The WHL's trade deadline arrives Saturday at noon MT. (Note that I had the time wrong a time or two earlier, but it is noon MT. That’s 11 a.m. Pacific and 1 p.m. in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.)
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THE NUMBERS:
(Since Dec. 10)Trades: 25.
Players: 46.
Draft picks: 36.
Conditional draft picks: 5.
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BEHIND THE SCENES:
“It’s a crappy week,” Regina Pats G Daniel Wapple tells Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post in reference to the days leading up the WHL’s trade deadline.
Harder writes:“For many outside observers — and even a few on the inside — the days leading up to the deadline represent one of the most thrilling times of the season. The whole thing takes on a life of its own as rumours swirl about what players may be available and which teams might sell the farm to get them.
“It's a time when armchair GMs speculate on potential moves and even devise trades of their own. It's mostly harmless fun, except when Twitter and other online forums become a means for passing off guesswork or false information as fact — with no regard for the human side of the equation.
“The media has helped create that monster with an epidemic of wannabe ‘insiders’ who are desperate for their piece of the action. In reality, there's a fine line between satisfying the public's craving for information and recklessly throwing names against the wall in hopes that some might stick — all to take credit for a ‘scoop’ that will be forgotten in a day.
Harder’s complete column is right here, and it’s a good one.
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FRIDAY’S TRADES:
Jeff Chynoweth, the president and general manager of the Kootenay Ice, isn’t about to turn seller at
this WHL trade deadline and he hasn’t made any bones about it.He’s got the likes of F Sam Reinhart, F Jaedon Descheneau, F Tim Bozon and D Rinat Valiev on his roster. So, hey, why not try to treat your season-ticket holders to a deep playoff run?
Who knows what might happen once you get into the playoffs and you’ve got four players like those on your roster. After all, this is junior hockey and they still have to play the games.
So rather than having to try to explain to the paying public why he traded away Reinhart, Chynoweth has been shopping for some veteran help on defence.
On Thursday, he brought in Lenny Hackman, 19, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and all it cost was a 12th-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft.
For whatever reason, the 5-foot-9 Hackman fell out of favour in Lethbridge and hasn’t played since Dec. 16. So you know that he’s itching to get back on the ice.
In 175 regular-season games, the native of Airdrie, Alta., has 21 points. This season, he had a goal and two assists in 31 games with Lethbridge, which selected him in the ninth-round of the 2011 bantam draft.
Hackman’s not all flash and dash, but that’s not what the Ice braintrust wants.
Chynoweth and head coach Ryan McGill have done a masterful job of piecing things together this season.
In the beginning, Reinhart was with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, Bozon returned from the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs with an injury and there was a whack of other injuries. For example, veteran defenceman Tanner Faith’s season is over as he prepares for shoulder surgery.
You may recall that the Ice started 3-13-0 and the rumour-mongers had the franchise headed for Lethbridge or Winnipeg. But the pieces of the puzzle returned and the Ice is 18-5-1 since then.
That has Kootenay going into this weekend at 21-18-1 and tied for fourth in the Central Division with the Edmonton Oil Kings. The Ice holds down the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card playoff spot, but there is a lot of hockey to be played.
Chynoweth obviously feels that his team is a whole lot close to the 18-5-1 bunch than the 3-13-0 crew, so he has been searching for some experience for his back end. Earlier, he brought in Tanner Lishchynsky, who turned 20 on Monday. A Saskatoon native, he had been with the SJHL’s Flin Flon Bombers.
And now Chynoweth has gone and gotten Hackman, who should have a positive impact on the club’s young defencemen — the Ice is carrying eight, not including Faith, with three of those having been born in 1997 and one in 1998.
Of course, the Ice also has McGill, a former NHL and WHL defender who knows more than a thing or two about playing a touch game in your own zone.
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The Saskatoon Blazers added some depth to their forwards by acquiring F Mitch Skapski, 18, from the Victoria Royals. Skapski, from Abbotsford, B.C., is a younger brother to former Kootenay Ice G Mackenzie Skapski and an older brother to D Marshall Skapski, a third-round pick by the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2013. . . . Mitch was a fourth-round pick by the Portland Winterhawks in 2011. . . . He had a goal and three assists in 34 games with the Royals this season. In 118 career games, the first 35 with the Everett Silvertips, he has six goals and 10 assists. . . . Skapski was among the players dealt to Everett by Portland for D Seth Jones on April 23, 2012.—-
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has a good story right here on D Brycen Martin, who was on his way to the Kamloops Blazers when he was told the trade had fallen through. Shortly after that, the Swift Current Broncos dealt him to the Saskatoon Blades.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes acquired G Jayden Sittler, 18, from the Victoria Royals for a seventh-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . Sittler, from Red Deer, joined the Royals in a deal with the Kootenay Ice in October. In 10 games with Victoria, he was 2-6-0, 2.29, .921. . . . He became expendable in Victoria earlier in the week when the Royals acquired veteran G Justin Paulic from the Moose Jaw Warriors. That leaves the Royals with the experienced pairing of Coleman Vollrath and Paulic minding their goal. . . . After making the deal, the Hurricanes dropped G Zac Robidoux, 18, from their roster. He is expected to join the MJHL’s Portage Terriers, the host team for this season’s RBC Cup national junior A championship tournament. He was 1-12-3, 4.48, .881 with the Hurricanes this season. The Hurricanes had acquired Robidoux from the Medicine Hat Tigers for a third-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2017. The latter pick is conditional on Robidoux being on a WHL roster in 2016-17. . . . With the Hurricanes, Sittler joins starter Stuart Skinner.—-
F Cory Millette is off to join his third WHL team in less than two months. The Prince Albert Raiders dealt Millette, 19, to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a sixth-round pick in the 2015 or 2016 bantam draft. . . . The Raiders acquired the Storthoaks, Sask., native from the Saskatoon Blades on Nov. 20. . . . After putting up 14 points, including five goals, in 22 games with the Blades, he had four points, three of them goals, in 17 games with the Raiders. . . . In 206 regular-season games, he has 92 points, including 44 goals.—-
TRADE DEADLINE DEALS:
(All draft picks in bantam draft unless otherwise noted)Dec. 10 . . .
