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Trades: 12.
Players: 21.
Bantam draft picks: 15.
Conditional bantam draft picks: 1.
(WHL trade deadline is Jan. 10).
——
The Edmonton Oil Kings made their second trade in as many days as they moved out another veteran 20-year-old. This time, they dealt F Lane Bauer and a seventh-round selection in the 2017 WHL bantam draft to the Kamloops Blazers for D
Conner McDonald, 17, a second-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft and a fifth-rounder in 2018.
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| LANE BAUER |
On Wednesday, the Oil Kings sent D Aaron Irving, 20, their captain, and a seventh-round pick in 2017 to the Everett Silvertips for F Graham Millar, 20, F Brett Kemp, 16, and a first-round pick in the 2018 draft.
McDonald, like Irving, is a right-hand shot so should fit in well on the Edmonton depth chart. He had one goal and 12 assists in 36 games with the Blazers this season. From Delta, B.C., he has a goal and three assists in 48 career regular-season games.
McDonald, who is expected to play for the Oil Kings when they visit the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday, was a second-round pick by the Blazers in the 2014 bantam draft.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Bauer, from Anchorage, Alaska, was in his fourth season in Edmonton. This season, he had 25 goals and 15 assists in 40 games. In 231 career games, he has 176 points,
including 86 goals, including 29 goals and 36 assists in 72 games in 2015-16.
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| CONNER McDONALD |
Bauer becomes the only American on the Blazers’ roster.
The Blazers, who meet the visiting Kelowna Rockets on Friday night, now have four 20-year-olds on their roster, including F Matt Revel, who went down with a long-term undisclosed injury prior to Christmas. The other two are D Dallas Valentine and F Collin Shirley. The Blazers, who are scrapping with the Rockets for second place in the B.C. Division, have until Jan. 10 to get down to three 20s.
Meanwhile, the Blazers have added D Tylor Ludwar, 17, to their roster and the plan is to keep him for the remainder of this season. Ludwar had been the captain of the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Ludwar, from Regina, had 14 goals and eight assists in 20 games with the Pat Canadians. A list player, Ludwar was pointless in two games with the Blazers earlier this season.
The addition of Ludwar leaves the Blazers with eight defencemen on their roster.
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The Saskatoon Blades have acquired F Cole Johnson, 18, from the Swift Current Broncos for two WHL bantam draft picks — a seventh-round selection in 2017 and a fifth-rounder in 2018.
The seventh-round pick originated with the Regina Pats, while the fifth-rounder started with the Red
Deer Rebels. The Blades acquired both picks in a deal that had F Cameron Hausinger go to the Rebels.
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| COLE JOHNSON |
From Marwayne, Alta., the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Johnson had four goals and six assists in 34 games with the Broncos this season. In 44 career games, he has five goals and six assists.
Johnson was a second-round selection by the Broncos in the 2013 bantam draft.
The Blades, with four forwards out with long-term injuries, acquired Johnson to add some depth to their roster.
“We currently have four forwards out of the lineup with longer-term injuries, so bringing in Cole will help shore up some holes in the roster and provide some help to our 1998 group moving forward,” Saskatoon general manager Colin Priestner said in a news release. “Cole’s an intriguing player. He had a lot of success in bantam and midget until his shoulder injury set him back.”
Johnson missed almost all of the previous two seasons with a shoulder injury. In 2013-14, his final season of midget AAA hockey, he put up 28 goals and 17 assists in 31 games with the Lloydminster, Alta., Bobcats. However, he played only 10 games over the next two seasons -- one with the Broncos in 2014-15 and nine in 2015-16.
Johnson will be available to the Blades Friday night when they meet the Warriors in Moose Jaw.
Johnson will be available to the Blades Friday night when they meet the Warriors in Moose Jaw.
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Colin Priestner is a minority owner and the managing partner with the Saskatoon Blades, and he has brought some different ideas to his WHL franchise. Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix takes an in-depth look at Priestner and some of those ideas 
As mentioned here yesterday, courtesy Laurence Heinen of the Calgary Herald, the Calgary Hitmen find themselves with three import forwards, what with the return of veteran Pavel Padakin. The 20-year-old Padakin was to have played this season in the KHL with HC Donbass Donetsk in his native Ukraine. However, the political situation in Ukraine has resulted in Donetsk taking a leave from the KHL and in Padakin reporting to the Hitmen. . . . As much as you have to think the Hitmen would love to have Padakin, a 27-goal man last season, in their lineup, it almost certainly would be more beneficial for them to move him, if it comes to it, rather than release either of their two Russians, Radel Fazleev, 18, or Pavel Karnaukhov, 17, both of whom were selected in the CHL’s 2014 import draft. . . . Padakin put up 54 points in 66 games last season, after earning 38 points, 22 of them goals, as a freshman. There must be at least one WHL team that would be interested in a potential 30-goal man, even if he is a two-spotter. . . . Of course, before that could happen, Padakin will play for the Calgary Flames’ rookie team at a tournament next week in Penticton, B.C. A good showing might even earn him a contract and a spot in the NHL team’s organization, rendering moot any WHL-related speculation.
