The Moose Jaw Warriors added another overage defenceman to their roster on Thursday with the acquisition of Marc McNulty from the Kamloops Blazers.

In exchange for the 20-year-old, the Warriors sent 19-year-old defenceman Dallas Valentine to the Blazers.

“McNulty is a guy that’s really been on our radar all summer,” said Alan Millar, Warriors’ General Manager.  “He was at the top of our 20-year-old board.

“He’s a legitimate, top-end guy for us that has a lot to play for this year.  With him and Tanner Faith, they give us two good anchors on our back end, the dimension that McNulty brings with some grit and edge is important, but he also brings offence and is going to help our power play.” 

McNulty – six-foot-six, 210lbs – comes to Moose Jaw after being dealt to Kamloops from Prince George last season. He has 34 goals and 85 points in 204 career regular season games.

Last season in 30 games played with Kamloops and 30 with Prince George, McNulty posted eight goals, 27 points and 117 penalty minutes, which was his second straight season with over 110 PIMs.

The Warriors had been working on acquiring McNulty over the past month, but the deal had fell through.

“Really the talks with Kamloops were dead on McNulty until the GM change there on Tuesday and then they picked up again,” said Millar.

Craig Bonner, who had held the job for seven years, resigned as Blazers’ general manager on Tuesday with Stu MacGregor, who served as Blazers’ GM in the late 1990s, taking over.

McNulty grew up in Moose Jaw before moving to Medicine Hat.  He’s a sixth round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2013 NHL Draft.

“We had some goals in mind in terms of what we wanted to add in 20s, I believe that we’ve accomplished that,” said Millar.  “All three additions are going to help our team and for the time being, our roster is set and we’ll see how we perform and see how things play out.”

Valentine has played his entire WHL career with the Warriors.  He has 157 career games under his belt with six goals and 36 points.

“Dallas is a guy that has shown promise and has been up and down in his game and a fresh start might be what is best for him,” said Millar.

The Warriors had added a third 20-year-old just last week, acquiring defenceman Tyler Morrison from Tri-City off waivers, he has since been released by the team.  Millar said it’s an unfortunate situation that Morrison was brought in for such a short time.

“This one has been a tough one today on the staff, Tyler is a great kid, our talks on McNulty were dead and that’s why we claimed Tyler,” said Millar.  “I thought he played well for us, he’s a good kid and it wasn’t our intention to bring him here for such a short period of time.”

McNulty will make his Warriors’ debut on Thursday night in Calgary against the Hitmen.