THUNDERBIRDS

T-Birds acquire Swedish forward Andreas Schumacher from Swift Current

Dec 27, 2015, 1:41 PM | Updated: 1:46 pm

The Seattle Thunderbirds were busy Sunday morning as the WHL trade moratorium expired.

The club announced that they had acquired Swedish forward Andreas Schumacher from the Swift Current Broncos. Because the WHL only allows two import players on the roster the Thunderbirds then released forward Gustav Olhaver.

Like the Swede he’s replacing, Schumacher is a tall forward who is listed as 6’5″ tall and is in his second WHL season. The 19-year-old scored eight goals and 17 points in 65 games for Swift Current last season and only had two goals in 17 games this year.

Olhaver was selected by Seattle in this summer’s CHL Import draft but never found the consistency that the T-Birds were hoping for. He was selected in the seventh round of the NHL Draft by the Colorado Avalanche this past June but never seemed to find his legs in Seattle. Olhaver showed some early flashes of what he could do with his size but was unable to crack the lineup night in and night out. He found himself a healthy scratch on more than a few occasions.

He ends his T-Birds tenure with two goals and five points in 31 games.

Earlier in the day the Broncos made a bigger, splashy trade in sending Boston Bruins first-round pick Jake Debrusk to the Red Deer Rebels. In return the Swift Current received former T-Bird Lane Pederson, along with a first and third round draft pick. Seattle had traded Pederson this past summer for goalie Taz Burman.

Seattle reportedly was also one of the six teams who were attempting to acquire DeBrusk from Swift Current but is seems the Broncos found the deal they wanted with the Rebels. The WHL trade deadline is January 10th so if Seattle is still looking to make a big splash, they have a couple more weeks to do so.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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