the Express made to send sniper Phil Zielonka to Chilliwack. Laurent is the third player the Express acquired in the deal. Garrett Forster and Ben Israel were first acquired when the trade was made.

With the Chilliwack Chiefs season coming to an end earlier this week following the sweep in their second round series by the Surrey Eagles, the news of the Express' acquisition of Laurent was released.

Laurent will be a 20 year old next season. He stands at 6'1, 205 lbs. He's played the last 2 seasons in Chilliwack scoring 5 goals and 28 assists for 33 points in 108 career BCHL games.

Considering how quickly we learned about the acquisition of Laurent shortly after the completion of the Chiefs season, we my know pretty quickly more of the Express future considerations from their January 10th trades when the Interior Conference final ends with the other two teams involved in those deals Penticton and West Kelowna going head to head right now in the Conference finals and one team will be eliminated within the next week to ten days.