Two trades in the WHL this morning, both involving goaltenders. One trade yesterday, also involving a goaltender. And two veteran goaltenders released yesterday too. It's been a busy 24 hours for the members of the fraternity of masked men.
First yesterday's deal: Everett sent 19 year old goaltender Luke Siemens to Moose Jaw in exchange for 18 year old forward Matt Grant, and Moose Jaw's 2012 and 2013 3rd round bantam picks. Grant is currently in the BCHL this year after spending last season in Moose Jaw; it is not known whether he will be joining Everett right away or at all.
Following the trade, Moose Jaw released overage goaltender Devan Dubyk plus last year's backup goalie, 18 year old Brandon Stone - meaning they're going with Siemens and 17 year old rookie Spencer Tremblay now.
Today's first deal saw Edmonton trade overage goaltender Jon Groenheyde to Swift Current for overage forward Jordan Peddle.
And the 2nd deal today, a big one, sees Vancouver trade 18 year old defenceman Zach Hodder (who went home last week to await a trade) plus overage forward Michael Burns and a 2013 4th round pick, to Saskatoon for overage goaltender Adam Morrison and 17 year old forward Levi Bews.
Some thoughts on all these moves:
- Everett had two 19 year old goalies and something had to give there, so the move of Siemens is not a surprise. And even if Grant never plays for them, they did pretty well in getting two 3rd round picks for a 19 year old who has never been a #1 goalie before and has only 1300 minutes in the league.
- For Moose Jaw, obviously they think Siemens is the answer to their goalie situation, since they promptly got rid of the only other two goalies on their roster with any WHL experience.
- Edmonton had to move Groenheyde since their goalie of the future (and present) is 18 year old Laurent Brossoit. Getting Peddle gives them another veteran up front to help out while Travis Ewanyk is out with his injury.
- for Swift Current, picking up Groenheyde addresses their starting goaltender position which was left wide open when import goalie Steffan Soberg bolted back home late in camp. Either 18 year old Austin Smith or 17 year old Steven Myland just lost their spot in the league though but that's the business.
- Swift still has four overagers though so moving out Peddle didn't solve that problem. Assuming Groenheyde is safe there, one of Taylor Vause, Brad Hoban, or Dillon Wagner is still to be moved out in the next 10 days.
- for Vancouver, getting Morrison resolves their goaltending situation. Funny enough, they were also left in the lurch by problems with an import goalie not reporting. Question in Vancouver now is which of 18 year old Brendan Jensen or 16 year old Jackson Whistle gets cut to make room in the crease for Morrison. Whistle has decent numbers so far this year while Jensen's numbers are horrible, but on the other hand, Whistle might be better off playing many more minutes in midget. We'll see what they do there.
- for Saskatoon, getting Hodder gives them more depth on defence, where they were a little lacking in experienced guys. Moving Morrison though means that the Blades currently only have one goaltender on the roster, so I would look for them to recall 17 year old Adam Todd ASAP from the BCHL, unless they have something else in the works to add another goalie.
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