The WHL trade deadline is just over 24 hours away (3pm MST tomorrow, if my memory serves me correctly) and the last two weeks since the Christmas trade freeze ended have been the quietest deadline build-up in recent memory.
By my count, only seven trades have been made in those two weeks, and none of them have been of the tip-the-balance-of-power sort. Surely there must be more to come, right? We've seen some quiet buildups before, but they always "paid off" us fans with a flurry of trades in the last day or so before the deadline.
Why is it so quiet? Well, there's a lot of possible reasons but my own personal theory is that nothing has happened yet which would encourage the league's current front-runners to make a move. The current leaders - the Edmontons, the Tri-Cities', the Portlands and the like - aren't feeling any pressure to make trades. They are already among the best of the league and if the playoffs started today, they would probably all feel pretty good about their chances of winning the title. What is needed to kickstart a trade frenzy is for a middle-of-the-pack team to make the first bold move and acquire a star, somebody whose addition immediately boosts that team from middle-of-the-pack to possible pack leader status. A Jordan Weal, a Kevin Sundher, a Calvin Pickard. When that happens, then you'll see everyone else in that conference take a long hard look at their own roster and decide if they need to do something themselves to keep up. And then the dominoes start toppling as everyone else follows suit.
In the last few years we've seen the blockbuster deals get started early - Tri-City acquired Carter Ashton before the Christmas break last year. The year before that it was Regina acquiring Ashton before the Christmas break. (I see a trend here - maybe the holdup this season is that Carter Ashton no longer plays in the league). This year there haven't been any yet and unless somebody bites the bullet and makes one soon, there might not be any at all.
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