LEWISTON — It was a big ol’ game of dominoes for Lewiston Maineiacs’ GM Roger Shannon.

At 11:59 a.m. Thursday, his phone rang. With the deadline to complete a transaction in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League one minute away, Shannon took the call and grinned.

“We got exactly who we were after the whole time,” Shannon said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to get everything done.”

“Everything,” as it turns out, was a pair of last-minute trades with a pair of teams as the Maineiacs continued to retool with an eye toward the future.

In one deal, Lewiston moved 19-year-old forward Alex Beaton, the team’s second leading scorer and top faceoff man, to Gatineau along with a seventh-round pick in 2011. In return the Olympiques sent to Lewiston a third-round pick in 2010, and will also be sending a fifth-rounder in the 2010 draft when theirs becomes available to move.

Beaton was the last player with ties to the 2007 President’s Cup-winning team on the squad this season. He was a 16-year-old rookie that year, and did not see the ice except for the post-game celebration in Val d’Or when the Maineiacs clinched the championship.

A sturdy centerman, Beaton was the team’s top faceoff man this season at 56.1 percent, and the team’s second-leading scorer with 10 goals and 20 assists for 30 points in 39 games.

In 173 regular-season career games with Lewiston, Beaton has scored 33 goals and added 79 assists for 112 points.

Shannon then flipped a third-rounder, a fifth-rounder and the team’s first-round pick in 2010 to Chicoutimi for 17-year-old centerman Matthew Bissonette.

“You’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” Shannon said. “Everything we’re doing, we’ve identified pieces of the puzzle, and we identified what we had to do to go get those pieces to the puzzle.”

The goal, Shannon said, is to ice a solid team in 2010-11, and make a run at a Memorial Cup title in 2011-12. Bissonette, he said, is a big part of that puzzle.

“You never know what you’re going to get at the draft, in terms of a player who may or may not help you out in a year or two,” Shannon said, “but we know what we’re getting in Matthew Bissonette. “He’s a six-foot, four-inch centerman who’s going to grow into a force as a 19-year-old. You also have to look at what it would cost the team to bring him in at 19, and in that sense, it made sense to go after him now. Look at what it cost some teams to bring in 19-year-olds this year, like (Kelsey) Tessier in Moncton, Jake Allen (in Drummondville) or (Jacob) Lagace in Cape Breton. If we’ve identified a piece of the puzzle now, it makes sense to go out and get that when we can, before it costs too much.”

In 28 games with Moncton this season, Bissonette had four goals and 14 assists. The Wildcats traded Bissonette to Chicoutimi earlier during the trade period, but the 17-year-old centerman declined to report to the Sagueneens.

“Imagine him at 19, alongside Michael Chaput and Stefan Fournier, all six-two of better, all with three or four years of experience under their belts,” Shannon said. “We’ve really taken a look at where we want to be, and I think we’ve done well to put some of the pieced for the future in place right now.”

Initial reaction from some fans was mixed. Shannon urged patience.

“This will all play out in the end, but there is a definite plan in place,” Shannon said. “We took a big step toward our goal (Thursday).”

This is by far the most activity by the Maineiacs at a mid-season trade deadline since the team relocated to Lewiston in 2003.

“Sometimes to get where you’ve never been, you need to do what you’ve never done,” Shannon said. “Will there be some more moves down the road, of course there will have to be some tweaks here and there, based on the ages of some certain players. But right now, I’m ecstatic where we are, our owner is ecstatic and our new coach is excited to get going with this new young crop of talent.”