ESTEVAN - The Estevan Bruins made two significant moves Saturday, bringing in a veteran forward from the Western Hockey League (WHL), but also trading one of their longest-tenured players.
The Bruins have signed 2001-born forward Eric Pearce after the 20-year-old was released from the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. With the signing of Pearce, the Bruins had nine 20-year-olds on the roster, one more than they are allowed to dress, so they dealt forward Griffin Asham-Moroz (’01) to the Drumheller Dragons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League in exchange for Kasey Hiemstra (’02).
Asham-Moroz was in his third season for the Bruins. He joined Estevan as a rookie for the 2019-20 season. In his only full season with the Bruins in 2019-20, Asham-Moroz was third on the teams in points with 47 in 55 games, was chosen as the Viterra Division’s rookie of the year and made the SJHL’s all-rookie team.
While Asham-Moroz did not play in a game during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, he racked up 11 points in 12 games to start this season.
Drumheller has a 10-6-2 record to start the season.
Hiemstra, who hails from Big Valley, Alta., had seven points in 10 games for Drumheller this year, and is in the midst of his third season of junior A hockey.
Pearce had four assists in five games for Brandon this season, after being traded to the Wheat Kings by the Prince Albert Raiders, where Pearce had spent his entire WHL career. Pearce played two games this year for Prince Albert, in addition to the four previous seasons since 2017-18. He was part of the Prince Albert team that won the Western Hockey League title in 2019.
He also spent five games with the Bruins last season, scoring two goals and an assist.
