Ice Breakers deal local star
Conway sent to Carolina for two players
The Mentor Ice Breakers of the Federal Prospects Hockey League have traded Painesville native and former John Carroll University star Declan Conway to the Carolina Thunderbirds for a pair of veteran players, forward Daniel Martin and defenseman Jason Stone.
After producing 20 points (10-10-20) in 35 games as a rookie in 2018-19, Conway led the Ice Breakers in scoring a year ago, potting 29 goals and assisting on 23 more for a total of 52 points in just 39 games played.
"We thought we needed to shake things up," said Ice Breakers head coach Sebastian Ragno. "We acquired somebody that will be announced today that we think kind of took his spot, so this is an opportunity to build up other parts of our lineup."
Mentor announced the signing of veteran forward Ortiz on Tuesday. Ortiz, 28, played NCAA Division III hockey at SUNY-Fredonia and is a veteran of 138 games in the Southern Professional Hockey League, considered to be one rung higher on the pro hockey food chain, as well as 33 games in the "AA" ECHL.
Conway played for Team Ohio, the Cleveland Jr. Jacks and Lake Catholic coming up in the Cleveland area, and spent two years in Canadian junior hockey, before a two-year stint at JCU where he scored 23 goals in 33 games.
Hear a report from Ice Breakers Free Agent Camp on episode 26 of the Ohio Hockey Digest On Air Podcast
Martin, 24, is a three-year veteran of the Federal League. He scored 17 goals for the T-Birds last season and put up a career-high 59 points (22-37-59) with the Danville Dashers in 2018-19.
"We see him fitting in on our first or second line playing a lot of minutes," Ragno said of Martin. "He's going to bring a lot of scoring and experience to our lineup and he's coming from a winning culture in Carolina."
The Thunderbirds won the FPHL’s President’s Cup in 2019 and had the best record in the league with a record of 35-6-5 at the time the 2019-20 season was cancelled.
Stone, also 24, began last season in Sweden before returning to play a dozen games with the FPHL’s now-defunct Battle Creek Rumble Bees. Playing junior hockey in 2016-17, Stone accumulated 251 penalty minutes in just 36 games.
"We knew that we wanted something additional in the trade for Declan", Ragno said. "On the back end I thought we lacked in physicalist and size and Stone definitely brings that."
--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest
