The WHL trade deadline arrives on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT, and over the last two days a whack of deals have been made.
In fact, if you go back to Dec. 10, when the Prince Albert Raiders and Kelowna Rockets got together on a deal that had D Josh Morrissey moving west, WHL teams have combined for 19 trades.
Unofficially, those deals have involved 38 players, 26 bantam draft picks and five conditional draft picks.
What follows is a look at what transpired on Tuesday . . .
The much talked and written about trade of German F Leon Draisaitl to the Kelowna Rockets finally was announced.
The deal involved F Kris Schmidli, who was with the Swiss team at the World Junior Championship, so couldn’t be announced until the tournament ended.
The Prince Albert Raiders dealt Draisaitl, 19, to the Rockets for 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.
This is the second major trade between these teams in a month. On Dec. 10, the Rockets acquired Morrissey and F Gage Quinney for D Jesse Lees, F Austin Glover and two bantam draft picks.
Draisaitl, the third overall selection in the NHL’s 2014 draft, had been with the Edmonton Oilers. Last season, his second with the Raiders, he had 105 points, including 38 goals, in 64 games.
“He’s a great big centre who’s going add some tremendous depth to our
team,” Bruce Hamilton, the Rockets president and general manager, told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier. Hamilton, a member of Hockey Canada’s management group, had just returned from the WJC. “Rourke Chartier is one of the premier players in the league right now, and this guy certainly
brings the same qualities he does. And he’s an experienced player; he has
30-some games of NHL experience under his belt now, so I think he’ll fit
in real well.
“I’ve had to listen to Josh Morrissey for two weeks telling me what to do
to get him. He fits in real well with him, too. He’s a real solid person;
he’ll be a great player to have here. And they’ll fit into our community
real well.”
Draisaitl is expected to be in the Rockets’ lineup Wednesday night as they play host to the Vancouver Giants. (Meanwhile, the Rockets aren’t expected to dress D Madison Bowey and D Josh Morrissey, both of whom won gold with Canada at the WJC.)
Schmidli, from Zurich, has 17 points, including five goals, in 33 games this season. Last season, as a freshman, he had 35 points, nine of them goals, in 68 games.
Yorke, from Maple Ridge, B.C., is in his second WHL season. He has two assists in 26 games, after earning four assists in 40 games last season.
The Raiders are at home to the Moose Jaw Warriors tonight.
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The Raiders then dealt Czech D Tomas Andrlik, 19, to the Prince George Cougars for a 12th-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft.
Andrlik had 27 points, including four goals, in 109 regular-season games with the Raiders.
That move left both teams with two import players.
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The Saskatoon Blades were involved in a pair of trades.
First, they sent F Alex Forsberg, who turned 20 on Sunday, a third-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft -- it originally belonged to the Portland Winterhawks -- and a fourth-round pick in 2016 to the Victoria
Royals for F Brayden Dunn, 16, and a first-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft.
Forsberg, from Waldheim, Sask., was selected first overall in the 2010 bantam draft by the Prince George Cougars. He was acquired by the Blades prior to this season, and has 33 points, including 13 goals, in 36 games. In 167 regular-season games, he has 120 points, 43 of them goals.
With Forsberg gone, the Blades expect that freshman F Wyatt Sloboshan will play a larger role.
Dunn, from Calgary, was a fourth-round pick by Victoria in the 2013 bantam draft. He is playing with the midget AAA Calgary Northstars.
Then, the Blades dealt D Adam Henry, 20, to the Portland Winterhawks for a second-round pick in 2017.
Henry began this season with the Seattle Thunderbirds before being traded to the Blades. He has 22 points, three of them goals, in 35 games with Saskatoon. He also has played with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
In 208 career regular-season games, he has 97 points, including 19 goals.
After that deal, the Blades were left with two 20-year-olds on their roster -- F Sam McKechnie and F Brett Stovin.
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The Kamloops Blazers acquired D Brycen Martin, 18, from the Swift Current Broncos for D Josh Connolly, 19, and a second-round pick in the 2016 draft.
Martin, a third-round selection by the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL’s 2014 draft, was in his third season
with the Broncos. They took him with the second overall pick of the 2011 bantam draft.
