The day an OHL team traded for 5-year-old
There is a child somewhere in Ontario currently enjoying his Christmas break from the grinding rigours of kindergarten. Maybe he plays hockey, maybe he hasn’t started yet. He is only five, after all.
Yet on New Year’s Day, he was acquired by the Windsor Spitfires. If it sounds goofy, it is. Yet true. On Monday, the Ontario Hockey League team traded two established players to the Kingston Frontenacs for a 16-year-old centre and eight draft picks. Included in that haul were two picks in 2020 and singles in each of 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2027 and 2028. Why not 2026? Guess this province’s seven-year-olds haven’t impressed the scouts all that much in their novice seasons thus far. Alas, we digress. It should come as no surprise that this theoretical five-year-old is the youngest player acquired in a trade this year. Maybe ever. Though he may not be for long. The league has no rules around future picks. Someone could potentially trade for a 3028 pick (full disclosure: a sick part of me would love to see the paperwork from that trade land in the OHL offices).
So is this not completely nuts? Of course it is. Though an explanation of some of the nuances of a trade like this may make it seem a little less so.
First of all, there are conditions on this pick. They’re not being publicly disclosed in this case, but often they’re based on games played or playoff appearances. Which could mean if the two players heading to Kingston don’t win a playoff series or don’t return next year or don’t play a certain number of games — whatever the conditions might be in this situation — those picks could flip back to the Frontenacs. Essentially meaning that part of the trade officially never happened.
Assuming it stays in place, though, does a pick a decade from now really have any value for Windsor? That’s a long time from now. Any number of things could happen.
Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel says, yes. Draft picks are simply currency. You gather as many as you can, so when you’re ready to make a push for a title, you have them to spend. He’s been doing it since he came into the league 10 years ago.
“Last year I wouldn’t have been able to win the Memorial Cup if I couldn’t trade far out,” he says.
Because they are really just a monetary unit, these picks could easily change hands multiple times before they’re ever used. Meaning our five-year-old could get traded a number of times again before he ever hears his name called at the draft. Since April, 23 picks for drafts five years away (or longer) have been dealt across the league.
In short, it’s highly unlikely this pick is ultimately made by Windsor.
There’s another option as well. Hamilton Bulldogs’ GM Steve Staios says he received a 2026 second-round pick last year when he traded Adam Laishram to Windsor.
While he had no real interest in a selection nine years down the road, the Spitfires couldn’t do better because they’d moved all their other second-round picks — OHL teams can’t trade first-round picks, remember — so this was the best they could offer.
But if you look at the league’s transactions page, there was an asterisk beside that deal highlighting it as another conditional pick. What was the catch?
Staios says when Windsor eventually acquired some other team’s second-round pick, it would get flipped to him. Meaning he’ll get a second selection in 2020 instead. Though that move won’t be publicly announced when it happens, because it was a term of the first deal.
“There’s not another transaction,” he explains. Clear now? Good. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that a five-year-old was dealt this week.
Which is still rather mindblowing.
While the strategy is sound on paper and the results have been shown to work if handled with savvy, it still seems weird. Even Staios acknowledges that. Especially with that absence of a rule preventing someone from going even further and trading for a 2033 draft pick. Which today would be a fetus. Though one with good hands, who scouts describe as having a high compete level, no doubt.