The OHL trade window opened Tuesday, and the Barrie Colts didn’t waste any time getting busy.
The defending Eastern Conference champion Colts continued with their heavy rebuild plans, sending standout goaltender Ben Hrebik to the 2027 Memorial Cup host Guelph Storm, while acquiring gritty veteran forward Dylan Tsherna from the Brantford Bulldogs in a separate deal.
The announced move for a conditional 15th round selection came as somewhat of a surprise, considering Hrebik, who helped carry Barrie through last year’s lengthy playoff run, announced after the playoffs that he had committed to play NCAA hockey with Providence College this season.
That all changed a week ago when Hrebik and his agent said the veteran netminder would join the Storm.
“We felt it was time,” said Colts’ General Manager Marty Williamson of the deal that will see the conditional selection turn into a second-round pick from Oshawa in 2007, a third-round pick from Guelph in 2030, and a fifth-round pick from London in 2028 once Hrebik suits up for Guelph. “He had done everything he could for Barrie and was going to move on to Providence. Obviously, the allure of the Memorial Cup allowed him to want to go to Guelph, and it was an advantage for us. It gave us draft picks.
“He’s helped out the organization, and it’s kind of a win/win for everybody.”
Hrebik, who was among the league leaders with a 2.81 goals against average and .920 save percentage in 43 games in the regular season, was on the Providence campus as late as last week.
“I’m really excited to be joining Guelph and playing so close to home this year,” said the 20-year-old Milton native. “It’s a great opportunity to be playing for a team that is hosting the Memorial Cup, and I am looking forward to (getting) going!”
The Storm, which had already made several big additions in its effort to load up it roster for the Canadian Hockey League championship, had been trying to convince the goaltender to join the team.
“Guelph has been working on him hard,” Williamson told Barrie 360. “He, I think, turned down Guelph a couple of times and said no, that he was pretty focused on Providence. In the last week or so, it took a turn, and his agent thought this was the best thing.
“We let Guelph talk to him, probably, for about a month now. We were hoping that Guelph could talk him into coming back.”
The deal helps Barrie continue its effort to restock its draft cupboard after being heavily depleted the last couple of seasons.
“A second-round pick next year, Oshawa’s second pick, that’s going to be a good pick,” said Williamson. “We had a big hole there. The 2011 (birth) draft is going to be very important for us to back up the 2010 draft year, so it was a good day when Ben gave me the call and said he is going to go there.”
Williamson and the Colts weren’t done there on this day.
For the second-straight summer, the OHL club picked up a gritty veteran forward from the Bulldogs. A year after acquiring Calvin Crombie, Barrie sent a sixth-round pick in 2028 for Tsherna.
The six-foot-185 Maple native, who was a second-round pick (34th overall) of Brantford in 2024, had nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points in 112 games over three seasons.
“It’s a really good fit for our team,” said Williamson. “We don’t have a large age group there, and we think he can play right through to an overage year. We hope we hit the well here twice with Brantford.”
Williamson liked Tsherna’s game from the time he first saw him playing with former Colt Shamar Moses on the Don Mills Flyers U16 ‘AAA’ team.
“I thought he was one of the guys that, maybe, stirred the drink there,” he said of Tsherna with the Flyers. “He’s had injuries and got behind a real deep lineup there (in Brantford), so the fact now that he is going to get the chance to play a big role is great.
“I talked to him this morning, and I couldn’t believe how excited he is to join us. What a great conversation I had with him.”
Williamson compared his newest forward to former Colt Jaiden Newton, who was traded to the Ottawa 67’s earlier this summer.
“They are very similar players in a lot of ways,” he said. “Tsherna plays a little faster, and Newton might be a little heavier, but they’re very similar in many ways. To get a third and a fifth for Newton, and then to pick up Tsherna up for a sixth, these are the kinds of deals we’re looking at right now to help us down the road.”
Crombie, who was good friends with Tsherna, let the newest Colt know that he would love playing in Barrie.
“He could be a good example to our younger players of how we want to play the game,” Williamson said of Tsherna.
“I think he’s going to be, like Crombie, kind of a fan-favourite,” added the Barrie GM. “He’s another player they don’t know a lot about, but he comes, and he works so hard. Fans like those kinds of guys. He’s an energy guy. He likes to play fast.”
The move, said Williamson, was a “no-brainer.”
“The price was high early, and we weren’t quite willing to pay that,” he explained of the deal. “We, kind of, met in the middle, and I think it was a good deal for both teams.”
Tsherna will join his new team when the Colts open up their training camp on August 24th at Sadlon Arena.
