The Warriors announced Friday that they had acquired 20-year-old forward Owen Hardy from the Vancouver Giants in exchange for a sixth-round Western Hockey League Bantam Draft pick in 2023.
“We are very pleased to add Owen to our hockey club. Owen is a character guy who brings a tremendous amount of leadership and experience to our group,” said Warriors general manager Alan Millar. “He plays a complete, hard, power forward game. Along with Jadon Joseph, their playoff experience last year is a benefit to our club.”
Joseph and Hardy played together last season on the Western Conference champion Giants and will be reunited at Mosaic Place when the Warriors take on the Regina Pats at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Hardy, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound left winger from Nanaimo, B.C., is in his fifth and final season in the WHL. As could be expected, he brings a ton of game experience to the Warriors, having playing 233 games since the 2015-16 season. Through that time he’s racked up 30 goals and 39 assists for 69 points. Hardy has played three games this season and has two assists.
Hardy was a key cog in the Giants playoff run, as he scored five times and put up 12 points while going plus-14 in Vancouver’s 22-game run to Game 7 of the WHL Final.
The news wasn’t all good on the Warriors front earlier this week, as it was announced that Brayden Tracey had sustained an upper-body injury during Anaheim Ducks training camp and was listed as week-to-week by the National Hockey League team.
