Another big trade

Is it still a big trade when no big names are involved?

Another significant "loading up" style trade in the WHL today, again featuring the Vancouver Giants as the selling team. This time it's 19 year old forward Nathan Burns who was the target, and he is on his way to the Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades. In return the Blades have surrendered 18 year old forward Travis McEvoy, a 2013 3rd round bantam pick, and their 2014 first round bantam pick.

This is a "big" deal only because of the inclusion of that first round pick. It's certainly not because any of the players involved are superstars. Nathan Burns, while a decent player, has 76 points in 186 career WHL games over 3 1/4 seasons. As an 18 year old last year, he had 34 points in 55 games. So far this year he has  9 points in 15 games. Not exactly the kind of numbers you expect from a player worthy of surrendering a valuable first round bantam pick for, are they.

To be fair to Burns, he hasn't been used in a go-to offensive role in his career, and he is a nice all-around package, a guy who has spent three years learning from Don Hay. He just doesn't have the big sexy scoring numbers you usually look for in forwards deemed worthy of paying this kind of price. Given that kind of role on a team with some good linemates, Burns could put up some decent numbers.

And to be fair to the Blades, Burns is probably not a one-year rental player. He has no NHL affiliation and thus it's quite likely (at this point anyway) that he will play in the WHL again next year as an overager, so for that first round pick the Blades are getting two seasons from Burns.

All that said though, if it's any indication of the prices being asked for players in the WHL this year that the Giants can get a first round bantam pick for a guy averaging 30 points per 72 games over his career, then we could be in for some wild times in the next ten weeks leading up to the trade deadline.

For the Giants, they now have two first round picks in both 2013 and 2014, something which could go a long way towards giving them some pretty good teams in the 2016 - 2020 years. It's a pretty good start to a rebuild which has been a while coming.

One last note, that 2014 first round pick the Giants get has some conditions on it; as part of the trade which netted them Brendan Walker from Brandon earlier this year, the Blades gave the Wheat Kings the right to swap 2014 first round picks with them. I assume that condition travels with the pick to Vancouver, so the Giants may end up with Brandon's 2014 first rounder instead of Saskatoon's. Basically the Giants will get the lower of Brandon or Saskatoon's 2014 first rounders.