Musil to Edmonton

The first major "loading up"-style trade of the season went down yesterday as the struggling Vancouver Giants sent their main trade piece, '93 defenceman David Musil, to the Edmonton Oil Kings for '95 defenceman Mason Geertsen and Edmonton's 2013 first round bantam pick.

Geertsen was Edmonton's first round pick in the 2010 bantam draft so the Giants essentially got two first round picks for Musil. A pretty good return for a guy who is also going to miss several weeks of action at the World Juniors (he's a lock to play for the Czech Republic). I really like Geertsen, he seems to be establishing himself as a good physical defensive defenceman and pretty good with the gloves off too.

For Edmonton, the trade further solidifies what has to be the league's best blueline group. No way does any team in the WHL (and maybe not the entire CHL although I haven't looked at rosters in the O or Q) have a better top five than Musil, Griffin Reinhart, Keegan Lowe, Martin Gernat, and Cody Corbett. Edmonton was already the favourite to repeat as WHL champions this year and that isn't changing with this deal.

Losing the first round pick isn't that big of a deal for the Oil Kings since they have two second round picks in the 2013 draft still - their own, plus Portland's pick which they got in the Cam Reid trade last season.

One last note from Edmonton's point of view, this is also a solid marketing move for them as Musil is another draft pick of the parent Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers currently have four prospects playing in the WHL and all four of them now play for the Oil Kings: Musil (2nd round 2011), Travis Ewanyk (3rd round 2011), Gernat (5th round 2011) and Mitch Moroz (2nd round 2012). The Oil Kings can market themselves to the Oilers fans in Edmonton, especially during the lockout, as the place to see future Oilers.

So who's next in the loading-up? It's a little early in the season for teams to be establishing themselves as sellers, but Vancouver is dead last in the league with only 8 points through 14 games, and are currently 7 points out of a playoff spot in the West already. The only other team in a similar situation (ie, who might already be thinking of calling themselves sellers) is Kootenay, who also have only 8 points and are 10 points out of the playoffs in the East, although they have several games in hand on the teams ahead of them. Plus Kootenay is only carrying 20 players right now so I don't think they'll be in a hurry to trade anyone for draft picks. Not yet anyway. I would also think that Kootenay doesn't have any players that would be of major interest to contending teams - not players the Ice would want to trade anyway, obviously they aren't parting with a guy like Sam Reinhart. Their 19 year olds are an unimpressive group and while overage defenceman Joey Leach would attract some interest, overagers aren't usually a big-ticket item for the most part.

We know Saskatoon is going to be a buyer at some point - and some rumours suggest that the Oil Kings got Musil by outbidding Saskatoon for him. So the Memorial Cup hosts miss out on this one; where will they turn their attentions next?