WASILLA — The Alaska Avalanche desperately want an upgrade on defense, and Jeremiah Dargis is hungry for the opportunity show off his talents in front of a Lower 48 audience.

On Thursday, the Avalanche completed a trade that just may satisfy the wishes of both parties.

The Avalanche announced on Thursday that Dargis, a former Wasilla High School prep hockey standout, has been traded to the Springfield Jr. Blues for a pair of defensemen.

Former Wasilla High School standout Jeremiah Dargis has been traded to Springfield. Robert DeBerry/Frontiersman

Dargis skated with the Avalanche for one season. But despite his rookie status, Dargis led his team with 41 points. He was also among team leaders in goals (19), assists (22), power-play goals (five) and power-play assists (13).

Dargis, who is currently working on a commercial fishing boat and was unavailable for comment on Thursday, will now report to a Springfield team that finished fourth in the North American Hockey League’s Central Division with a 27-26-5 mark and upset top-seeded North Iowa in the first round of the NAHL playoffs.

It has been no secret that Dargis aimed to use a season with his hometown junior team as a stepping stone in his burgeoning hockey career. In February, after he earned a spot in the annual NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, Dargis said it is his ultimate goal to play hockey at the Division I level, and thought the chance to play junior hockey in the Lower 48 would help him acheive that goal.

“All of the [college] coaches I’ve talked to said they don’t want to come up here,” Dargis told the Frontiersman in February. “They want to see me down in the USHL. My immediate plan is to go play in the Lower 48.”

Although Dargis will be skating for a rival in the NAHL and not the United States Hockey League, the trade does give the 19-year-old the chance to play Outside.

“We want it to work out for him,” Alaska president and general manager Jamie Smith said. “He feels he’ll get more looks if he plays down there, and we’re 100 percent supportive of his endeavors.

“Jeremiah is looking to get more exposure,” Smith said. “He felt he wasn’t getting the exposure in Alaska.”

While Smith said he hopes for the best for Dargis, Smith stresses to his players — especially those who hail from the “49th state” — that playing junior hockey in Alaska can give players significant exposure.

Smith said he worries that NAHL players may be overshadowed by the USHL in the eyes of scouts in the Lower 48, and also said he feels the Avalanche organization puts an emphasis on placing players on college rosters.

“I felt good about what happened last year, the kids we got placed in colleges,” Smith said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”

Dargis played for three seasons at WHS, and was a two-time first-team All-North Star Conference selection for the Warriors, before moving on to play his senior season at St. Marks, a prep school in Massachusetts.

At St. Marks, Dargis posted 23 goals and 24 assists in 22 games.

“He really blossomed when left Wasilla for St. Marks,” Smith said. “Maybe now he’ll take the next step.”

In return for Dargis, the Avs will receive blueliners Richard Zobak and Derek Kimbro.

Both players are 20-year-old veterans who will bring talent and experience to the Avalanche blueline, Smith said.

“This is huge,” Smith said. “We needed to definitely concentrate on bringing in a couple of veteran guys to put some stability on our blue line. We were in dire need for experience.”

Alaska allowed a league-high 270 goals during the 2007-08 campaign and surrendered more than 2,000 shots in 58 games. The Avs 37.5 shots allowed per game was also a league high.

Smith said securing help on the defensive end was at the top of the team’s offseason to-do list.

“No question it was our No. 1 priority,” Smith said. “We feel 100 times better about what we’ve got.”

Smith is excited about both players the Avs are bringing in, and said Zoback, in particular, could be a difference-maker.

The Evergreen Park, Ill., native finished the regular season with a +9 plus-minus rating. No player on the Alaska roster had a positive plus-minus.

Zobak also contributed on the offensive end with two goals and 12 assists.

“He could be one of the top defensemen in our league,” Smith said.

Zobak has already played for two teams in the NAHL. He started in Traverse City and after posting four goals and 15 assists during the 2005-06 season, he was traded to Springfield midway through the 2006-07 campaign.

Zoback combined to score five goals and 17 assists for Traverse City and Springfield in 2006-07.

Kimbro collected four goals and four assists during his first season in Springfield, last year.

Both players were key during Springfield’s playoff run, most notably the Jr. Blues’ first-round upset of North Iowa.

Zobak and Kimbro combined for four goals and six assists in eight playoff games, and each logged a +4.

Smith said the Avalanche looked at how the players ended the junior season and what they did in the playoffs.

“You look at the last half of the season. To me, I thought it was really important to see how the player finished,” Smith said. “That’s a big piece. Another thing too, not only how they finished, but what they did in the playoffs, what they meant to their team.”

The trade of Dargis is just part of a very busy offseason for the Avalanche.

Soon after the end of the 2007-08 season, the Avs made the transition to a nonprofit organization and announced that Smith, the head coach in 2007-08, would move from the bench to the front office. Earlier this month, Alaska lured former North Iowa bench boss Dave Boitz to the Last Frontier to be the Avs new head coach.

Alaska also used four selections in the 2008 NAHL draft to pick defensemen and acquired the rights to Anchorage native Kyle Bailey in a trade with Mahoning Valley.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor at sports@frontiersman.com.