Two big trades for Hawks

Portland shakes up their roster this morning with two blockbuster trades that move out five roster players.

First, Colton Sceviour (18 year old forward), Nick Hotson (20 year old forward), and Lucas Alexiuk (18 year old defenceman) are off to Lethbridge for Ryan Kerr (18 year old defenceman), Travis Bobbee (17 year old defenceman), Jacob Dietrich (20 year old forward), Nick Dietrich (18 year old forward), and a 2008 5th round pick. Yes, the Dietrichs are brothers and get moved together. Kerr (2004) and Bobbee (2005) are past first-round bantam picks, as is Sceviour (2004). Kerr was actually the #1 overall in 2004.

Then, that 5th round pick from Lethbridge, plus Frazer McLaren (20 year old forward) and Ty Ariss (17 year old defenceman), are off to Moose Jaw for Travis Ehrhardt (18 year old defenceman), Keith Voytechek (20 year old forward), and Jason Grecica (17 year old forward). Ehrhardt (2004) is another past first-round bantam pick so the Hawks have picked up three of those this morning.

So, the Hawks roster grows by two players since they move out five and get back seven bodies. Which means the moves aren't done since by my count they have 27 players on the roster now and you can only have 25.

I guess my first reaction to these two deals, plus the Calla-Ellerby one earlier, is that it's obvious why Portland is making these moves. But, it's less obvious to me why teams like Lethbridge (who are unbeaten in their last eight games) and Moose Jaw (moving up after a poor start) want to make such big shakeups to their rosters right now.

For Portland, getting Bobbee and Ehrhardt is probably going to improve their ability to move the puck out of their zone - a real problem for them so far this year, which p-b-p guy Andy Kemper touched on in his blog earlier this morning, before the trades. Kerr will provide some decent defensive play and a little toughness to help replace what they lose with McLaren's departure. Kerr is probably not more than a middleweight but it's something anyway. So, their back end is probably better for these moves. The problem for them (IMO anyway) is that up front they have just moved out three of their top six scorers from an offence which didn't have much punch to begin with - and haven't really gotten back much scoring help to replace them. Voytechek will score some points but Grecica and the two Dietrichs probably aren't going to provide much pop.