USHL Notebook: Slew of trades and six players suspended in busy start to February

The USHL league office was busy Monday as a slew of trades were executed and six players received suspensions. The USHL trade deadline is Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. CDT.

By Jordan McAlpine

February 07, 2023 at 2:12 PM

While the Alex Bump and Nate Benoit trades headline the news on Tuesday, Omaha wasn’t the only team active on the USHL trade front.

Here’s a look around a busy day on the USHL transaction wire.

Madison sends forward Jack Musa to Cedar Rapids

Madison and Cedar Rapids swung a trade for forward Jack Musa. Musa, a Boston University commit, has 17 goals and 33 points in 38 games this season. The left-shot forward had 19 goals and 35 points in 57 regular-season games last season.

Musa also impressed in the playoffs last spring with seven goals in 14 goals. He joins a Cedar Rapids team that is currently sixth in the Eastern Conference, but just seven points behind second-place USNTDP.

The Capitols also dropped forward Jake Ratzlaff Tuesday morning.

The Rink Live is still working to find out the final details of the Musa trade.

Lancers deal leading scorer Alex Bump to Tri-City, send captain Nate Benoit to Waterloo

February 07, 2023 11:40 AM
After injuries shorten football career, former D-I defenseman commit heads back to the hockey rink

December 13, 2022 06:56 PM

Bucs swing pair of deals

Des Moines executed two trades this week sending forward Connor Pelc to Sioux Falls and acquiring forward Zion Green from Cedar Rapids.

Green skated in 22 games for the RoughRiders this season and found the back of the net four times, his last one coming on Dec. 16. However, Green has played just twice since the calendar flipped to 2023.

Pelc was in his second full season with the Buccaneers after playing 45 games for Des Moines last season. The right-shot forward had a goal and two assists in 16 games this season.

Stars and Force swing one-for-one

A change of scenery for a pair of Western Conference players as Fargo sent forward German Yavash to Lincoln for defenseman Marian Mosko.

Yavash had five goals and nine points in 33 games for Fargo this season. However, he has just one goal (Dec. 30) and three points since early December. Yavash put up a 9-14-23 line in 42 games for Fargo last season.

The Force will add a 5-foot-11, left-shot defenseman in Mosko. The Slovakian blue liner played in 24 games for Lincoln this season and has three points (1-2-3). He is also a +2 and has racked up 16 penalty minutes. Mosko is a Cornell commit.

Waterloo drops pair of players

In addition to the trades, Waterloo dropped a pair of players in goaltender JJ Cataldo and defenseman Tyler Procious.

Procious skated in 17 games for the Black Hawks this season and netted two goals and added five assists. The defenseman is in his fourth USHL season as he played two games for Omaha in 2019-20, 27 for Muskegon in 2020-21 and 54 for Waterloo last season. Procious had 17 points (2-15-17) last season.

Cataldo played one game for Waterloo — his lone USHL experience — and stopped 21 of the 24 shots fired his way last Thursday in a 7-3 win at Dubuque.

MORE USHL COVERAGE:

USHL suspends six players

In addition to the slew of trades, the USHL has issued suspensions to six players.

Sioux City defenseman Easton Zueger received six games for head contact, which is the second longest suspension the league has issued this season. Muskegon forward Ethan Whitcomb also received four games, three for head contact and one more for abuse of officials.

Green Bay defenseman Jacob Martin (head contact), Green Bay defenseman Josh Player (head contact) and Sioux City forward Max Strand (checking from behind) all received two games. Muskegon defenseman Matthew Morden was suspended one game for spearing.