Ottawa, Ont. — The Ottawa Jr. Senators have acquired superstar Defenseman Zachary Salloum from the Navan Grads as part of a six piece deal, late Friday night.
Salloum (’97), was sent to Ottawa in exchange for forward Vincent Robillard (’98) defenseman Alderic Denis (’00), forward Danyk Drouin (’01), defenseman Alexandre Charlebois (’01) a PDF, and Future Considerations.
The Orleans, ON native is in his final year in the CCHL after previously spending parts of four seasons with the Navan Grads organization. The Rochester Institute of Technology NCAA – D1 commit recorded 185 points (45G/140A) over the past five seasons in the CCHL.
The former Grads captain had back-to-back 50 point campaigns and currently has 33 points in 24 games this season.
“We’re thrilled to be able to add a player like Zachary Salloum to our hockey club” said Ottawa Jr. Senators head coach, Martin Dagenais. “We felt we needed to add a puck-moving defenceman to our lineup and he fills that need” and later mentioned “We did give up a lot of our future, but for us it’s about winning now”.
The Jr. Senators sent Navan a boatload of talent in return for Salloum. Trading Robillard, Denis, Drouin, Charlebois and Future Considerations to the Grads.
“It wasn’t easy to say goodbye to players like Vincent Robillard, Alexandre Charlebois, Danyk Drouin, and Aldéric Denis, but it’s the price we had to pay said Dagenias. “For me personally, it was tough to move Drouin, and Denis as they are two kids that I knew before I got involved with OJS. That being said, I think they will strive with more ice time in Navan” mentioned the Ottawa Jr. Sens head coach.
Denis, 17, was a part of the Jr. Sens organization since he was 15 years old, playing the previous two seasons in their Midget AAA program.
Drouin, 16, also spent the last two seasons in the Jr. Sens organization. Spitting time between Midget AAA, the CCHL2 Casselman Vikings and Ottawa. The Casselman, ON native has 12 points in 13 games with his home town Vikings this season.
Robillard, 19, was in his first season with Ottawa. He was previously acquired by the Junior Senators in the offseason from the Cornwall Colts for a PDF. He had a goal in seven games with Ottawa this season but battled with injuries earlier in the season, missing 25 games.
Ottawa also trades, Alexandre Charlebois who is currently with the Ottawa Canadians of the CCHL Tier 2. He previously played for the Grads Midget AAA program in 2017 before Ottawa acquired his rights last off-season.
Despite adding four players along with future considerations and a PDF, Navan had to deal a huge part of their organization. Their longest serving captain in team history
“Making this trade was personally very bittersweet for me given Zach’s long tenure with the Grads and the fact that I have known him and his family for close to 15 years said Grads General Manager, Steve Barban. “Zach represents everything we are about in Navan; and we are proud to have played a part in his development. We wish him all the best in his hockey career” mentioned Barban.
Both Ottawa and Navan are in action tomorrow afternoon. You can possibly see these players dress in their new uniforms when Ottawa takes on Rockland at 2:30 or when Navan plays Conwall at 3:00, tomorrow.
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