More trades

Three more trades yesterday:

 - the biggest deal saw Vancouver send 19 year old defenceman Tyler Hart and 19 year old forward Teal Burns to the Prince Albert Raiders in return for 19 year old forward Austin Connor and 16 year old defenceman Arvin Atwal.

 - Red Deer traded 17 year old defenceman Lucas Grayson to Everett for a 2012 4th round bantam pick.

 - Regina sent 19 year old forward Campbell Elynuik to Prince George for a conditional 6th round pick in 2012. I imagine the condition requires Elynuik to remain in the WHL past a certain point this year.

Notes on these deals:

 - the first deal is Vancouver getting bigger and tougher. Connor is a big boy with some pugilistic experience who is going to Vancouver to look out for some of their smaller players. For the Raiders, Hart and Burns add depth to their team although neither is going to be a top line player.

 - second deal is Red Deer clearing their glut of defencemen. Everett benefits by getting a promising young defencemen at a reasonable price.

 - Elynuik deal is his 2nd trade this season, he was earlier moved from Everett to Regina. Didn't fit in in Regina I guess - I believe there was some concern among the coaches there over some foolish penalties Elynuik was taking. Maybe they got tired of waiting for a 19 year old to get their message.

One other move too, the Raiders have released 17 year old import defenceman Kristaps Bazevics and added 18 year old import forward Michal Hlinka. Hlinka played 45 games in the WHL last year for Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, and was released by the Raiders prior to the import draft in order to make room for the selection of Bazevics. Obviously they're not thrilled with that exchange (they've only dressed Bazevics in 2 of their 12 games this year) and are able to reverse it now since nobody else has picked up Hlinka in the interim.