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WHL trades since Dec. 27:
Trades: 35.
Players: 62.
Bantam draft picks: 45.
Conditional bantam draft picks: 11.
(WHL trade deadline passed on Jan. 10 at 3 p.m. MT).
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The WHL hung the “CLOSED” sign on its meat market on Tuesday afternoon, but not before 62 players had changed addresses. That’s just since Dec. 27.
Since Nov. 8, which was the date of the season’s first major deal — the Lethbridge Hurricanes sent F Brayden Burke to the Moose Jaw Warriors for F Ryan Bowen, a second-round bantam draft pick and a conditional third-rounder — the WHL office has cleared 53 trades involving 89 players, 59 bantam draft picks and 17 conditional draft picks.
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No one keeps track of the movement of WHL bantam draft picks like Alan Caldwell over at Small Thoughts At Large.
On Tuesday afternoon, he posted a couple of tweets point out the following involving the Regina Pats and some of their first-round bantam draft picks, starting with 2015.
D Dawson Barteaux, Regina’s first-round pick in 2015, was traded to the Red Deer Rebels on Tuesday.
The Pats’ 2016 first-rounder was dealt to Red Deer last season in a trade that brought back F Jake Leschyshyn.
Regina’s 2017 first-round pick was part of a deal involving Red Deer on Tuesday.
The Pats still own their 2018 first-rounder but it will go to the Everett Silvertips if F Tyson Jost reports to them. Jost is a freshman with the U of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Regina’s 2019 first-round pick will go to Everett if Jost reports or to Red Deer as part of Tuesday’s deal.
Got that? If not, check out Caldwell’s site. There’s a link over there on the right.
Jost spent two seasons with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees before heading to North Dakota. The Colorado Avalanche selected him with the 10th overall pick in the NHL’s 2016 draft.
For the latest on the Pats and Jost, check out this story right here by Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post.
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An OHL GM once told me why the league in his view doesnt allowing trading of 1st rounders. "They are protecting stupid GMs from themselves."— Steve Fitzsimmons (@playbyplayguy) January 10, 2017
“More than 150 players and almost 200 draft picks have been exchanged in (major) junior hockey leading up to the trade deadline, including picks far, far into the future,” writes Ken Campbell of The Hockey News.
In one trade involving the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires and Hamilton Bulldogs, a second-round selection in the OHL’s 2026 draft changed hands. Yes, 2026!
Campbell’s piece is right here.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings, the WHL’s defending champions, shook up things a bit just before the WHL trade deadline arrived by sending G Jordan Papirny, 20, to the Swift Current Broncos.
Papirny, who was in his fourth season in Brandon, was the go-to goaltender as Brandon won the Ed Chynoweth Cup last season.
From Edmonton, Papirny and a fourth-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft were sent to the Swift Current Broncos for G Travis Child, 19, D Kade Jensen, 19, and two draft picks — a second-rounder pick in the 2019 draft and a fifth-rounder in 2019.
The Wheat Kings then traded that second-round pick and D Jordan Wharrie, 19, to the Vancouver Giants for Russian D Dmitry Osipov, 20. Wharrie will be joining his third team this season, having started with the Victoria Royals.
Papirny, who was a first-round pick by Brandon in the 2011 bantam draft, is the Wheat Kings’ franchise career leader in games played (188), minutes played (10,967) and victories (111). He and Tyler Plante share the record for shutouts (12).
This season, Papirny was 13-11-1, 3.24, .906 in 26 games. In his career, he is 111-53-20, 2.90, .907. He also holds the franchise record for playoff appearances by a goaltender (49) during which he went 33-15-1, 2.87, .910.
Jensen, from Calgary, is in his fourth WHL season, having also played with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who selected him in the fifth round of the 2012 bantam draft. In 41 games this season, the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder has three goals and six assists. In 220 career games, he has 14 goals 32 assists.
Child goes to Brandon where he will share the net with Logan Thompson, who also is 19. Child, from Killam, Alta., was a second-round pick by Swift Current in the 2012 bantam draft.
This season, in 24 games, Child was 13-3-3, 3.03, .902 with the Broncos. In 75 career games, he is 23-23-6, 3.20 and .902.
Osipov, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, has one goal and 10 assists in 42 games with the Giants this season. In 239 career games with Vancouver, he has seven goals and 31 assists. With Brandon, Osipov joins Czech D Daniel Bukac, 17, as the import players and F Tyler Coulter and F Reid Duke as the 20-year-olds.
