It was sellers’ market during ‘out of control’ WHL trade deadline
Paddock admits Pats would be trading off talent if not for hosting Memorial Cup
Gouging in the WHL doesn’t warrant a match penalty — not at the executive level, anyway.
Teams that were cast in the role of sellers leading up to the Wednesday trade deadline were able to get away with charging larcenous prices for premier players.
The nature of the market was such that the Brandon Wheat Kings, whose 27-12-1-1 record could have put them in a buyer’s role, took one look at the prices and did a U-turn — trading 19-year-old stars Kale Clague and Tanner Kaspick.
“The prices in this league right now are out of control probably in the history of the league,” Wheat Kings general manager Grant Armstrong, whose team was ranked fifth in the
CHL when he made the deals, told reporters in Brandon on Wednesday.
Later in the day, Armstrong’s comment was brought to the attention of Regina Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock, who unhesitatingly responded: “I would agree with that.
“For my four years (with the Pats), this is definitely an unprecedented amount of buyers and that’s what drove the market up,” added Paddock, who went on to say: “I don’t know what to call it. I don’t say it’s bizarre. It’s just sort of crazy. I talk to the other managers and they’re just shaking their heads.”
Regardless, Paddock had little choice but to agree to pricey deals, his leverage all but eliminated by the fact that the Pats are the host team for the CHL’s 2018 championship tournament.
“If there was no Memorial Cup being held and we didn’t win the bid, we would have been in a different mode,” Paddock said. “We obviously would have been selling and rebuilding our team.
“Now we’re going to have our work more than cut out for us for a couple of years, probably, because of the situation, but that’s just the way it is. Everybody is thrilled about being in the Memorial Cup, so you can’t have it both ways. We’ve been excited about it for a long time, so now we know what the roster’s going to be as we plan ahead.”
Looking even further down the road, Regina’s reservoir of prime bantam draft picks has been reduced considerably. The Pats are hardly alone in that regard.
The Moose Jaw Warriors, for example, surrendered two firstrounders and a second-rounder as part of the deal for Clague, who excelled for the gold-medalwinning Canadian team at the recent world junior championship.
Brandon also received two first-round picks in a blockbuster that sent Kaspick to the Victoria Royals.
The day before, the Swift Current Broncos acquired perennial point-producer Giorgio Estephan, goalie Stuart Skinner and Mossbank-born right-winger Tanner Nagel from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Lethbridge received first- and third-rounders, plus a conditional secondrounder, plus highly touted 16-year-old forward Logan Barlage as part of the head-turning swap.
Swift Current was 29-10-3-0 and ranked fourth in the CHL before adding the three veterans. Moose Jaw, ranked No. 2 nationally, is 34-6-1-2 and will now inject Clague into an already formidable lineup.
“It’s so competitive,” Paddock said. “To change it the way we did was important.”
Not to mention impressive. Since Dec. 27, Paddock has consummated seven trades that brought nine players to Regina — forwards Cameron Hebig, Jesse Gabrielle, Jared Legien and Austin Pratt, defencemen Libor Hajek, Aaron Hyman, Brady Pouteau and Jonas Harkins and goaltender Ryan Kubic.
Moreover, superstar centre Sam Steel — a world junior teammate of Clague’s — is to return to the Pats’ lineup Friday against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers.
So sit back and savour what promises to be an exhilarating time for junior hockey fans in southern Saskatchewan, where the overall wealth of talent has never been so awe inspiring — a frenzied trading period having influenced the equation considerably.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Pats centre Matt Bradley marvelled. “The prices were high this year with all the good players going. Everyone wants to make a run at it this year. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“There’s going to be a lot of strong teams and it’s going to be great hockey.”
That will be especially true once all the traded players become more comfortable in their new environs.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Bradley said with a smile.
“We’ve got a bunch of firepower. Everyone’s going to be able to contribute here. It’s going to be four lines rolling, six D-men and Kubie’s a great goalie. We’re going to put all our trust and belief in him and he’ll back us up every night.
“It’s going to be fun for us and fun for the fans to watch.”