VICTORIA ACQUIRES HAMILTON FROM PORTLAND

Press Release

Victoria, BC – The Victoria Western Hockey League (WHL) Franchise is proud to announce they have completed a trade with the Portland Winterhawks for goaltender Keith Hamilton in exchange for Victoria’s 3rd, 4th and 8th round picks in the 2012 Bantam Draft.

The Kelowna, BC native joins Victoria after compiling a 17-6-0-2 record with one shutout during the 2010-11 season. Over that span he earned a 2.91 goals against average that ranked 11th in WHL and a save percentage of 0.914 that ranked 6th in the league. The second-year major junior netminder had two relief appearances during the 2011 WHL Playoffs where he played 41 minutes and allowed two goals.

“Keith is a technically sound goalie who comes to us from a very successful program in Portland,” General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid said. “He will push for the starting job this year, and has solidified our goaltending corps as we now have three quality goaltenders at different age ranges in Hamilton, Braden Gamble and Jared Rathjen.’

The 19-year-old Hamilton was a member of the silver medal winning Team Pacific at the 2009 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge Cup.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)