The Lewiston Maineiacs completed a bit of last-minute Christmas shopping Thursday, five days into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s  mid-season trade period.

The Maineiacs sent a second-round draft pick in 2012 QMJHL draft to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan for 17-year-old forward Bryce Milson, himself a former second-round pick by the Titan.

“He’s a player we had our eye on when he was drafted in 2009,” Maineiacs’ GM Roger Shannon said. “If you remember, we traded out of the No. 21 spot down to 28 so that Bathurst could get him, he being a local player to them. So essentially, we’re just getting him back.”

Milson stepped into the Bathurst lineup last season as a 16-year-old, recording nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 65 games. He also won 46 percent of his faceoffs.

“I think he’ll fit into our system well,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “I saw him play this summer when I was up in Fredericton scouting. He has grit; he works hard.”

The Maineiacs’ apparent depth at forward and lack thereof on defense in recent weeks made the move a mild surprise. But, Shannon said, with Cole Hawes now sidelined for the better part of the next two months after suffering an injury last weekend, along with a few bumps and bruises, Milson actually will fill an unexpected void while also bolstering the team’s core group of 17-year-old talent.

“That gives us a good core group of 17-year-olds on the team now, with Beauvillier, Henley, Hawes, Makarov and now Milson,” Shannon said. “It’s important that we maintain that kind of balance, so we don’t go through the tough down years that we did the last couple.”

Milson is another in a long line of former Titan players now skating for the Maineiacs. Captain Cameron Critchlow, along with Jess Tanguy, Stefan Fournier, Nicholas Champion and Olivier Dame-Malka all at one time skated for Acadie-Bathurst.

“We’ve been very lucky with Bathurst over the course of the last couple seasons,” Shannon said.

Lewiston had to cede a second-round pick in 2012, partly because the team’s second-rounder in 2011 had already been used in a previous trade.

As for whether the team is done making moves this trade period, Shannon never gave a definite answer. On the defensive front, Shannon said while the team is currently short at least one blueliner, there are options outside of making a trade to add some depth.

“We do have a core of six guys right now, and (2010 draft pick Brayden) Wood still has six games where we can call him up as an affiliate,” Shannon said. “With only 29 games left when we get back from break, we can bring him up as needed, and we can also rotate Alex Zafiris back there if we need to, so we have options.”

The mid-season trade period runs through Friday, Jan. 7. There is a moritorium on trades being made official over the next two days in deference to the holiday.