WHL Trade Frenzy

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A number of deals over the last few days in the WHL as the October 10th deadline for teams to get down to three 20-year-olds draws closer. The Prince George Cougars have been front and center this week having been involved in a number of deals. A summary of the transactions follows...


As Dean mentioned over the last few days, Prince George added former Ohio State forward Taylor Stefishen and also made a deal with Saskatoon to acquire Sena Acolatse - both are 20-year-olds giving the Cougars 5, two too many.

Today they relieved some of the pressure by dealing California native Parker Stansfield to the Everett Silvertips in exchange for a 6th round pick in 2012. PG has to move out one more body and the other two overagers on the squad are goalie Morgan Clark and forward James Dobrowolski. No easy decision there as Clark was brought in to solidify their netminding position but Dobrowolski has 5 points in 5 games so far this year.

Elsewhere, Vancouver dealt netminder Derek Tendler to the struggling Swift Current Broncos today. The Giants get back a 6th rounder and are left with rookie Brendan Jensen and sophomore Mark Segal between the pipes.

The Broncos has been slow out of the gate with starter Mark Friesen posting a 1-4 record and .876 SV%.

The Giants have listed Slovakian centre Andrej Stastny, originally a Saskatoon Blades import pick. Vancouver hopes to get him into their line up ASAP but red tape might delay that until after the World Junior Championship in Buffalo.

Spokane has added some toughness in former Grande Prairie Storm forward Darren Kramer. Kramer has played in the AJHL for a few years, was actually drafted by Edmonton in 2009 when the club desperately needed to add a tough guy, however, Kramer surprised everyone by opting for a return to G.P. instead of suiting up with the Oil Kings. Obviously something has changed for him, perhaps a NCAA scholarship was not in the works so he's going to capitalize on the WHL scholarship program for the remainder of his junior eligibility?

I'm sure there will be a smattering of other player transactions over the next few days.