This season, in 39 games, Martin, a Calgarian, has 16 points, including two goals. In 181 regular-season games, he has 82 points, 10 of them goals.
Connolly, from Prince George, was a third-round pick by Kamloops in the 2010 bantam draft. An offensive defenceman, he was the Blazers’ third-leading scorer, with 34 points, including five goals, in 39 games.
In 164 games with the Blazers, Connolly put up 85 points, including 17 goals. He is the younger brother of former Prince George Cougars F Brett Connolly, who now is with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
“We’ve been looking for a right-handed shot that can play the power play,” Mark Lamb, the Broncos’ GM and head coach, said in a news release. “Connolly is a solid player all over the ice, offence and defence, who can play for us next (season). The price for a guy like that is a Brycen Martin.”
Earlier in the day, the Blazers dealt D Connor Clouston, 18, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a fifth-round selection in the 2017 bantam draft. Clouston, the son of Shaun Clouston, the Medicine Hat Tigers’ GM and head coach, was a third-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. Connor and Warriors F Torrin White also are step-brothers. He had a goal and four assists in 81 regular-season games with the Blazers.
The Blazers’ decision to keep D Dawson Davidson, 16, for the remainder of the season left them with nine defencemen, so they were able to move Clouston. Davidson, who had been the captain of the midget AAA Moose Jaw Generals, has two goals in four games with Kamloops.
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The Portland Winterhawks traded G Brendan Burke, 19, for G Evan Johnson, 18, and a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft.
Burke was in his fourth season with Portland. This season, he was 7-8-3, 3.63, .888. His career numbers are 72-25-10, 2.95, .902. He has eight career shutouts. Burke, the son of former NHL G Sean Burke, was a sixth-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2013 NHL draft.
He will join Mack Shields as the goaltenders on Calgary’s roster.
In 15 games with the Hitmen, Johnson, a freshman, was 5-3-2, 2.84, .894.
Of late, G Adin Hill had taken over the starter’s role in Portland. He has put up shutouts in each of his last two starts.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes traded F Taylor Cooper, 19, to the Regina Pats for D Brady Reagan, 17.
Cooper, from Sherwood Park, Alta., has 28 points, including 12 goals, in 38 games this season. He was a sixth-round pick by the Brandon Wheat Kings in the 2010 bantam draft. In 167 regular-season games, he has 77 points, including 33 goals.
Reagan, a second-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft, has a goal and six assists in 61 regular-season games. He’s from Blackie, Alta.
The Pats also have recalled D Ryan Krushen, 16, from the midget AAA Sherwood Park Kings. He played in three games with the Pats earlier in the season.
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After dropping a 6-1 decision to the visiting Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday night, the Moose Jaw Warriors
announced a three-player swap with the Victoria Royals.
The Warriors acquired Swedish F Axel Blomqvist, 19, and two bantam draft picks — a third in 2015 that originally belonged to Kamloops and a fifth in 2017 — for Russian D Alexey Sleptsov, 18, G Justin Paulic, 19, and a sixth-round pick in 2015.
The 6-foot-6, 212-pound Blomqvist has 29 points, 14 of them goals, in 34 games this season. He also played with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. In 158 regular-season games, he has 118 points, 45 of them goals.
Sleptsov, a sophomore from Moscow, has 18 assists in 34 games this season. In 100 regular-season games, he has 43 points, including four goals. In Victoria, he will be reunited with D Travis Brown, who was his partner in Moose Jaw last season before he was dealt to the Royals.
Paulic, from Thompson, Man., has appeared in 18 games this season, going 6-8-2, 3.50, .895. He has one shutout. In 132 WHL appearances, he is 40-61-19, 3.39, .895 with the one shutout. He was an eighth-round
pick by Moose Jaw in the 2010 bantam draft.
With Paulic on the move, the Warriors have brought in G Brody Willms from the Okanagan Hockey Academy to back up Zach Sawchenko for the remainder of this season. Willms, 16, is from Coquitlam, B.C. He was an eighth-round pick by the Warriors in the 2013 bantam draft.
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TRADE DEADLINE DEALS:
(All draft picks in WHL bantam draft)
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.
---
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 Kamloops: D Brycen Martin, 18.
To Swift Current: D Josh Connolly, 19, and a second-round pick in 2016.
—-
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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