DAVID ALBERS / Daily News

Florida Everblades goalie Craig Kowalski keeps his team alive under pressure from Dayton center Yannick Tifu in the first sudden death over time of Game 1 in the ECHL American Conference Finals at Germain Arena on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 in Estero, Fla.

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ESTERO — The Florida Everblades made a four-player trade Thursday that might be the biggest in franchise history.

Everblades general manager Craig Brush confirmed Thursday afternoon that the Blades had dealt Steve Czech, Jarret Lukin, Mike McLean and future considerations to the Dayton Bombers for 2007-08 ECHL first-team All-Star Yannick Tifu.

McLean said he was notified of the deal on Tuesday night.

“It’s tough, but it’s a good opportunity for me, (Lukin) and Czech in Dayton,” McLean said. “They got a really talented player in Yannick Tifu.”

Tifu becomes the fourth former ECHL All-Star on the Blades roster for the upcoming season, joining former Texas Wildcatters star Kevin Baker, former Augusta Lynx spark plug Ryan Lang and last year’s Everblades team captain, Ernie Hartlieb.

Tifu still needs to officially sign a contract with the Blades, but coach Malcolm Cameron said a verbal agreement has been reached.

“I think the contract signing is a formality at this point,” Cameron said.

The Blades have been trying to get Tifu on their roster since midway through last season. Brush said a similar deal was in place in March to bring the 23-year-old center to Florida, but it fell through just before the trade deadline.

Tifu went on to score 15 goals and add 42 assists in 39 games for the Bombers last season, including a total of eight points in 24 games for the AHL’s Rochester Americans and Albany River Rats.

“There’s no denying (Tifu’s) offensive ability,” Cameron said. “Very few guys put up those kind of numbers and are that young and that good and still become available.”

Cameron said he expects Tifu to be called up to the AHL next season, but he’s not worried about that lessening Tifu’s impact on the Blades.

“I have no doubt he’ll end up playing some games in the (AHL),” Cameron said. “Those types of players go up and down, but he’s a dynamic offensive talent, and from the standpoint that we want to win a championship here, we thought we couldn’t pass him up.”

At 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, Tifu won’t add a great deal of size to the Blades roster. But he will bring talent and an uncanny ability to set up his teammates. In the 2006-07 regular season, Tifu had 51 assists in 65 games for the Bombers. He terrorized the Blades during that year’s American Conference Finals, helping the Bombers beat Florida in seven games — and adding 17 total points in his 22 playoff games.

If that weren’t enough, Tifu also brings a hard-hitting, physical presence. He had 39 penalty minutes in those 39 games last season, added 84 in 65 games during the 2006-07 season, and like 2007-08 Blades forward Brad Herauf, he seems to know how to get under an opponent’s skin.

Despite all those positives, the Tifu deal also meant trading three key components of last year’s Blades team — two of which had already been announced as signings for the 2008-09 team.

“It’s a ... tough day for our organization when you have to say goodbye to players,” Cameron said. “But it’s a very exciting day to get a guy like (Tifu) who has been very, very good in this league.”

Czech first played for the Blades at the end of the 2005-06 season, and by last year he had become an anchor on the team’s penalty kill. At 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, he was also one of the team’s biggest defensemen.

“I actually had made a verbal agreement with (Cameron) to sign in the beginning of August, and I told him that I really didn’t want to be traded,” Czech said. “I was really debating since (former coach Gerry Fleming) left to decide to come back or not.”

Lukin was a two-year veteran of the team. A fan favorite, he was known for his bruising, self-sacrificing style — and for playing all 75 games for the Blades last season.

“It was pretty shocking at first,” Lukin said. “Obviously I was really sad to leave Florida. I loved it down (in Florida).”

The news of the trade was a bit hard to swallow for the former Blades players.

“It was definitely a shock when I found out for sure,” McLean said Thursday from his home in Ontario, Canada. “You work hard in the summer and your mind-set is going back to a team that you really wanted to play for. ... It’s the ECHL. ... You may sign a contract, but they can trade you away for another player.”

Czech, 26, said he will re-evaluate his decision to continue playing pro hockey. His two brothers have recently started a contracting business in Minnesota that he could work with if he decides not to play.

“It’s tough,” Czech said. “You kind of figure when you talk to someone — you just trust people, you know?”

With the completion of the Tifu deal, the new-look Blades are down to just one signed returning player for the 2008-09 season — Hartlieb. Cameron said earlier this week that he expects to reach a deal with Herauf soon as well.

But the other seven players already signed by the Blades are all newcomers: Baker and Lang join ECHL rookies David Nimmo and Andrew Fournier, plus defensemen Brad Zanon, Kyle Peto and Aaron Brocklehurst.

It’s a big transformation from the 2007-08 season, when the Blades re-signed eight players from the year before.

“My initial thoughts were to blend some of the old guard with the new,” Cameron said. “Now there’s not much old guard left ... but Hartlieb, and if we get Herauf back, will be two good representatives of the Everblades’ tradition.”