Kisio won’t sacrifice future
Over the years, Kelly Kisio has made some solid moves at the Western Hockey League trade deadline.
But unless the right situation arises where he immediately strengthens his hockey club without gambling away their future, a big blockbuster deal doesn’t appear to be on the Calgary Hitmen general manager’s horizon this year.
“It doesn’t look like that,” Kisio said earlier this week of the Jan. 10 decision day. “If something comes along, we may look at it. But I think our hockey team is pretty solid as it sits right now.”
It’s pretty hard to argue with him. Calgary has been near the top of the Eastern Conference for the most of the season, flip-flopping and fighting with the Edmonton Oil Kings and Prince Albert Raiders for the top. And, truth be told, there isn’t many glaring areas to improve.
There are no issues in net as Ottawa Senators draft pick Chris Driedger has been having a solid season in goal, confidently taking over the starting role this year with rookie Mack Shields as a backup. Scoring has been balanced, led by forwards Brook Macek, Cody Sylvester, and Brady Brassart. Meanwhile, their once-young defence has mature to be one of the toughest units in the league.
The home record needs work (heading into Friday’s home game against the Moose Jaw Warriors, Calgary was 12-8-1-2) but their road record is nearly spotless (they’ve been 13-2-0-1 this year). They’ve shown up for games that matter (against Edmonton, Prince Albert, and Kamloops) but have taken lightly to struggling teams (Kootenay, in particular).
Of course, their top rookies — forward Jake Virtanen and defencemen Josh Thrower, Calgary’s top-two picks from the 2011 bantam draft — or 2012 draft-eligible forward Greg Chase or even Los Angeles Kings prospect and muchimproved defenceman Alex Roach would be trade bait.
But Kisio has been adamantly against hurting his club in the long-term for short-term gain. “Some of our best players are our young guys and I don’t want to ruin our hockey team and take another huge downturn again. If something comes along this year that improves us this year without hurting us too much down the road, then maybe we’ll do it.”
During the 2011-12 season, Calgary was in rebuilding mode from a forgettable 2010-11 campaign. They did a fine job of rebounding without making any moves at the 2012 trade deadline and turned things around to finish third in the Eastern Conference, qualifying for playoffs again.
They could have arguably advanced further, they were ousted in the first round by the Brandon Wheat Kings, but lost top centreman Victor Rask (knee) and captain Cody Sylvester (concussion) in the final weekend of the season. Which proves sometimes, whether you make moves or not, some things are out of your control.
“As you saw last year, anything can happen,” Kisio said. “We went into the last weekend last year with a good hockey team and two of our best players got hurt. In playoffs, hopefully you’re healthy and ready to go. We’ll see what kind of things come along here. But right now, we’re OK.”
Traditionally, it hasn’t been in Kisio’s nature to wait until the 11th hour (the WHL veteran executive typically makes his decisions prior to that). However, the Hitmen have been game-players at the trade deadline in the past.
He pulled the trigger in 2009 on a big move that acquired leading scorer Joel Broda and Czech Tomas Karpov from the Moose Jaw Warriors for Brendan Rowinski and second- and seventh-round bantam draft picks. That day, he also dealt winger Ryan Fox to the Kootenay Ice for Kris Foucault.
In 2010, the year the Hitmen went to the Memorial Cup, Kisio made a big splash at the buzzer for forwards Tyler Shattock and Jimmy Bubnick, and defenceman Zak Stebner, and sent forward Chase Schaber and defenceman Austin Madaisky plus a third-round pick in the 2011 WHL bantam draft.
In 2011 — which saw the Hitmen stumble to last place — he traded Buffalo Sabres draft pick Matt MacKenzie (Calgary’s captain at the time) to Tri-City for Brooks Macek and Spencer Humphries and a third-round pick in 2012, trying to rebuild for the future. Last year, all was silent. “You have to be situated with the right guys to move at any given time and I don’t know if we are. We’re not going to sell the farm for the next year or the year after. We don’t want to hurt ourselves. We’re still in a bit of a rebuilding mode from a couple years ago. I still think we’re on our way up.”