The Prince George Cougars confirmed the speculation today that they have landed high scoring 19-year-old forward Radovan Bondra (Trebisov, SVK) from the Vancouver Giants in return for 18-year-old European forward Bartek Bison, 16-year-old prospect forward Tyler Ho (Valley West Hawks) and a third round draft pick in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft.
The 6’5”, 221 pound Slovak has 31 points, including 19 goals, in 32 games this season with the Giants.
In 90 career WHL games, Bondra has struck for 34 goals, 61 points and 42 penalty minutes.
He was selected in the 5th round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Cougars General Manager Todd Harkins says Bondra was the final piece to the puzzle. “He’s a big bodied player that likes to shoot the puck and uses his size effectively around the opposing teams net which we have seen first hand with some of the goals he has scored against us the last two years. We just kind of coveted that big-winger.”
This follows last week’s acquisition of Nikita Popugayev from the Moose Jaw Warriors and Harkins believes both power forwards will shore up a part of their game.
“It just compliments the kind of players that we have got already with guys who move the puck efficiently and make plays by getting to the dirty areas around the blue paint which should help us on the power-play and get our numbers up.”
The team also paid a bit of a price to acquire this kind of player.
“In Bartek, we wanted to give him a fresh start where he could play somewhere and get some games in and Tyler I know quite well through the North Shore Winter Club and the Cariboo Cougars. We had to give up some youth because teams like Vancouver are trying to get younger so they wanted younger players from us. It’s something you just have to do to try and get players of this calibre.”
Bondra has represented Slovakia in each of the past three seasons at the World Junior Hockey Championship tournament.
Bondra will be with his new team in Red Deer but won’t play tonight when the Cougars begin a four-game, five-day Alberta road trip.
Photo credit: Prince George Cougars