Deadline Deal For Walker

It's been quite a year for Eric Walker.

The newest Bronco defenceman started the hockey season in Northern Michigan with an eye on a college career with the NCAA Wildcats. Four months later he is preparing for the long drive from Vancouver to Swift Current and the latest stop in his young career.

The Broncos added him from the Giants for an 8th round draft pick in 2012.

"It's been pretty unpredictable," Walker said. "It's a good adventure to be on and I'm looking forward to this next chapter."

Walker comes from a Castlegar, BC family with hockey in their blood. His uncle Gord Walker played 31 NHL games for the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. His cousin Luke Walker is a Colorado Avalanche draft pick who spent three seasons with the Portland WInterhawks and played for the United-States at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

"It's just a couple of good sources to talk to," Walker said. "(Gord) knows the ups and downs that come with the hockey life. He's been really supportive and keeps me level headed."

Hockey dreams have brought Walker to Saskatchewan before. He spent some time at Notre Dame where he played some bantam hockey with Broncos forward Daniel Dale. He played midget hockey with the Okanagan Hockey Academy. 

Walker's junior career brought him back to the Kootenays and two seasons with the BCHL's Trail Smoke Eaters. He produced 22 points over 112 games with Trail and earned a commitment to Northern Michigan midway through his rookie season.

"He's got an element of grit to his game," said former Smoke Eaters Coach/GM Jim Ingram. "When he plays with it on a consistent basis... he's horrible to play against."

"When he's physical he's a fun one to watch."

Walker went off to Northern Michigan in the fall to start his scholarship. Things didn't go as planned. The school redshirted him for the year and his name ended up in the news with several fellow teammates over stolen bike charges. The case against Walker was dismissed, but his time in the NCAA wouldn't last.

"I decided I just wanted to focus on hockey... and play a lot more games," Walker said. "I wasn't going to see any action until next season so I decided to make the jump (to the WHL) and see what I could do."

Walker moved right into the Vancouver Giants lineup in the midst of their East Division road swing. He put up 2 assists, 18 penalty minutes and an even plus/minus in 16 games with Vancouver before the numbers game caught up to him. The Giants started to get healthy bodies back and added veteran defenceman Tyler Vanscourt from Moose Jaw on Monday.

"I knew someone had to go," Walker said. "I told them I'd be open to leaving... accepting a bigger role I felt like I could take on somewhere. Hopefully I'll get that in Swift Current."

The 6'2, 200lbs defensive defenceman doesn't anticipate any highlight reel offence.

"I'm a pretty reliable, stay-at-home defenceman," Walker said. "I'm not afraid to get in someone's face. I like to make a good first pass, but I won't really dazzle anyone with my offensive dangles."

Walker fills a hole on the Broncos blue line vacated by Tanner Muth after Swift Current sent him to Kootenay for forward Adam Rossignol. His addition leaves the club with seven defencemen and four of them have 1993 birthdays.

"We would have liked to get younger than that," said Broncos Coach/GM Mark Lamb. "We couldn't, but we're happy to have (Walker)." 

Lamb believes there is potential there.

"That's what we see and that's what the scouts told us," Lamb said. "He's very raw. He's big and willing to mix it up. We feel he's going to fit the identity of our hockey team."

The Broncos ended up adding players from Vancouver in separate deals on Monday and Tuesday. Forward Levi Bews and Walker had become good friends during their time with the Giants. Walker even told Bews when he left for re-assignment recently that they were not saying "goodbye" but instead "see ya later."

Later came quicker than either of them could have imagined.

NO VETERANS MOVED

Despite lots of speculation, the Broncos didn't end up moving any of their 1992 or 1991 born players. 

"Nothing made sense to us at all," Lamb said. "There was nothing even close."

The Broncos were looking for young players in return for their veterans, but contending teams were only offering draft picks for the overage players on the market.

"We don't have enough players here with our injury situation," Lamb said. "For us to go out and trade our overages for draft picks doesn't make much sense.  We have to ice a team."

"You can't give your guys away. There is a market for these guys and if it doesn't fit the market you don't just throw them away for no reason."

Swift Current hosts Saskatoon on Friday and Red Deer on Saturday.

Click here for the full interview with new Broncos D Eric Walker 

Click here for the full interview with Broncos Coach/GM Mark Lamb 

Click here for the full interview with Cowichan Valley Capitals Associate Coach/GM Jim Ingram

Click here for a recap of the WHL Trade Deadline