Falcons deal for Blackhawks captain
Nichols Rubino, right, is heading from the Thorold Blackhawks to the St. Catharines Falcons in a three-player swap. Photo by: BILL POTRECZ
The St. Catharines Falcons have added a piece to their lineup they hope can help put them over the top in their quest for a championship.
The Falcons Tuesday acquired Thorold Blackhawks captain Nicholas Rubino in exchange for defenceman Blake Hudson, forward Adam Cupelli and a development fee.
Rubino, a 20-year-old native of Welland, was leading the Blackhawks in scoring with 22 points in 19 games.
“In my opinion he’s a top-three forward in our league,” St. Catharines general manager Frank Girhiny said.
Falcons coach Tyler Bielby is pumped to add a player of Rubino’s skill and experience to the lineup.
“We are very excited to bring in a player like Rubino,” Bielby said. “He is elite in our league and plays with an edge that appears to be driven by a competitive attitude. He is a great skater with an eye for around the net.
“I was really impressed over the last couple games against Thorold because I noticed he doesn’t have any quit in him. He plays hard and determined right till the end.”
Bielby feels Rubino, who was also being pursued by other teams, including the league-leading Hamilton Kilty B’s, will be a perfect fit off the ice as well.
“You can tell he takes pride in leading and we look forward to having such a well-rounded player in our dressing room,” he said. “He will be expected to have an immediate impact for our team, and I’m sure he is more than capable of rising to that occasion.”
The Falcons are second in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference with 15-4-0-2 mark and lead the entire GOJHL in goals against.
Girhiny feels Rubino, along with the recent acquisitions Blake Yetman and Olivier Desroches, give the Falcons the experience they need to make a long playoff run.
“I think there’s a lot of parity in the league and we were doing OK earlier but I thought we were a little inexperienced so we wanted to acquire some experience,” he said. “Adding a player like Rubino just continues to add to what we want to do, and that’s win a Sutherland Cup. If you look at our goaltending and our back end and we add another high-end forward like Rubino, it’s going to give us more depth to be able to win this conference and move on to a Sutherland Cup.
“I like the direction we’re going and I’m excited about it.”
Thorold coach Scott Barnes said he isn’t giving up on the season with the trade, but rather trying to shake things up. The Hawks have dropped five in a row and sit in seventh place with a disappointing 6-14-1 mark.
“I was making this move to try and get better,” Barnes said. “Roobie is a really good player and we’re not going to replace him with one guy but with two guys coming in, hopefully it will upgrade our back end and add a different element up front.”
Cupelli, an 18-year-old native of Bowmanville, had four goals and seven points for the Falcons while Hudson, another 18-year-old Bowmanville native, began the season with the Hawks where he had a goal and assist in 14 games before being recently dealt to the Falcons where he went scoreless in three games.
“Cupelli has good speed and it’s just a little bit of a change in the room,” Barnes said. “We needed to do something. We’ve kind of struggled out of the gate, no question about that, so it’s a little bit of a wakeup call to hopefully bring the group together.
“We just have to bring some compete to the locker room and even against each other. A full group effort is going to be needed for us.”
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