Prince George, B.C. – Now that the WHL trade deadline has officially passed (at 2 p.m. Pacific Time today) Prince George Cougars General Manager Todd Harkins thinks he’s got the roster “to keep winning and have a good playoff push.”

Harkins added even more depth to his already deep roster by acquiring forwards Radovan Bondra from the Vancouver Giants and Tanner Wishnowski from the Spokane Chiefs today.

Cougars GM Todd Harkins – photo courtesy PG Cougars

Last week the Cats picked up Russian sniper Nikita Popugaev from Moose Jaw and in November they bolstered their back end with the acquisition of top flight defenceman Brenden Guhle.

He figures the moves will help bolster the team’s power play which entered last weekend 17^th in the league.

“Yeah, I think that was something that Richard (head coach) and I looked at. Just trying to find some guys that score – big and rangy guys that want to go to the dirty areas and that will help us on the power play,” says Harkins.

“With adding Radovan and Nikita, they’re both big bodies that can score and that was something we coveted and we also just wanted to add some depth with Tanner. He’s somebody who’s had a long playoff run, which he had with Kelowna a couple of years ago, when they went to the Memorial Cup.”

Harkins acknowledges it’s the busiest he’s been at the trade deadline during his tenure but notes the past couple of years laid the ground work for the deals he’s been able to make.

“My first couple of years we were always trying to acquire assets and stockpile youth and draft picks for this potential moment,” he says.

“And to be able to do what we’ve done the first couple of yeas has allowed us to make some of these trades to get these great hockey players into Prince George.”