Just as the Kerry Park Islanders lost one player to a post-secondary program, they added another in a trade.
Leaving the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League team is Will Connors, who is heading to Eastern Washington University, while Brendan Martin is joining the club.
An entertaining agitator, Connors spent the last two seasons with the Isles. In 2016-17, he recorded 21 points (12 goals, nine assists) and 173 penalty minutes in 44 games, and in 2017-18, he posted 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) and 182 penalty minutes in 39 contests. He added a goal and three helpers in 11 postseason games in 2017, and two assists in five games in the 2018 playoffs.
Connors led the Isles in penalty minutes both years, and finished fourth in the league in the same category both years. The 1998-born winger grew up in Richland, Washington, not far from EWU’s location in the Spokane area. The EWU Eagles play in the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League with UVic and Vancouver Island University, and faced VIU in Lake Cowichan this past February.
Martin, meanwhile, arrives in Kerry Park following a cash deal with the Peninsula Panthers. A rookie with Peninsula last year, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder had 10 goals and four assists in 41 games, adding 72 penalty minutes. He previously played one game with the Isles as an AP in 2016-17.