The Chatham Maroons are making moves just before Christmas.
The Maroons have traded captain Griffin Robinson and alternate captain Maddux Rychel to Leamington in exchange for forward Lucas Fancy and defenceman Cam Symons.
Rychel had 53 points in 27 games played with the Maroons to lead the team in scoring while Robinson added 41 points in 25 games.
Fancy had 16 points in 30 games played with the Flyers and Symons had 17 points in 27 games with Leamington.
The trade follows a trade request from Rychel and Robinson who asked to be sent back to Leamington where they played half of the season last year before they were acquired by Chatham.
"They feel that they have a better chance to win in their last year there," said Maroons head coach and GM Tyler Roeszler. "We want kids on our team that want to be all in with us."
As for the new acquisitions, Roeszler said the team is very excited to have Fancy and Symons join the team.
"We have a culture that is being built within our team that if you do everything you can do to help the team win, all of our individual aspirations will happen," said the coach. "We believe that if you have great teammates on your team, who have a passion to be great players and pair that with a focus on developing our players, that winning will be a product of that. Bringing Lucas and Cam to our team allows us to grow our team and culture moving forward."
Coach Roeszler said Fancy is a great person and teammate and uses his speed and skating ability to create offence in all game situations.
"He is a veteran in our league and will bring leadership and experience to our team," added Roeszler. "Lucas has incredible work habits and that will be great for our players to watch and learn from."
Roeszler added Symons is a great young man who brings great work ethic, passion, and integrity to the team.
"Cam plays the right way and is an intense competitor -- he’s always first on the puck, he wins puck battles, and brings incredible intangibles," said the coach. "Cam creates offence by using his speed and strength to get to high traffic areas on the ice to score."
Coach Roeszler believes both of these players will become the team's best leaders in the future.
"They both have a great future in hockey and in life," added Roeszler.
Former Maroons goalie Tiago Rocha is also now part of the Pelham Panthers. His rights were obtained from Chatham.
Rocha had a 3.96 goals against and a .893 save percentage in 12 games played with Chatham.