Canes quiet at deadline
The Lethbridge Hurricanes are going to dance with the ones that brung them. The Western Hockey League trade deadline ticked by at 3 p.m. Friday, local time.
Though a few big names switched teams in the days leading up to Friday’s deadline — including forward Brayden Tracey moving from the Moose Jaw Warriors to the Victoria Royals and goaltender Max Paddock steadying the crease for the Prince Albert Raiders following a trade from the Regina Pats — it was all quiet on the Canes front in the last 24 hours hours leading up to the deadline.
The Hurricanes activity took place earlier in the week when they re-acquired forward Brett Davis from the Red Deer Rebels and placed local overage forward D-Jay Jerome on waivers to make roster room. Jerome was then claimed by the Swift Current Broncos.
But with the team sitting at 23-10-2-5 and one point behind the Medicine Hat Tigers for second in the Central Division heading into Friday night's games, Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt is sticking with the roster that has gotten his squad this far as the playoff race heats up.
And in a re-acquisition of sorts, the Hurricanes get their World Junior Hockey Championship trio of Dylan Cozens, Calen Addison and Oliver Okuliar back after nearly a month away.
Okuliar, who played for Slovakia at the tournament in the Czech Republic, was back in the lineup Friday night in Calgary against the Hitmen, while Cozens and Addison — fresh off their gold medal win with Team Canada — will return Tuesday.
The grabbing of Davis from Red Deer aside, Anholt liked what he's seen of his team through the first four months to avoid and further tweaking of the lineup.
“I think when you look at the first half as an entire body of work, I think we did a lot of our work early with (Dino) Kambeitz (from the Victoria Royals) and Okuliar and (defenceman Trevor) Thurston. I think with what we’ve seen with our team as individuals, I think there isn’t one of our players that hasn’t gotten better throughout the year and I think that says something about our team. We are young, we have a good size and we have really good chemistry. So there are a lot of really good factors that come into play when you’re coming into the deadline.”
The addition of Davis upgraded the Hurricanes' overage situation and addressed the top-six forwards.
But like any GM heading into the final 48 hours of the deadline, there was still a little proverbial tire-kicking.
“Going into (Thursday and Friday) I was open to some things and I was hoping there were a couple things that might’ve come up,” said Anholt. “But it didn’t work and ultimately we were satisfied with our guys and for us to change our group and give up draft picks, we didn’t want to do that. Since we went through last year’s draft with no first-round picks and no second-round picks, that was a hard thing to go through.”
There were a few deals in the last 24 hours that sent ripples through the league, including the Royals acquisition of Tracey from the Warriors along with goaltender Adam Evanoff for former Hurricanes defenceman Nolan Jones goaltender Brock Gould and forward Logan Doust as well as numerous draft picks.
In other deals, the slumping Raiders nabbed goaltender Paddock from the Pats, while the Vancouver Giants acquired forward Eric Florchuk from the Saskatoon Blades for forward Evan Patrician as well as draft picks.
On Friday, the Everett Silvertips traded for Ethan Regnier and Kasper Puutio from Swift Current in exchange for Martin FaskoRudas and Parker Hendren.
The Broncos then sent FaskoRudas to the Saskatoon Blades for Matej Toman and Cale Ashcroft.
“Every trade deadline is a unique animal and I think we’ve seen that over the last few years,” said Anholt. “This one was a really unique one in the sense that there wasn’t a ton of really good players that were available, so the teams paid, I thought, a pretty steep price. But they’re happy with the guys they got and I know the guys that were moving were pleased with what they got. I think all in all it sounds like everybody is pretty content with the way it went. But we weren’t a player in any of that just from a simple standpoint that it didn’t seem to fit with us.” The following are Friday's deals: • Calgary sent Jonas Peterek to Kelowna for a fifth-round pick in 2021.
• Everett traded Fasko-Rudas and Hendren as well as a firstround pick in 2020 and a secondround pick in 2022 to Swift Current for Regnier and Puutio.
• Regina traded Caiden Daley to Saskatoon for a sixth-round pick in 2021.
• Kelowna traded Cole Carrier to Regina for a sixth-round pick in 2020 and an eighth-round conditional pick in 2020.
• Kamloops sent a third-round conditional pick in 2020 to Seattle for Tyler Carpendale.
• Brandon traded Bode Hagan to Swift Current for a sixth-round pick in 2021.
• Kamloops traded a ninthround pick in 2021 to Spokane for Brett Balas and traded Luke Rybinski to Medicine Hat for a sixth-round pick in 2020.
• Kelowna traded a sixth-round pick in 2022 to Tri-City for Jarod Newell.
• Red Deer traded Dawson Barteaux, a fifth-round pick in 2020 and a sixth-round pick in 2023 to Winnipeg for a secondround pick in 2020 and 2021, a fifth-round pick in 2021, a second-round pick in 2022 and 2023 and a conditional thirdround pick in 2023.
• Swift Current traded FaskoRudas to Saskatoon for Toman, Ashcroft and a sixth-round pick in 2022.
• Victoria traded an eighthround pick in 2020 to Winnipeg for Ty Ettinger.
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