To Kelowna: D Josh Morrissey (95), F Gage Quinney (95).
To Prince Albert: D Jesse Lees (95), F Austin Glover (96), 2016 second-round pick, 2017 third-round pick.
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Dec. 12 . . .
To Red Deer: D Nelson Nogier (96), F Austin Adamson (96).
To Saskatoon: F Mason McCarty (97), 2015 second-round pick, 2016 first-round pick.
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Dec. 16 . . .
To Calgary: G Thatcher Demko, 19, who is at Boston College.
To Spokane: Conditional draft picks. Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show tweeted that he had it as a second-rounder in 2015 and a second- or third-rounder in 2016.
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Dec. 27 . . .
To Swift Current: D Griffin Foulk, 19.
To Lethbridge: Conditional eighth-round pick in 2016.
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Dec. 27 . . .
To Red Deer: D Colton Bobyk, 18, and a 2016 fourth-round pick.
To Spokane: D Nick Charif, 19, a second-round 2015 pick and a conditional sixth-round 2016 selection.
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Jan. 2 . . .
To Brandon: F Morgan Klimchuk, 19.
To Regina: F Jesse Gabrielle, 17.
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Jan. 5 . . .
To Medicine Hat: D Kyle Burroughs, 19, and F Dryden Hunt, 19.
To Regina: D Connor Hobbs, 17, and two draft picks -- second-rounder in 2016 and third-rounder in 2015.
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Jan. 5 . . .
To Saskatoon: D Kolton Dixon, 19.
To Red Deer: G Trevor Martin, 18.
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Jan. 5 . . .
To Red Deer: F Connor Gay, 19, and three bantam draft picks -- a first-rounder in 2016, a second in 2015 and a seventh in 2017.
To Regina: F Jake Leschyshyn, 15, and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
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Jan. 5 . . .
To Brandon: D Reid Gow, 20.
To Spokane: A fifth-round pick, Spokane’s option for 2015 or 2016.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Kelowna: F Leon Draisaitl, 19.
To Prince Albert: F Tomas Schmidli, 18, D Dalton Yorke, 18, and three bantam draft picks -- a first-rounder in 2015, a fourth-rounder in 2016 and a conditional fourth-rounder in 2016 or 2017.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Prince George: D Tomas Andrlik, 19.
To Prince Albert: A 12th-round pick in 2015.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Moose Jaw: D Connor Clouston, 18.
To Kamloops: A fifth-round pick in 2017.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Calgary: G Brendan Burke, 19.
To Portland: G Evan Johnson, 18, and a fourth-round pick in 2016.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Lethbridge: D Brady Reagan, 17.
To Regina: F Taylor Cooper, 19.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Victoria: F Alex Forsberg, 19, a third-round pick in 2015 and a fourth-round pick in 2016.
To Saskatoon: F Brayden Dunn, 16, and a first-round pick in 2017.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Portland: D Adam Henry, 20.
To Saskatoon: A second-round pick 2017.
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Jan. 6 . . .
To Moose Jaw: F Axel Blomqvist, 19, a third-round pick in 2015 and a fifth-round pick in 2017.
To Victoria: D Alexey Sleptsov, 18, G Justin Paulic, 19, and a sixth-round pick in 2015.
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Jan. 7 . . .
To Tri-City: F Tyler Sandhu, 18.
To Red Deer: Fourth-round picks in 2015 and 2016.
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Jan. 7 . . .
To Kamloops: D Marc McNulty, 19, and a 2016 sixth-round draft pick.
To Prince George: D Josh Connolly, 19, and a 2015 sixth-round draft pick.
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Jan. 7 . . .
To Saskatoon: D Brycen Martin, 18, and a conditional 2017 fifth-round draft pick.
To Swift Current: D Jordan Thomson, 18, and a 2016 first-round draft pick (originally belonged to Red Deer).
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Jan. 8 . . .
To Kootenay: D Lenny Hackman, 19.
To Lethbridge: A 12th-round pick in the 2015 draft.
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Jan. 8 . . .
To Saskatoon: F Mitch Skapski, 18, and 2015 fifth-round draft pick.
To Victoria: A 2016 fifth-round draft pick.
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Jan. 8 . . .
To Lethbridge: G Jayden Sittler, 18.
To Victoria: A 2016 seventh-round draft pick.
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Jan. 8 . . .
To Seattle: F Cory Millette, 19.
To Prince Albert: A sixth-round pick in the 2015 or 2016 bantam draft.
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