A first round pick of the San Jose Sharks has been traded from the Peterborough Petes to the London Knights of the OHL. Ryan Merkley was selected at the 21st overall spot in 2018, although he had initially been projected to go much higher. He had, at one point, been ranked right behind Rasmus Dahlin as the 2nd best blueliner in the 2018 draft, but it appeared attitude issues caused a few NHL teams to pass him over in favour of other players.
Merkley had publicly argued with his coach while playing with the Guelph Storm, something he was sent back to the dressing room for, and was suspended three games for a dangerous and undisciplined, two-handed slash on an opponent who had whacked him on the hand. That said, his offensive talent is not in question. Merkley recorded 5 goals and 39 points in just 28 games to start the 2018–19 season before getting traded to the Peterborough Petes. He put up another 32 points, including nine goals, in 35 games with Peterborough.
During this offseason, a Twitter account calling itself "OHLInsiders" stated the Petes were not interested in bringing Merkley back to their team for the 2019-2020 season citing further attitude issues. The account also stated Merkley himself had contacted his Peterborough teammates and told them he would not be returning because the team wasn't interested in having him back.
Despite that, TSN Insider Darren Dreger says Merkley had a "very successful NHL Training Camp" with the Sharks. Dreger added the 19-year-old would be flying home to join the Knights immediately. The team gave up a third-round draft choice, as well as two conditional picks, to get the high-scoring defenceman. Dreger, and a few others on Twitter, called out the OHLInsiders account for stating Merkley would be joining a Junior B team in order to put pressure on the Petes to get him traded. Dreger dared the account to attach an actual person's name to it, instead of one that allowed the person behind it to remain anonymous.
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