The time has finally arrived.
The Moose Jaw Warriors will take the ice with their full team for the first time in over a month on Saturday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, and that includes trade deadline acquisition Matthew Savoie as he makes his debut in a Warriors uniform.
Savoie -- who was acquired by the Warriors from Wenatchee last week for a suite of draft picks -- practiced for the first time with Moose Jaw on Friday morning at the Bert Hunt and later joined his new teammates at the Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame Banquet.
It was quite literally a bit of a journey to get to this point for Savoie, as after he spent time with family in St. Albert for his Christmas break, he returned to Wenatchee and made the 15-hour drive to Moose Jaw.
But with that behind him, it’s all systems go tonight against the Vancouver Giants.
“I’m excited,” Savoie said Friday evening. “I think Moose Jaw is a great place and they have a great team here and I’m just excited to come in and contribute to winning.”
The initial skate -- which included an appearance by Warriors and Legends inductees Troy Brouwer and Deryk Engelland -- was more of a chance for Savoie to get his legs under him after nine days away from the ice, but it didn’t take long for things to start to click.
Savoie practiced on a line with Atley Calvert and Ethan Semeniuk, who he’ll play alongside Saturday.
“They’re not fun guys to play against, so I think it’ll be a lot of fun to play with them,” Savoie said. “I played with Calvert a little bit at Buffalo’s rookie camp a couple years ago, so there’s a little bit of familiarity there and we practiced well today. We’re both really good players with high energy and I think we compliment each other really well.”
Savoie is also quite familiar with a group of guys he was playing with just over a week ago. In fact, he was hanging out with Team Canada teammates Denton Mateychuk, Brayden Yager and Jagger Firkus when he received word that the trade had gone through.
“Even though we kind of already knew it was happening, it was pretty exciting,” Savoie said, referring to the long-standing rumours that such a trade was imminent. “We built a really strong friendship when we were in Sweden and I think we’re all just excited to start playing some games and trying to win a championship together.”
To that end, odds are Savoie will be a key piece of the puzzle going forward.
The 19-year-old Buffalo Sabres first-rounder has put up 90-plus points the past two seasons and after returning to Wenatchee from Sabres camp this fall, Savoie had 24 points in 11 games.
That kind of production will undoubtedly lead to all sorts of success, and ideally lead to the title that Savoie has chased the past two seasons.
“I’ve been so close the last couple of seasons being on really good teams, so it’s great to have another chance here with a really good team and a really good group of guys.”
Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
