By Matt Stefano
The Birds are getting Reddy!
With the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season less than two weeks away, the Soo Thunderbirds have announced on Monday that they have acquired 2003-birth-year goaltender Zachary Reddy from the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners in exchange for a player development fee.
“Zach is a big goalie who moves really well in net,” said Soo Thunderbirds assistant coach and general manager Jamie Henderson. “Hopefully he can come in and have a fresh start with our program and we are excited to get him here to get to work.”
Reddy, who stands 6’2 and weighs 165 pounds, had 3 wins, 16 losses and 1 shootout loss through 24 games with the Gold Miners last season along with posting a 5.17 goals against average and a .869 save percentage.
Prior to last season, Reddy also suited up for one game with the Gold Miners during 2020-2021, where recorded his first NOJHL win against the Cochrane Crunch back on December 18, 2020.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Thunderbirds and I’m hoping to help lead the team to another championship this season,” Reddy said. “The Thunderbirds are a world class junior hockey organization and I’m happy that my former team (Kirkland Lake) and the Thunderbirds were able to work out this trade.”
Reddy, who was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, becomes the fourth British Columbia born player to be added to this year’s Soo Thunderbirds roster, joining forwards Ethan Raduy (Qualicum Beach), Mitchell Daines (Trail) and Dharan Cap (North Vancouver).
Starting this season, Reddy will also become the first British Columbia born goaltender to play for the Soo Thunderbirds since Alex Bugeja did back in 2020-2021.
“I was born in British Columbia, but I currently live in Seattle and I’ve spent my youth playing for the Seattle Jr. Thunderbirds, so it almost feels like coming to another Thunderbird team like the Soo Thunderbirds is meant to be.”
With the addition of Reddy, the Thunderbirds now have their two goaltenders ready to go for this season, as they also signed 2005-birth-year goaltender Koltan Bourret back on August 15.
NOTE
If the last name Reddy sounds familiar to you, it’s because Zachary is also the younger brother of former Kirkland Lake Gold Miners goaltender Kohl Reddy.
Zachary and Kohl were also teammates on the Gold Miners back in the 2020-2021 season.