What if there were 16 teams in the Memorial Cup tournament? What if it was a 16-team single-knockout tournament? Neate Sager of Yahoo! Canada Sports, following up on a report by Gabriel Beland of La Presse, writes that Sportsnet would like changes to the present-day format that features four teams, including a host-team, in a 10-day affair. Sager’s piece is 
Say what you want about Mike Johnston, the former Portland Winterhawks’ general manager and head coach never has been afraid of a challenge. He hasn’t changed now that he’s preparing for his first season as head coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo! Sports Canada takes an intriguing look at Johnston 
Rick Uhrich, a forward on the 1974 Regina Pats, has died. Uhrich, 60, passed away suddenly near his Toronto home on Thursday morning. The Pats won the Memorial Cup in 1974, winning a three-team tournament at the Calgary Corral. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post has more 
D Tanner Muth, 20, of the Kootenay Ice won’t be back for a fifth season in the WHL. Muth is suffering with post-concussion syndrome. Last season, the Calgary native had nine points in 60 games with the Ice. He also has played with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Swift Current Broncos. . . . Muth’s departure leaves the Ice with two 20-year-olds on its roster — F Zach McPhee and D Jagger Dirk — as it opens camp. . . . Muth is the fourth WHL player to have announced his retirement recently due to previous brain injuries. He joins D Reid Jackson of the Moose Jaw Warriors, and F Shea Howorko and F Brent Benson of Swift Current. As well, F Tyrel Seaman, who has had at least three concussions over the last two seasons, won’t be in camp with the Brandon Wheat Kings when it opens this week, and D Tanner Mort of the Spokane Chiefs has retired due to what the team says is a neck injury. Mort suffered a brain injury during a game in Kamloops last season. . . . F Tyler Alos, 20, who was limited to 10 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds last season due to a brain injury, actually announced in December that he was done with playing. The Thunderbirds have since added him to their coaching staff.
The Medicine Hat Tigers will have 10 eligible players attending NHL rookie or training camps in the next while — F Hunter Shinkaruk, Vancouver Canucks; G Marek Langhamer, Phoenix Coyotes; D Tyler Lewington, Washington Capitals; F Boston Leier, Washington; D Spenser Jensen, San Jose Sharks; D Ty Stanton, Winnipeg Jets; F Miles Koules, Minnesota Wild; D KyleBecker, Anaheim Ducks; and F Jake Doty and F Curtis Valk, both St. Louis Blues. . . . Shinkaruk, Langhamer and Lewington all are draft picks; the others are free-agent invitees.
F Stephane Legault, 20, has chosen not to return to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a fourth season. Legault, from Edmonton, has decided to attend NAIT. In 186 regular-season games, Legault had 108 points. Last season, he put up 41 points in 57 games. . . . His departure leaves the Oil Kings with perhaps one 20-year-old on their roster – D Cody Corbett.
The Tri-City Americans have signed F Austyn Playfair, 16, to a WHL contract. Playfair, from Scottsdale, Ariz., was listed by the Americans in October. He is the son of former WHLer Jim Playfair, who now is an associate coach with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes, and the brother of Spokane Chiefs F Jackson Playfair. . . . Austyn, 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, had 11 points in 41 games with the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes of the Tier 1 Elite Midget Hockey League.
The Kelowna Rockets have nine players off their roster heading to NHL camps — F Myles Bell, New Jersey Devils; D Madison Bowey, Washington Capitals; F Tyrell Goulbourne, Philadelphia Flyers; F Colton Heffley, Minnesota Wild; D Jesse Lees, Boston Bruins; F Ryan Olsen, Winnipeg Jets; D Damon Severson, New Jersey; F Colton Sissons, Nashville Predators; and D Mitchell Wheaton, Detroit Red Wings.
Three players off the Portland Winterhawks’ roster have been invited to play in the CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game in Pittsburgh on Sept. 26. F Chase DeLeo, F Keegan Iverson and F Dominic Turgeon, all of them eligible for the 2014 NHL draft, will play in the game in the Consol Energy Center. . . . There’s more 
The Moose Jaw Warriors have signed F Ryan Bowen and G Brody Willms, both of whom are from Penticton where they play at the Okanagan Hockey Academy. . . . Bowen was a fifth-round selection in the 2013 bantam draft, while Willms was taken in the eighth round.
The Regina Pats and Harvard Broadcasting have signed a multi-year deal that will keep the WHL team on 620 CKRM, which has been home to games since 1995-96. . . . The exact length of the contract wasn’t revealed. . . . Phil Andrew will be back calling the play, with Daniel Fink the analyst for a second season.
Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun reports that Russian D Dmitri Osipov, whom the Vancouver Giants took with the first pick in the 2013 import draft, “has been unable to scrimmage due to a shoulder problem that was discovered during team testing. He is skating, however.” . . . Head coach Don Hay told Pap that Osipov is “week-to-week.” . . . That means he isn’t likely to play Saturday in Ladner, B.C., against the Kelowna Rockets or Sunday in Kamloops against the Blazers. 
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