17 draft picks, a family decision, one enormous risk: Inside the OHL trade that shook junior hockey - Toronto Star
He wanted to play for Sudbury. Brampton picked him third overall in the OHL draft, then gained 17 picks by trading him.
Everything about Tanner Adamsβ game suggests heβs an old-fashioned throwback. Heβs big, strong, fast, talented and mean. And he hits first.
Everything about Adamsβ approach to his hockey career, however, suggests heβs anything but a player with an old-time mentality. Thirty-seven years after Hall of Famer Eric Lindros orchestrated a trade out of the north β going from the Ontario Hockey Leagueβs Soo Greyhounds to the Oshawa Generals β Adams has done the reverse. Heβll be in the Sudbury Wolvesβ lineup Friday night when they open their OHL season against the Peterborough Petes.
In a stunning turn of events, Adams was dealt last week just before the deadline for defected players, from the Brampton Steelheads, who drafted him third overall in June, to the Wolves in exchange for a mind-boggling 15 picks from the 2027 through 2030 drafts. Factoring in the fifth overall choice and the last choice of the second round in the 2027 draft that the Steelheads receive as compensation for losing Adams, Brampton gains a total of 17 draft picks in the transaction.
The 16-year-old Adams made it clear to the Steelheads prior to the OHL draft that he intended to play only for the Wolves and. if a trade couldnβt be worked out, he was going to play Jr. A hockey for the Timmins Rock this season and fast-track his way through high school so he could play in the NCAA in 2027-28.
A native of the Timmins suburb of Porcupine, Adams spent the past two seasons playing at The Hill Academy in Toronto and wanted to be closer to his parents. The son of a gold miner and a group home worker in Timmins, Adams flourished on the ice but found it difficult to be without his parents off the ice. His parents made the treacherous nine-and-a-half hour trip whenever they could, and now that commute has been reduced to three hours.
