Standing pat at trade deadline can be just as powerful a statement as pulling the trigger on a deal.
The Western Hockey League cut-off for making trades for the 2015-16 season passed Sunday without the Victoria Royals making a move. The most significant result is that Royals blue-liner Joe Hicketts, the face of the franchise, will finish out his junior career in Victoria.
Most vulnerable at the WHL trade deadline are 19-year-old stars such as Hicketts, if their teams are looking to stock up for the future with young prospects. But the Royals (25-15-4) have decided their future is in the present.
鈥淭here is such parity now that every team thinks it has a chance,鈥� said Royals GM Cam Hope, on Monday.
鈥淭he Western Conference is wide open.鈥�
That is why the Royals felt as comfortable holding tight to Hicketts for the remainder of this season as potentially unloading him for the sake of the future, despite the fact that Hicketts is likely to be in the Detroit Red Wings minor-pro system next season.
Not that Hope鈥檚 phone didn鈥檛 ring on or before Sunday it鈥檚 just that there wasn鈥檛 anything on the other end worth jumping at.
鈥淲e listened to everything. There was a lot of talk this year in the West, but not a lot of action,鈥� added Hope.
Indeed, most of the WHL trading by deadline was done in the Eastern Conference, with a greater concentration of top-end teams looking less to the future and more to making a run this season. There are more Eastern teams at the bottom end already out of it for this season and looking to the future.
The biggest final-day deal Sunday involved 20-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers veteran Cole Sanford, who had 50 goals last season and 21 this season, being shipped to the Regina Pats in return for forwards Gary Haden and Brian Williams and three bantam draft picks in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The other eight trades Sunday were all fairly minor in nature.
The biggest movers in trade season were, not surprisingly, the Red Deer Rebels, who host the 2016 Memorial Cup with an automatic berth into the Canadian Hockey League championship tournament in May. The Rebels last week picked up 2015 first-round Boston Bruins draft-pick Jake DeBrusk from the Swift Current Broncos in return for forward Lane Pederson and a first-round 2017 bantam draft pick and a third-rounder this year. The Rebels also sent away their captain, Wyatt Johnson, prospect Eli Zummack and two bantam draft picks to the Spokane Chiefs for 20-year-old forward Adam Helewka, a San Jose Sharks prospect paying immediate dividends with seven goals and 12 points in five games with Red Deer to be named WHL player of the week. The Rebels landed another 20-year-old, Luke Philp from the Kootenay Ice, for their spring fling at the Memorial Cup, in exchange for Presten Kopeck, Ryan Pouliot, Langford native Tanner Sidaway and two bantam draft picks.
鈥淭here is always more a sense of urgency when you are hosting the Memorial Cup that year,鈥� said Hope, part of a Royals organization that has indicated it plans on bidding for the 2019 tournament.
The biggest Western Conference mover in WHL trade season is the team given the best chance to meet the Kelowna Rockets in the conference final this spring. The Seattle Thunderbirds added three veterans 鈥� goaltender Landon Bow, blue-liner Bryan Albee and forward Calvin Leth 鈥� but had to give away a bit of their future represented by goaltender Taz Burman, forward Jamal Watson, rearguard Sahvan Khaidra and a bantam draft pick.
The Royals begin a six-game homestand by taking on the conference-leading Rockets (29-10-3) on Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
