For at least a couple of reasons, Alessio Nardelli can digest his junior A trade to the Battlefords North Stars from the Lloydminster Bobcats in a multi-league deal this week.
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In moving to the SJHL’s North Stars, the 20-year-old forward has been reunited with a close friend in Battlefords captain Anthony Campbell. They live about an hour’s drive from each other back home in Quebec. They also played U18 hockey together at Mount Academy in Prince Edward Island, along with Bobcats overager Gus El-Tahhan.
In his new hockey home, Nardelli is also just an hour away from his buddies and now-former AJHL teammates in Lloydminster.
“Yeah, I can still see my billets if I have an off weekend or see all my friends in Lloyd,” he said Thursday night, a few minutes after arriving in North Battleford.
“I’m good friends with their captain. We’ll be billeting together. We lived together in U18, also. It’ll be really fun to live with him again.”
Most of all, Nardelli hopes a fresh start in another league can help rejuvenate his final year of junior hockey.
RIGHTS TO OLSEN
The Bobcats announced Thursday that they had traded Nardelli to the North Stars in exchange for a player-development fee and the junior A playing rights to former Battlefords defenceman Carson Olsen, a 19-year-old Warman, Sask., native now playing major junior with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, for sure, but I didn’t have the best start of the season,” said Nardelli, who played two years and two months with the Bobcats. “I wasn’t super surprised, but I was a little bit.”
His offensive production this season has been limited, with two goals and five points after 14 games. Four of those points came in his final seven games.
“I wasn’t really getting the lucky bounces,” Nardelli said. “It didn’t feel harder than last year. Just the puck didn’t really find my stick as much as last year, I found.
“But I’m really happy with my time there (in Lloydminster). Now, I’m super excited for the start in North Battleford.”
Nardelli learned of the trade after Wednesday’s practice in a meeting with Bobcats general manager Nigel Dube and coach Eric Labrosse.
The five-foot-10, 175-pound winger was thankful he had a say in where he would play next.
“Nigel was nice enough to give me a few options to choose from, which I appreciated,” Nardelli said. “So, I decided to come to Battlefords, just because I knew (Campbell). I also know Cole Hines. He affiliated with the Bobcats last year. So, it’ll be nice to have familiar faces around.”
Hines, who turns 18 in November, is from Lloydminster and played with the U18 AAA Lancers last season. Including his first SJHL goal Oct. 17, the rookie collected five points during a recent three-game stretch.
NEW BILLET BROTHERS
Hines and Campbell travelled to Lloyd on Thursday to pick up Nardelli and transport him to the Battlefords. The three of them now are billeting together.
“I’m all settled in, after a busy day,” Nardelli said. “A lot of packing. I pretty much dumped everything in my suitcases and got it all packed up in one day.”
Nardelli was back on the road Friday for his first long-distance tour of Saskatchewan. The North Stars hit the highway for games Friday night against the Yorkton Terriers and Saturday night versus the Melville Millionaires.
Nardelli, who was one of the longest-tenured Bobcats, is switching from the No. 22 he sported in Lloydminster.
“I wore 4 at Mount Academy — it’s been my favourite number — so I’m sticking with that,” he said.
Nardelli believes he can bring relevant experience to Battlefords.
“I have played over 100 games of junior, so that’ll just help the team, help the younger guys,” he said. “Then, I think I can skate and have a pretty shot, too, so hopefully it translates to the new start I have here.”
In the most offensive of his three seasons with Lloydminster, Nardelli scored 11 goals and 38 points in 54 games last year.
PREP BACKGROUND
Although the AJHL-SJHL deal is his first trade as a junior, the Laval, Que., native is well-travelled in hockey circles. After playing his formative years close to home, his journey took him to Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Seminary prep school at age 16, and to Mount Academy in P.E.I. the following season.
“It was a great experience,” he said about his initial move to Wyoming prep. “I loved it. But one of my best friends (Jano Zambakdjian) was already at Mount Academy, and I knew they were going to have a good team, so he and his coach kind of convinced me to head over there for my third year of midget.”
After those U18 prep years, Nardelli landed in Lloydminster, where he has developed lasting friendships that transcend trades.
“Oh yeah, those guys will be my brothers forever,” he said about the veteran Bobcats.
“I’d say all the guys that were returning players, I was really close with. I was starting to get close with the younger guys, too. I’ll still keep in touch with them, but I’ll be closer with the older guys that I’ve been playing with for two or three years.”
In joining Battlefords (6-3-2), Nardelli is reacquainted with a longtime friend in Campbell, whose hometown is Phillipsburg, Que.
“I see him a lot (in the summer),” Nardelli said with a laugh. “He’s always coming in my house unannounced.
“He had a great year last season. He’s doing pretty good this year, too, but he wants to get going a little bit more, so hopefully I can help him.”
Nardelli’s goals remain the same. He wants to win in his final junior year, and he’s shooting for university hockey next season in the U.S. or Canada.
“Yeah, exactly, as long as I get to play hockey, I’ll be happy,” he said.
His final game with Lloydminster was Tuesday as the Bobcats (8-6) lost 3-1 to the Whitecourt Wolverines (11-3) in a battle of the North Division front-runners.
With the departure of Nardelli, the Bobcats were carrying 14 forwards, including recent arrival Ty Hynes. The 17-year-old rookie from Medicine Hat, Alta., began this season with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.
Hynes is expected to make his Lloydminster debut this Halloween weekend as the Bobcats host the Drayton Valley Thunder (5-6-1) on Friday and the Drumheller Dragons (6-5-2) on Saturday.
The Bonnyville Pontiacs (5-7) host those same two teams this weekend — Drumheller on Friday and Drayton Valley on Saturday.
WELL-TRAVELLED D-MAN
Meanwhile, the player whose Canadian junior A league rights came to Lloyd in the Nardelli deal has played with two WHL teams this season. Olsen is pointless in five games with Kamloops since his arrival from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, with whom he had a goal and three points in nine games.
The six-foot, 170-pound Olsen is committed to playing NCAA Division 1 hockey with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
Last year in the BCHL, he scored two goals and 10 points in 48 games with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks and Spruce Grove Saints.
The previous season, 2023-24, Olsen netted 10 goals and 30 points in 51 SJHL games with Battlefords.
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