London Knights look west for new goalie, say goodbye to two veterans

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The London Knights have settled their over-age situation for now.

The OHL club acquired former Saskatoon Blades goaltender Austin Elliott from Barrie after the Colts claimed him on waivers. In corresponding moves, the Knights waived veteran goalie Owen Willmore and released defenceman Alec Leonard.

Elliott, who will start working out with London Thursday, joins forwards Landon Sim and Jacob Julien as the Knights three remaining 20-year-olds. Each major junior team is allowed to dress three over-agers per game.

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“We knew (Saskatoon) was in a spot where they would have to waive Austin based on what their younger goalie (Evan Gardner) was doing,” London associate GM Rob Simpson said. “We did our work on a few goalies that were out there and Austin was someone who could fit a need for us.”

Elliott spent the past three seasons with the Blades and made the Canadian Hockey League all-rookie team and WHL East second all-star squad in 2022-23. The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder from Strathmore, Alta., started this season with three straight wins and a 3.00 goals against average and .897 save percentage in Saskatoon.

“When you have a good team and can limit your scoring chances, you need timely goaltending and that save at the right time,” Simpson said. “We feel really confident in where (rookie Alexei) Medvedev is but he needs somebody to go back and forth with him. We wanted a veteran who could do that.

“Austin has played in front of 10-13,000 people in Saskatoon so he’s going to know the environment and stress level that comes with (Canada Life Place).”

Willmore finished his Knights career with a 5-1 victory over Guelph Saturday. He has a career 21-6-0-2 regular season record with a 3.33 GAA and .887 save percentage over parts of three years with London.

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The former Elgin-Middlesex minor hockey standout was an admirable playoff fill-in the past two years, helping the Knights to a comeback for the ages in Game 3 of the OHL final at Oshawa last spring and earning the final two starts of the 2023 championship series against Peterborough.

“He was disappointed,” Simpson said of Willmore’s reaction to the moves. “He has a long history with us and it’s never easy to have that conversation. That’s a tough one. We told him (and Leonard) if you’re 19 and it wasn’t the over-age spot that’s a specialty position, you would be here. It’s tough when you get into a numbers game sometimes.”

Leonard, a second-round pick of the Niagara IceDogs in 2020, had a goal and two points with a minus-2 rating in five games with the Knights this season. The gritty rearguard was dealt to London two years ago and posted four goals and 18 points with 82 penalty minutes before breaking his ankle early in the conference final against Saginaw last spring.

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The Knights wanted to give some of their younger defencemen a chance to play without sitting out too many games while acting quickly to give Willmore and Leonard the chance to find another team at this level.

“It sucks to see guys go,” forward Landon Sim said. “Both are unreal guys. But a lot of us knew coming in there were some question marks. This is our team and it’s a business at the end of the day. You come in and there are five 20-year-olds at camp. It’s probably a pretty discouraging thing and you don’t know what’s going to happen or where you’re going to play.”

Sim and Julien give London necessary scoring, depth up front and are part of the team’s leadership group. They weren’t going anywhere.

“I’m happy to be a Knight,” Sim said. “I’ve put the body on the line for a lot of years here and I love wearing the jersey and playing with pride. I can’t complain.”

rpyette@postmedia.com

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