Warriors & Blazers deal

Another blockbuster trade this morning, as Kamloops strengthens their blueline with a deal with Moose Jaw.

The Warriors send 19 year old defenceman Joel Edmundson and a 2015 4th round bantam pick to the Blazers, and in return they get 18 year old defenceman Tyler Bell, 15 year old forward prospect Jayden Halbgewachs (who was Kamloops' 1st round pick, 19th overall, in the 2012 bantam draft) and Kamloops' 2015 first round bantam pick.

So, Kamloops gives up an 18 year old defenceman plus two first round bantam picks in exchange for Edmundson and a 4th round pick. Very, very high price indeed, similar to the prices paid for David Musil and Nathan Burns earlier this season.

If you are a team like Portland (.839), Spokane (.741), Calgary (.732), Prince Albert (.677), Kelowna (.655) - all teams leading their divisions and/or surging up the standings lately, and who have not yet swung high-priced deals to strengthen their teams like Edmonton (Musil), Saskatoon (Burns) and now Kamloops (Edmundson) have, then I guess you have a lot to think about in the next five weeks to the trade deadline, about what your chances of making a long playoff run are and whether you're prepared to pay these kind of prices to bolster those chances.

And we can't forget Saskatoon, who are improving after a slow start but are still below .500. As Memorial Cup hosts, there is a tremendous amount of pressure for them to have a team which can contend with the OHL, QMJHL, WHL champs at that tournament, which means they need their team to measure up to the top WHL clubs like Kamloops, Edmonton, Portland, Calgary, etc. They're the one team that more or less "has" to make some deals, even at these prices.

Clearly, the trade deadline is not going to be fit for the squeamish this year.

One last note about today's deal - I found it interesting that the first round pick that was traded was not the 2013 pick or the 2014 pick (both of which Kamloops has to offer), but the 2015 pick. Why would Moose Jaw be content to wait two and a half years to use that pick, and probably five years to see any significant impact on the ice from whatever player they select with it?

The most likely answer IMO would be that Moose Jaw is prepared to wait for Kamloops to enter the "down" portion of the junior hockey cycle, so that the first round pick may end up being in the upper part of the round. Kamloops is currently a very strong team and should have a number of players back again next year too so they might not bottom out right away in 2013-14. Wait one more year after that and hope Kamloops struggles?

Another possibility is that Moose Jaw may think they can be Memorial Cup contenders in 2014-15 and can use that extra pick as trade bait to bolster their own team for a Cup run that year.