North Bay Battalion trade Tnias Mathurin to Spitfires for multiple draft picks

The North Bay Battalion traded defenceman Tnias Mathurin to the Windsor Spitfires, the club said Thursday. (Supplied)

The North Bay Battalion traded defenceman Tnias Mathurin to the Windsor Spitfires, the club said Thursday.

For Mathurin and its 13th-round pick in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection, North Bay received a second-rounder in 2025 and fourth- and sixth-round choices in 2026, all conditional, as well as a 13th-rounder next year,” the Battalion said in a news release.

The selections are Windsor’s, except for the second-rounder, which originally belonged to the Brantford Bulldogs.

The trade reduces the Battalion’s potential overagers to six, with a team permitted to dress three in any game.

“Moving a really good player and good person like Tnias isn’t an easy decision,” general manager John Winstanley said in the news release.

“As an organization, we have to start to navigate our overage players and these decisions are difficult but necessary.”

“We’d like to thank Tnias for everything,” he added.

“He wore the Battalion crest with pride. He’s left an impact not only with our team but in the community. Our entire organization wishes him good luck with Windsor.”

Mathurin, a Toronto native who turned 20 on Jan. 15, was a third-round pick in 2020 from the Ajax-Pickering Raiders minor midgets. The Detroit Red Wings took him in the fifth round of the 2022 National Hockey League Draft but didn’t sign him within two years, making him an NHL free agent.

Injuries were a factor in limiting him to 96 games over three seasons with North Bay in which he scored six goals and 26 assists along with 54 penalty minutes.

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He had three goals and 14 assists in 51 games in 2023-24.

North Bay’s potential overagers now include centre Dalyn Wakely, left wingers Owen Van Steensel, Andrew LeBlanc and Brice Cooke and defencemen Jacob LeBlanc and Trevor McDowell.

Wakely was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the fifth round in June.

Three others who would be overagers this season have been drafted and signed by NHL clubs and are expected to play in the pro ranks. They are right winger Sandis Vilmanis, rearguard Ty Nelson and goaltender Dom DiVincentiis, with the Florida Panthers, Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets respectively.