Lucas Magowan considered his options and eventually gave his blessing to an Alberta Junior Hockey League trade that saw the 20-year-old defenceman join the Camrose Kodiaks from the Lloydminster Bobcats.
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“Honestly, I never thought I was going to leave Lloyd,” Magowan said Thursday after his first practice with the Kodiaks. “So, this is all kind of new to me, the whole trade thing and whatnot.”
But his third season with the Bobcats wasn’t going as he had hoped. Magowan was a healthy scratch for the first time this year when he sat out Lloydminster’s back-to-back victories at home last weekend.
“That was kind of part of it, just last weekend, how everything happened with that,” said Magowan, who met with Bobcats general manager Nigel Dube this week.
“A couple of days ago, Nigel came to me, and we had a meeting. He said, ‘Listen, the deal is there with Camrose, if you want it.’ It was either I could take the deal, or I could stay there and see what happens with everything in Lloyd.
“But, after I talked to my parents, I figured (Camrose) was a really good spot and it sounded like they really wanted to have me here, so it was a pretty easy decision after that.”
Magowan, a Calgary native, was an assistant captain with the Bobcats. In trading him, Lloyd gained the Canadian junior A league playing rights to 19-year-old forward A.J. Schaaf, who was part of Camrose’s captaincy group until he left recently for the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs. The Bobcats also received a player-development fee in the same transaction.
Magowan had two assists in 14 games this season with the Bobcats. After sitting out last weekend, he wasn’t necessarily prepared to settle for a lesser role for the rest of his final year of junior hockey.
“It was a little bit of a surprise,” he said. “I mean, I’m going to be honest, I was struggling a little bit this year, kind of with everything. It was definitely a different kind of year.
“Then, when I ended up not playing last weekend, I had to think about my options and what I was going to do. I guess it made my decision a little bit easier there.
“When I heard that Camrose was interested in making a deal, it seemed like a no-brainer, so I was pretty excited for that. But my time in Lloyd was great, though. I’ll never have anything bad to say about Lloyd.”
It was an emotional week as Magowan said goodbye to his now-former billets and teammates.
“I lived with the Oleshko family, and they were unbelievable to me,” he said. “So, that was definitely one of the harder goodbyes for sure in Lloyd, was saying goodbye to them.
“But it kind of worked out here as well, because now I’m in between Lloyd and Calgary, which is nice. So, it’s not too far either way for me.”
Magowan packed up his SUV and departed Lloyd in snowy conditions early Thursday and met up with the Kodiaks in time for practice later that morning.
“It was definitely a crazy last couple of days, but it felt good to just skate out there and practise with those guys,” he said. “It was good.”
At five-foot-eight and 150 pounds, the former captain of the U18 AAA Calgary Buffaloes was the smallest of Lloydminster’s eight defencemen, most of whom stand taller than six feet.
“Maybe that kind of factored into it a little bit,” he said about physical stature. “They’ve got some big guys back there, but they’re all really good defencemen, too. It was definitely a tough spot, honestly.
“But I think it worked out OK, though. Camrose, when I spoke to them on the phone and everything, they said they loved my skating and my playmaking, that side of my game, which was good to hear. And they weren’t concerned at all about my size or anything. So, that was nice to hear as well.”
Magowan was even smaller, of course, three years ago when he was called up to the Okotoks Oilers and played three junior A games as a teammate of his older brother Logan.
“That was really cool,” Lucas said.
Logan, now 22, is a student at Mount Royal University at home in Calgary.
Lucas graduated from Calgary’s Centennial High School in 2023. He plans to attend university next year to study engineering and possibly play hockey at the collegiate level.
“Right now, I’m doing a calculus class online already, so that keeps me busy away from the rink,” he said.
Magowan moves from Lloydminster’s new Cenovus Energy Hub to Camrose’s Encana Arena, two of the most-equipped rinks in junior A hockey.
Growing up in Calgary, he and his family watched the NHL’s Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome as often as they could.
This season, Magowan made a special trip to Edmonton for an NHL game.
“I went to my first Oilers game at Rogers (Place) with some of the boys from Lloyd, so that was pretty sweet,” he said. “It was against Montreal, too, which was exciting.”
Magowan will miss hanging out with those boys from Lloyd, especially the players he’s played with for two or three years. He mentioned the likes of Jaxan Hopko, Kade Fendelet, Matthew Hikida, Gus El-Tahhan and Alessio Nardelli, the 20-year-old forward traded a week earlier to the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars.
“There’s a bunch of guys that I’ve played with for a while now, so it was kind of tough to say goodbye to them, but it’s not too hard to keep in touch these days, either, which is nice,” Magowan said.
As his Camrose tenure begins, he’s already familiar with a few Kodiaks on a personal basis. In his final year with the Buffaloes, Magowan played with Tyson Murray, a 19-year-old forward from Calgary.
“I know Junshi (Hideshima) as well, a (20-year-old) forward for Camrose. He was good friends with (ex-Bobcats defenceman) Jack Birch, so I met him a few times in the summer, whenever I was up in Edmonton,” Magowan said.
“They’ve been really good about welcoming me to the team, so that’s been nice.
“I’m living with (teammate) Tavish Beagle. He showed me around here today, which was really nice of him. It’s been pretty good so far.”
Beagle, an 18-year-old forward, is a cousin of Kodiaks captain Keegan Beagle, an overage defenceman.
Camrose’s defence includes eight players, but one of them — 20-year-old Quinn Abbott — has been sidelined since Oct. 18 because of an injury.
Among the newcomers on the Kodiaks’ blueline this season is Reily Pickford, a Chauvin, Alta., native who played U18 AAA in Lloydminster. His older brother Bryce is the captain of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers.
Camrose and Lloyd have split their two head-to-head games this season. They face each other again on back-to-back nights in the new year — Jan. 16 in Lloyd and Jan. 17 in Camrose.
“That’ll be a fun game,” Magowan said about his first matchup back in the Border City.
His debut with Camrose was scheduled for this Friday night as the Kodiaks (8-7) visited the Whitecourt Wolverines (12-4).
“Yeah, hopefully the transition won’t be too hard,” Magowan said. “I’ve already played against Whitecourt twice this year with Lloyd, so that part of the game shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Just go out there and try to use my instincts and play.”
His first home game as a Kodiak comes Saturday as Camrose hosts the Drumheller Dragons (7-7-2).
The Bobcats (10-6) are on the road for two games this weekend — Friday against the Bonnyville Pontiacs (7-7) and Saturday versus the Devon Xtreme (5-6-1).
Schaaf, the Pennsylvania-born player whose AJHL rights now belong to Lloydminster, scored one goal in his first two BCHL games with Chilliwack. While with Camrose, the six-foot-four, 210-pound forward had nine goals and 16 points in 14 games, including a goal and two assists during the Kodiaks’ 7-5 loss to the Bobcats in an Oct. 22 afternoon game at Lloyd.
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