The Petes opened up the season with a bit of an issue surrounding overagers.
Coming into camp, the club had 5 OA’s and quickly brought that down to 4 by moving goaltender Michael Simpson to London for Zach Bowen.
That still left a tough decision for the Petes brass, having to decide between Connor Lockhart, Cam Gauvreau, Jax Dubois, and Sam Mayer.
Just before the second game of their home and home with the Generals, Petes GM Mike Oke announced that he had made a deal to send Lockhart to Oshawa in exchange for picks, London’s third round pick in 2025 and Oshawa’s fifth round pick in 2027.
Connor Lockhart says being dealt to Oshawa of all teams was a bit of a shock
He admits it was hard to sit out and watch while waiting for a decision on which OA would be moved
Lockhart played in 73 games for the Petes since being acquired from the Erie Otters on August 8, 2022. In those 73 games, he has scored 30 goals and added 56 assists for 86 points. He was also a part of the Petes 2023 OHL Championship winning roster, picking up seven goals and 9 assists for 16 points, while playing in all 23 playoff games. In the 2023 Memorial Cup, he scored twice and added an assist for three points in five games. Originally selected by the Erie Otters in the first round, 3rd overall, in the 2019 OHL Priority Selection, the Kanata Lazers product has played in 194 OHL games between the Otters and Petes, picking up 164 points in the process.
“I’d like to thank Connor for his dedication to the Petes Organization and the Peterborough Community over the past two seasons,” noted Oke. “With league rules only allowing three over-age players per team, we had to make the very difficult decision to move Connor. We believe that we found a great fit for him to finish his junior career in search of an NHL contract, and we wish him the best of luck moving forward.”
(written by Graham Elliott)
