That's a wrap: Rivermen trade defenseman and aspiring actor to Vermillion for scorer
PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen made a move to add scoring Thursday in a three-player trade with expansion Vermillion County.
The Rivermen sent defensemen Skyler Smutek and Jake Grade to the Danville-based Bobcats in exchange for center-winger Marcel Godbout.
It's tough to trade a guy like Smutek, a player with a neat story on and off the ice.
Godbout, 25, is a 5-foot-9, 185-pound center-winger who played 207 USHL junior hockey games and spent four years in NCAA hockey with Sacred Heart University. He turned pro late last season, joining the SPHL champion Pensacola Ice Flyers for nine games, during which he scored three goals and added an assist.
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The skilled forward brings goalscoring to a Rivermen team that has struggled offensively, yet still has managed a 3-2-0 start thanks to perhaps the best goaltending tandem in the SPHL.
Grade played three games for the Rivermen after they claimed him off SPHL waivers from Evansville in October.
Smutek was in his second season with the Rivermen. His was a story of perseverance in Peoria, a good college player who was sidelined by injuries for five years and didn't make his pro debut until age 27.
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He was a good teammate and was very active in the community, reading to kids in the public library, making visits to schools and hospitals.
Now 31, the veteran defenseman had a career breakthrough off the ice this year when he won a role in an upcoming TV series "Scoring Oceanside," that starts filming in the summer of 2022. He'll make his acting debut playing the character Anakin Edwards, described in the script as a talented junior hockey player with lifelong NHL dreams, trying to escape a dark past and abusive family.
Smutek took drama classes as a kid, and grew up impersonating characters like Batman and Darth Vader.
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On the ice, he played a hard-nosed game. In 35 outings for the Rivermen last season, he rolled up 120 penalty minutes and fought six times.
The Rivermen are scheduled to host Vermillion County — 0-6-0 with a league-high 29 goals allowed and only six scored — in games at Carver Arena on Dec. 18 and 26, Jan. 14-15, Feb. 19 and 27, and April 2.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: SPHL Peoria Rivermen trade defenseman and aspiring actor to Vermillion
