The WHL’s trade deadline winners, tweener and loser

The Western Hockey League’s trade deadline wasn’t near as exciting as past years, but it still entailed a handful of big-name players changing cities.

The Saskatoon Blades, the host team for the 2013 MasterCard Memorial Cup, landed the biggest fish by acquiring Calgary Flames prospect Michael Ferland from the Brandon Wheat Kings for their 2013 first-round bantam pick.

The deadline’s lack of activity can be blamed on the swirl of deals taking place prior to Jan. 10. Several teams made multiplayer deals, including the Swift Current Broncos sending Josh Derko and a third-round pick in 2013 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for Jay Merkley and the Moose Jaw Warriors trading St. Louis Blues prospect Joel Edmundson to the Kamloops Blazers for Tyler Bell, Jayden Halbewachs, and a first-round pick in 2015.

Here is a look at the deadline’s winners, tweener, and loser.

Winners

Edmonton Oil Kings – Although the Oil Kings didn’t make a trade today, they made a great move the day before by acquiring 20-year-old winger Trevor Cheek from the Vancouver Giants for a second-round bantam pick.

The 6-foot-2, 198-pounder, who has notched 18 goals and 32 points in 39 games, adds size, grit, experience, and secondary scoring to the Oil Kings.

They also added Edmonton Oilers defensive prospect David Musil from the Giants earlier in the year.

Oil Kings GM Bob Green did exactly what he needed to do, which was fill the holes left in the offseason by losing Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Mark Pysyk on their back end and overage forwards Tyler Maxwell, Rhett Rachinski, and Jordan Peddle.

Vancouver Giants – Giants GM Scott Bonner seen his squad wasn’t up to par with the Western Conference’s contenders early in the year and made the right move by trading away his top veterans for future assets.

The Giants added a 2016 sixth-round bantam pick from the Spokane Chiefs for defenceman Stewart Coyle and a second-round pick from the Oil Kings for Cheek at the deadline.

Vancouver made several other future-focused deals earlier in the year. They acquired Rob Trzonkowski and a 2015 fifth-round pick from the Kamloops Blazers for overage grinder Kale Kessey, 18-year-old defender Mason Geertsen and a 2013 first-round pick from the Oil Kings for Musil, and Travis McEvoy, 2014 first-round bantam pick, and a 2013 third-round bantam pick from the Saskatoon Blades for 19-year-old forward Nathan Burns.

Bonner heads into the bantam draft in great shape with a handful of high-end picks. They should be able to land one of the top 2013 prospects such as Tyler Benson, Kale Clague, or Jaeger White with their own pick.

Portland Winterhawks – The 35-5-1-0 Winterhawks made the right move, which was no move at all. After all, why fix something that isn’t broken?

Despite being without their head coach-GM Mike Johnston, it will be tough to stop the Winterhawks in the second season. They have arguably the strongest goaltender in the league, Mac Caruth, the best blueliner, Seth Jones, and the top sniper, Ty Rattie. That is not even mentioning leading goal scorer Nicolas Petan, Nashville Predators third-rounder Brendan Leipsic, Pittsburgh Penguins first-rounder Derrick Pouliot, Calgary flames second-rounder Tyler Wotherspoon, Philadelphia Flyers third-rounder Taylor Leier, and Danish sensation Oliver Bjorkstrand.

One also has to keep in mind the Winterhawks interim GM-head coach Travis Green never had an opportunity to trade their first-round draft picks because the league stripped a ton of them off the Oregon-based franchise for player benefit violations in November.

Tweener

Saskatoon Blades – Blades GM-head coach Lorne Molleken undoubtedly improved his squad by acquiring Michael Ferland from the Wheat Kings, Erik Benoit from the Kootenay Ice, and Collin Valcourt from the Spokane Chiefs.

Nonetheless, the Bridge City Boys needed a franchise player such as Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter Shinkaruk or Red Deer Rebels defenceman Mathew Dumba to get them to the same level as the Dub’s powerhouse clubs. Molleken failed to acquire one of these all-stars. That is not to say it was Molleken’s fault, though. He was likely simply told ‘thanks, but no thanks’ when he asked about the two stars.

The Blades had to part ways with 20-year-old winger Adam Kambeitz because of their overage surplus with the addition of Ferland. They sent him to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a third-round pick in 2013.

Saskatoon will be in tough against the Oil Kings, Hitmen, and Prince Albert Raiders in the Eastern Conference. They will need Buffalo Sabres prospect Andrey Makarov to stand on his head in the blue paint for them to have any chance at making it to the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

The Blades will play the role of David in the Memorial Cup with Makarov as their slingshot. But they will be up against three Goliaths.

Not having a first-round pick for the next three years and having nearly all of their impact players poised to move onto the pros next year, it seems wins will be hard to come by in Saskatoon after this season. So if Blades fans thought the start of this year was rough, as Bachman Turner Overdrive put it, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Loser

Prince George Cougars – Despite receiving several offers for 2010 No. 1 bantam pick Alex Forsberg, Cougars GM Dallas Thompson chose to hold onto him knowing he wouldn’t return to Prince George for the remainder of the season.

Although Thompson undoubtedly didn’t have any leverage in the Forsberg trade talks, holding on to the Waldheim, Sk., native seems puzzling, especially with Regina Pats play-by-play announcer Phil Andrews reporting on Twitter that Pats GM Chad Lang ‘made an aggressive offer for him.’ It seems it would have been in the best interest for both parties to separate now rather than later.

Thompson will now look to the upcoming bantam draft to deal Forsberg.

Forsberg will finish out this season with the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Unless the 5-foot-11, 184-pound centre really turns around his struggling draft year in Central Saskatchewan, it appears unlikely that his trade stock will be worth more at the draft.

As reported by the Prince George Citizen, Daulton Siwak also recently left the Cougars organization. It is rumoured he left in a disgruntled fashion, too.

One has to wonder with Jesse Forsberg asking for a trade last summer, Alex Forsberg asking for a trade prior to Christmas this year, and Siwak recently following suit – what is going on in Prince George?

The 12-24-1-4 Cougars are poised to miss the post-season for the second consecutive year and haven’t been a contender since 2007. But it seems there are more problems in Prince George than their on-ice woes.

Kelly Friesen is a Buzzing the Net columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellyFriesen