D-Day 2011

Today at 3pm MST is the 2010-11 WHL trade deadline. As always, I expect it to be a busy day - last year there were 15 separate deals made on the deadline and I would think today should be fairly similar.

Oftentimes, the deadline is like a dam breaking - once the first big piece moves, a ton follow quickly after in a reaction. Well, Cody Eakin was traded last night and that should function as the first big piece moving. Now all of Kootenay's rivals need to look in the mirror and decide what they're prepared to do to keep pace with the Ice, or whether it's time to change strategies.

In fact, there were a number of reports last night (even on TSN.ca) that Brayden Schenn had been dealt to Saskatoon, where we all thought he was going for a long time now. Those reports turned out to be premature but I've heard from two sources that I consider very reliable that there is still something in the works between those two teams, and that the deal hit a snag last night only because one player involved in the package going to the Wheat Kings balked at being traded. If they sort that out or replace him in the trade....it should get done.

Teams must also have their active rosters down to no more than 25 players by the deadline as well, so we will probably see some players being reassigned to Jr A and whatnot. Right now I don't believe there are any teams over the 25 player limit (remember that short-term affiliates and callups don't count) but depending on trades that are made, some teams could find themselves over the 25 number and have to make more moves to get under.

One other note about the Eakin deal that almost never gets mentioned when teams make these 2-for-1, 3-for-1, 8-for-1 deals. In terms of players on the protected list, Swift Current just moved out one and acquired five; assuming their protected list was already at 50 players, this deal just gave them 54 - which means they would have had to drop four other prospects off their list. So there was more of a cost to them than just Eakin. Similarily, the deal would have opened up four spots on Kootenay's list for the Ice to use to list some more players, which helps them recover the loss of the prospects to the Broncos.

Obviously Swift thinks the prospects they just acquired are better than the guys they're dropping, and it's equally unlikely that Kootenay is going to be adding any players as free agents who are better prospects (right now anyway) than guys like Bloom and Cave. But it's still a factor in these multiple-player deals.

And one other note, for those who were wondering - I am told the 2011 first round pick in the Eakin deal is Vancouver's pick, not Kootenay's own. So the Ice gave up the pick they got from the Giants for David Musil. This is important because it is very likely that Vancouver's pick will be higher in the draft order than Kootenay's - so the Broncos got the higher of the two picks.

Anyway, I will be updating the blog with trades as they are reported today. If it's like past trade deadlines, the WHL is going to try to embargo all trade announcements until after the deadline, so we might not hear them all at first. Some deals will trickle out though.

If you hear anything, you can comment or e-mail me. I will not, however, post anything on the blog unless it is a confirmed trade (by the league or one of the teams) or unless the information comes from a source which I consider to be extremely reliable. Basically, I'm not posting message board speculation as fact here.

Oh, and I will update the draft pick charts ASAP and bring them up to right below this post, if anyone wants a reference for which picks each team has. I'll keep updating that during the day too.