Wharrie, from Port Moody, B.C., had three goals and seven assists in 34 games with the Wheat Kings, who acquired him in September from the Victoria Royals.
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Having added F Ryley Lindgren, 20, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Monday and G Jordan Papirny, 20, from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Tuesday, the Swift Current Broncos found themselves with too many 20-year-olds.
In order to get down to the maximum of three, the Broncos traded F Calvin Spencer to the Vancouver Giants for a conditional ninth-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft.
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Spencer, from Brooklyn Park, Minn., had 10 goals and six assists in 36 games with the Broncos this season. In 200 career games, the first 99 of them with the Seattle Thunderbirds, he has 26 goals and 27 assists.
The Giants now have two 20-year-olds on their roster, with Spencer joining D Jeff Rayman.
The Broncos now have F Ryan Graham, Papirny and Spencer as their 20s.
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The Portland Winterhawks made two moves on Tuesday, one a trade and the other a waiver claim.
Portland dealt D Jake Hobson, 17, to the Swift Current Broncos for a fifth-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft.
Hobson, from Christopher Lake, Sask., is the son of former WHL D Doug Hobson and played the previous four seasons with teams in Prince Albert. He was a third-round pick by the Winterhawks in the 2014 bantam draft.
This season, as a freshman, he had one assist in 18 games with Portland.
Meanwhile, the Winterhawks also claimed F Matt Revel, 20, off waivers from the Kamloops Blazers. Revel was in his fourth season with Kamloops when he suffered a collarbone injury during a game against the host Edmonton Oil Kings on Dec. 10. He isn’t expected to be able to play until some time in February.
Revel, from Abbotsford, had seven goals and 11 assists in 31 games with Kamloops this season. Last season, the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder finished with 53 points, including 23 goals, in 66 games. In 303 career games, including 104 with the Saskatoon Blades, he has 169 points, 69 of them goals.
In Portland, Revel joins D Shaun Dosanjh, who was on the Blazers’ roster earlier in the season, and F Keegan Iverson as the 20-year-olds.
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Dillon, 17, and a conditional fourth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft. . . . According to Edmonton’s news release: “If Dillon plays in the WHL, a fourth-round pick is returned to the Broncos.” . . . Shmoorkoff is pointless in 16 games with the Oil Kings this season. . . . The Edmonton native had four points, one of them a goal, in 34 games last season. . . . “(Shmoorkoff) is a veteran defenceman with experience in a winning organization,” Mark Lamb, the Broncos’ general manager and head coach, said in a 
news release. “He is a very physical player and will bring his physicality and wealth of experience to our young defensive group moving forward.” . . . Dillon, from Victoria, is a 6-foot-5, 170-pounder who was a fifth-round selection in the 2011 bantam draft. He is with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies, going 2.49, .917 in 13 games. . . . At the same time, the Broncos sent F Brandan Arnold, 16, to the midget AAA Tisdale, Sask., Trojans. Arnold, from Dodsland, Sask., was pointless in one game. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft.
Former Moose Jaw Warriors F Brooks Laich, now with the NHL’s Washington Capitals, is obsessed with hockey. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where Washington head coach Adam Oates wants Laich to perhaps rethink things a bit. . . . Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post has a terrific read 
Former Saskatoon Blades F Bob Bourne, who was a terrific player with the New York Islanders as they won four straight Stanley Cups, is part of the concussion-related lawsuit against the NHL. “Life after hockey hasn’t been fun for me. It’s been a struggle,” Bourne told Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star. “I’m articulate. I consider myself a smart guy. But there’s a reason why things haven’t gone as well as they should have.” . . . Feschuk’s piece is 
F Anthony Ast of the Vancouver Giants has been honoured with the Canadian Diabetes Association’s National Young Volunteers of the Year Award. . . . Ast, 18, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in January 2002. . . . The Giants’ news release is 
Old friend Ben Laursen will be in the spotlight in the first intermission Friday as the Brandon Wheat Kings play host to the Prince Albert Raiders. Laursen, who has been a volunteer with the Wheat Kings since before Rudy Pilous was the head coach, will be saluted by the Wheat Kings and Atom-Jet Group as the Innovator of the Month. . . . These days, Laursen is the director of off-ice officials.
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