The Prince George Cougars have acquired Mac Engel from the Spokane Chiefs in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2014 WHL bantam draft.
The 19-year-old played in two seasons in the WHL before being the odd-man out in Spokane a couple weeks ago. Engel has a career record of 42-28-3-4 and a 2.56 goals against average.
Engel has been at his home in Red Deer since being cut loose by the Chiefs. He helped the Red Deer Optimists to the Alberta Midget Hockey League championship in 2012 with a 6-0 record and a 1.21 goals against average in the playoffs.
Devon Fordyce has struggled this season and was yanked in two of his three starts after 20 minutes. The 18-year-old received the start Saturday in Medicine Hat.
Cougars head coach Dean Clark said they outplayed the Tigers badly in the opening period Saturday night but were down 3-1.
"Every game there's been a goal that hasn't been good," said Clark. "It's not a good thing. When you're a goaltender for me you've got to stop all the easy ones and most of the hard ones, not most of the hard ones and some of the easy ones. There's been some communication issues when it comes to being behind the net."
It won't take long for the Cats' new recruit to face his ex-team as the Cougars and Chiefs will play three straight games against each other beginning Saturday in Spokane followed by a pair of games next week - Tuesday and Wednesday - at CN Centre.
The Cougars face the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday at CN Centre, 7 p.m.
