Michael Coleman was traded from Youngstown to his home state this week while Cedar Rapids and Sioux City swung a trade Friday morning
The week started off with a bang, as Waterloo acquired goaltender Kam Hendrickson on Tuesday.
However, the USHL saw another pair of trades in recent days, as Fargo acquired Michael Coleman from Youngstown and Sioux City dealt Joseph Mense to Cedar Rapids.
Coleman, who comes in at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, returns to North Dakota as he previously starred at Grand Forks Red River and is a Grand Forks native.
“We are excited to add Mikey to our team and he’ll be able to provide additional offensive depth to our team,” Fargo head coach Brett Skinner told The Hockey News. “He was a player we had identified last spring for the Phase II draft, as well as being from Grand Forks, someone we were familiar with. We are looking forward to getting him in the lineup.”
Coleman put up 69 points (27-42-69) during the 2022-23 high school season and notched 25 goals and 25 assists over 59 games with the NAHL’s St. Cloud Norsemen last winter. The UMass commit was selected by Youngstown in the second round (30th overall) of the USHL Phase II Draft last May as a result.
The right-shot forward played 19 games with the Phantoms this season and had five points (2-3-5), including a goal in his last game on Dec. 13.
He now joins a Fargo (18-7-2-2) squad that is currently tied atop the Western Conference with 40 points and looking to repeat as both Anderson and Clark Cup champs. Youngstown received future considerations in return.
As for Mense, the right-shot defenseman heads to Cedar Rapids after playing 65 games for the Musketeers over the past two years, including 28 this season.
The Western Michigan commit comes in at 6-foot-2 and 213 pounds, and Mense has eight assists, a plus-3 rating and just four penalty minutes through 28 games.
He had played primarily on Sioux City’s bottom pair but will now get a change of scenery and perhaps elevated opportunity. The RoughRiders have been out-scored 81-70 through 27 games but are 7-3-0 over their past 10 games.
Mense finished last season with two goals, six assists and a minus-5 rating over 37 games, and skated in all seven of Sioux City’s playoff games. The Musketeers received a 2025 Phase II sixth-round pick in the deal.