Saginaw goes all-in as hosts of the Memorial Cup

The 104th Memorial Cup is set to begin in Saginaw, Mich. on Friday with the entirety of the tournament available on TSN.

Knowing that they would be in the tournament, the Spirit went all out to make sure they were ready for the competition. Saginaw was the busiest team around the trade deadline, acquiring veteran pieces like forwards Owen Beck and Josh Bloom, defencemen Rodwin Dionicio and Jorian Donovan, and goaltender Nolan Lalonde to go along with a strong core already in place to prepare for this tournament.

Their biggest move was acquiring Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck from Peterborough after he helped the Petes to an OHL championship last year. The 6-foot centre registered 17 goals and 51 points in 32 regular season games after joining Saginaw and added four goals and 14 points in the playoffs.

Upon his return, Bloom recorded 17 goals and 40 points in 34 regular season games and contributed four goals and 11 points in the playoffs. “He may not be sexy, but he is incredibly important ” said Button. “He gives you every single thing he has and he’s a high-level competitor. When you have that type of leadership on the backend, it’s a key to success.”

The Spirit solidified their defence even more in January when they acquired Jorian Donovan from the Brantford Bulldogs. Donovan, an Ottawa Senators prospect, helped the Bulldogs win an OHL Championship in 2022 and finished second at the Memorial Cup. After taking over for Oke in the second round of the playoffs, Lalonde went 5-7 the rest of the way with a 2.79 GAA and .893 save percentage.

The 6-foot right-shot defenceman led all CHL defencemen with 33 goals and 96 points, just ahead of Kitchener Rangers defenceman Hunter Brzustewicz and Portland Winterhawks defenceman Luca Cagnoni.

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