Saturday 10 January 2015

Hurricanes Trades: The Aftermath

If you thought the Lethbridge Hurricanes were a busy team when it comes to trading, you have no idea!

I did a little number crunching following Head Coach and GM Peter Anholt's final trade prior to today's WHL Trade Deadline and in the past 16 months, the numbers are quite incredible to say the least.

Since the start of the 2013-2014, beginning with a trade that sent forward Craig Leverton to the Prince Albert Raiders and ending with the acquisition of defenceman Scott Allan this afternoon from Seattle, the Lethbridge Hurricanes have made 30 separate trades. Those deals involved 47 players changing hands between the Canes and other teams involved in the wheeling and dealing and the swapping of 30 draft picks between Lethbridge and other teams in the WHL. The biggest trading partners for Lethbridge have been Brandon and Seattle.

As amazing as those number are, it does not include the number of players that were either released or reassigned.

After I put those stats on Twitter early Saturday afternoon, needless to say, it garnered a lot of attention. Saskatoon Blades long-time Play-by-Play Voice Les Lazaruk chimed in with numbers on Saskatoon's trading activity during that same period, and believe or not, the numbers are nearly identical.

During the same 16 month period, Lazaruk says the Blades have done the following: 31 separate trades, involving 48 players, and 44 draft picks. Only 5 players since the start of the 2013-3014 season remain on the Blades roster today.

Those are incredible numbers to say the least for both organizations. As interesting as it is to watch all the activity, it's a sign things need to be fixed. Let's hope we don't see trading activity like this for a very long time in the WHL.

Thanks,
Pat



4 comments:

  1. Pat, way to crunch the numbers. Actually when you think about what has gone on since Robson (now a history note) arrived and departed, it is not surprising. But actually sitting down and doing the math, it could be mind boggling.
    One thing is definite, this is now Anholt's team as he has made the moves (as promised) to get bigger, younger and be hard to play against. The move of Sayers kind of surprised me but to be replaced by a redwood tree in Allan at 6' 6" 235 (not a negative comment intended) certainly can attest to that. Nice thing is, with this team out of the playoff picture, it will give Anholt 2 months to play these kids and assess them.
    All these moves seems to have benefitted one player already.Georgio Estephan.

    RJS
    Need a program for tonight's game.

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  2. Cleaning up Robson's mess. Some interesting additions for sure. I'm very interested to see the new guys after a few games. Reagan looked decent Friday night. He moved pretty well for a big kid. Here's hoping the new guys help turn this into a "team".

    Interesting to see Watson stay. I actually like the move. He has stuck it out through thick and thin and never complained once. That says something about his character. He had real jump to his game on Friday night. (Sort of bitter sweet for next year as he is the last remaining piece of a very exciting team a few years back.....sigh).

    LaRon

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  3. No offence to Watson, but I'm a little surprised LaRon never mentioned Wong in that post. He has also stuck it out for 2.5 years, gives 100% every game (one of the few that could be said about in my opinion) and is super talented. On a different team he could be putting up a lot of points yet here he still is. Even when the team is being blown out and most have given up, he never slows down. I have huge respect for a kid like that and am really glad he stuck around! Hoping to see some positive changes after these trades, the boys deserve it.

    -WongFan

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    1. True enough WongFan. Wong has also been through the "ringer" more commonly known as The Robson/Berehowsky Debacle. He'll be a nice player to have around next year.

      LaRon

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