Blades land three in deal for Hajek
GM Priestner spent birthday trading favourite player away to rivals
Colin Priestner celebrated his birthday knowing that he couldn’t have his cake and trade it, too.
Priestner ended up celebrating No. 34, in his own words, “by trading my favourite player away.”
That’s what happened Monday afternoon when the Saskatoon Blades general manager sent veteran D-man Libor Hajek to the 2018 Memorial Cup host Regina Pats in exchange for three players, including defenceman Dawson Davidson, forward Tristen Robins and a first-round pick in the 2019 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft.
Priestner says the Blades brass thought long and hard about making this trade. Things had changed since the team began trade talks about a month ago with teams such as Regina.
“We were eight points out of a playoff spot and now we’re seven points in, so that really shook the dynamic of the discussion and obviously it’s turned out for the better for us,” Priestner said. “We got to become a little bit more picky about whether we wanted to do something and teams knew we weren’t forced to move out players because we’re still in a playoff spot.
“We felt the return for Libor was just too much to pass up. There are three big pieces and they’re all very valuable to us.”
Davidson, 19, has played 207 regular-season games in his WHL career, collecting 21 goals and 79 assists for 100 points. The 5-foot11, 179-pound Davidson was originally selected 58th overall by the Kamloops Blazers in the 2013 WHL bantam draft. He has seven goals and 20 assists in 43 games this season.
“We really love his ability to pass the puck,” Priestner said. “We think he’s going to be a power play guy that we’re lacking a little bit right now from the back end. We have good power play weapons up front but we’re still looking for a guy who could potentially get 50 points next year as a defenceman and he has the potential next year to do that as a 20-year-old.”
Davidson is expected to join the Blades for practice Tuesday at SaskTel Centre and make his debut Wednesday night when the Blades play host to the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Robins, 16, was selected 76th overall by the Regina Pats in the 2016 WHL bantam draft. He is currently playing with the Rink Hockey Academy Midget Prep team out of Winnipeg in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
Priestner said he wasn’t sure if his team was done making moves prior to the WHL trade deadline at 12 noon Wednesday.
“We’re actively taking and making calls right now,” he said. “We’re in the division of death right now, as we call it. So we’re really looking for a balanced deal. We’re not looking at deals that don’t provide us with something that can help us now and keep our playoff spot. We know we’re not likely to finish higher than seventh (in the Eastern Conference) to get into the top six but we want to maintain that playoff spot that we’re in.
“Any deal that we make will help us hopefully in the present and the future.”