Canes take a chance with latest deal
I remember May 2, 2013 pretty clearly. The Lethbridge Hurricanes, a struggling franchise mired in a cycle of struggling and frustrating inconsistency, made a bad trade. It was a bad trade that day.
The Hurricanes had the sixth overall selection in the Western Hockey League entry draft but dealt it to the Brandon Wheat Kings for the 17th selection and overage goaltender Corbin Boes. Boes had been a good-but-not-great goalie for the Wheat Kings the previous year but then-Hurricanes GM Brad Robson said there were other teams looking at Boes and he had to act. I mean, if Kelly McCrimmon says there are other teams looking at Boes, you’ve got to believe him, right?
It was a bad trade. The Canes should have acquired at least an extra pick for trading down that far. Instead, they didn’t and the Wheat Kings took defenceman Kale Clague, who didn’t disappoint despite injuries throughout his career.
The Hurricanes went into the next season with another overage goaltender starting for them. It was the latest in a string which included Linden Rowat, Damien Ketlo and Ty Rimmer. Lethbridge won 12 games in 2013-14, probably not enough to justify using a 20-year-old spot on a goaltender.
But Lethbridge took Stuart Skinner with that 17th overall pick and with hindsight, the trade at least worked (take a look at the rest of that 2013 draft class).
The Hurricanes did it again last week by making a bad trade that could, after all, work out. They dealt promising 17year-old prospect Josh Tarzwell and a second-round draft pick in 2020 for Red Deer Rebels forward Lane Zablocki, 19. The trade could also see the Canes ship a third-round pick to the Rebels. It’s a steep price to pay for Zablocki, a player who has been great, just not this year. The Rebels’ own website called him a “major disappointment” this season. With 19 points for an awful Red Deer side, Zablocki has been only marginally better than the young Tarzwell (14 points, although he was away at the Ivan Hlinka tournament).
Hurricanes GM Peter Anholt talks about Zablocki’s ability to score big goals and play with tenacity and skill, but he hasn’t done that much this season. It’s easy to say that’s because the Rebels stink but does Lethbridge need a player who gets disinterested if he’s not playing for a contender or one who needs elite talent around him to succeed?
Tarzwell, meanwhile, has done nothing but impress. He has been inconsistent but at 17, there was a lot of potential in the way he played. In fact, he looked a lot like a young Zablocki. There also may be more to this trade than we see above the surface. Tarzwell is from Red Deer and may well have requested a trade or indicated in some way that he’d rather play at home and Anholt is accommodating him while also upgrading the team’s skill level.
If that isn’t the case, however, Anholt paid a steep price for Zablocki, probably a little higher than he needed to pay in light of Ryan Vandervlis’s season-ending shoulder injury.
That’s why this trade could work out for Lethbridge. The Hurricanes have a playoff-ready team, one that made a run to the Eastern Conference finals last year. With Skinner in goal, anything is possible and that alone may motivate Zablocki. He’ll be playing with better, more mature players and out from under the thumb of Brent Sutter’s suffocating, skill-killing defensive structure. Zablocki can kill penalties, work the power play and annoy the other team’s top players. We all saw that in his playoff appearance for Regina in 2016 and for the Rebels last season. This trade is about right now, about Anholt sacrificing the potential of Tarzwell and those draft picks for what he believes is the present of Zablocki. The most worrying thing about the trade is that Zablocki’s present has been miserable. He’s got three goals in the last 17 games. It’s worth noting Tarzwell hasn’t scored in eight.
If Zablocki can come around and help the Hurricanes make another memorable playoff run, however, we’ll all forget about Josh Tarzwell and those picks the way we’ve forgotten about Corbin Boes and Kale Clague and what could have been.
Anholt has delivered before for the Canes and has earned a respite from a bad trade or two.
He’s given fans two good playoff runs and while he may have been a step behind last week, he’ll truly be judged on how many steps the team takes in March and April.