Trade deadline wrapup

All the dealing is done, so a few notes as the dust settles....

By far the most active team was Saskatoon, which is no surprise since they are the only team in the CHL right now that knows they will be playing in May for junior hockey's biggest prize. Go big or go home, right. The thing about all the deals they have made though, if they win the Memorial Cup (or even "just" the WHL Championship) then it's all good, the future consequences don't really matter much. The franchise has never won a WHL title or a Memorial Cup in its 45-plus year existence, and ending that streak would no doubt make Blades fans giddy.

But. What if they don't win this year? The consequences for the Blades for the next few years look pretty grim, really. For starters, their roster this year has 14 players on it who are 19 years old. At most they can bring back three of those players next year, which means they will lose eleven of them. Add to their three graduating overagers and the Blades are going to lose 14 players off their current roster. That is crippling turnover....it's only survivable if you have a strong group of prospects ready to step in, and....well....the Blades traded away their first and second round bantam picks in 2010, 2011, and 2012, so they do not have any of the top 107 picks from the 2010 draft, top 65 picks from 2011, or top 55 picks from 2012 in their system. While high picks aren't the be-all, end-all of acquiring young talent, it hurts to not have any of the first few rounds of players. Unless the Blades have been exceptionally good and/or lucky in the later rounds and with listing undrafted gems, they aren't going to have an extremely deep list right now.

They have also traded away their 2013, 2014, and 2015 first round picks now too. By 2016, it'll have been six straight years without a first round pick for the Blades. (In the interests of accuracy, they did use their first round pick in 2010 - they just traded the player eight months later)

It's going to be tough to rebuild that team. Just win this year.....that will make the painful years to come seem better.

Enough about Saskatoon - a few other teams made deals today too.

Brandon was obviously the day's biggest seller, moving Bertaggia and Ferland for two players and three draft picks. At the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the writing was on the wall that the Wheaties weren't going anywhere this year and so they turned two players who wouldn't be back next year into extra first, third, and fifth round picks, plus acquired two prospects, Rhett Gardner from Spokane and Taylor Sanheim from Everett, who are among the top scoring 16 year olds in the Saskatchewan and Manitoba midget leagues. Hard not to like the way the Wheat Kings are setting themselves up for a reloading in a year or two.

And I like what Seattle has done, somewhat under the radar. The Birds had a good start to the season but have slumped badly lately and dropped down the standings a bit. Adding a guy like Kambeitz is going to give that team a kick in the pants. He's not the world's most skilled player but he's a hard working guy who was the team captain in Red Deer and will bring those traits to Seattle's room. Andrew Johnson is a nice depth pickup for their forward ranks as well - now we see if these two moves can correct Seattle's slump and move them back up the standings a bit into the very competitive middle of the Western conference.

One other trade of note is the trade that DIDN'T happen and that was Prince George failed to trade former #1 overall bantam pick Alex Forsberg, who will now join the SJHL's Humboldt Broncos for the remainder of what is his NHL draft year. I gather the offers the Cougars were getting for Forsberg were just not up to what they were looking for, and so they probably did the right thing - far better to make no deal now and try again in the summer than to make a worse deal now just to get it over with.