Wheaties send Nate Danielson at deadline

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This article was published 11/01/2024 (841 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings traded their captain on Wednesday afternoon, sending Nate Danielson to the Portland Winterhawks for two players and three draft picks in a blockbuster deal at the Western Hockey League trade deadline.

Brandon received 18-year-old defenceman Rhett Ravndahl of Birch Hills, Sask., 18-year-old forward Nicholas Johnson of Calgary, first-round picks in 2025 and 2027 and a fifth-round pick in 2026.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said eight teams reached out to inquire about Danielson’s availability and several made substantial offers. The Wheat Kings brain trust eventually decided to go with the package put forward by Portland general manager Mike Johnston.

“We’ve talked quite a bit to them over the last number of weeks and Mike obviously expressed his interest in Nate,” Murray said. “They feel like they have a real strong contender. It wasn’t something we took lightly. We looked at this for a long, long time.

“I certainly don’t want to trade Nate Danielson, first and foremost. I think he’s an exceptional hockey player and an even better kid and family.”

The Wheat Kings actually explored the idea of buying top-end talent instead of selling, but with prices so high and massive moves already made by the Saskatoon Blades, Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos, the latter became the better option.

“You look at what the teams in our conference did in the last month, we just couldn’t afford to get into a war of acquiring those types of players without sacrificing so much for the future,” Murray said. “Whether they had built up assets or not, we just didn’t so that played into the real tough decision to move Nate today.”

The last time Brandon traded its captain was in 2018 when Tanner Kaspick was sent to the Victoria Royals for first-round picks in 2019 and 2021, plus prospects Jonny Lambos and Ty Thorpe.

During the 2019 draft, Brandon sent that pick with the rights to college defenceman Sean Comrie to the Kelowna Rockets for Kelowna’s fifth overall pick, and the Wheat Kings grabbed Danielson.

In 171 regular season games with Brandon, Danielson had 176 points, with three points in six playoff games. His last point for Brandon was the tying goal with 81 seconds remaining in regulation.

He had 12 goals and 14 assists in 26 games with the team this season after missing time as he got a long look from the Detroit Red Wings at the start of the season, and then was away in December and January to play with Canada’s world junior team.

“We had some offers that were probably heavier on the pick side, but we felt it was important to get a couple of players to come in and help us,” Murray said. “If we just went and got all picks, it would have been pretty deflating.

“Obviously it still is for our guys, but we felt it was a good opportunity to gain some assets and at the same time, you look at the depth chart for next year, and there’s two more experienced players who come from a winning program. That was part of it. They could be regulars on our team for perhaps two-and-a-half years.”

Johnson, a left-handed shot, has eight goals, 18 assists and 50 penalty minutes in 93 career WHL games. He was Portland’s 10th-round pick, 220th overall in 2020.

He has been out since Dec. 10 with a lower-body injury, but is skating and should be cleared to play soon.

“Nick is a big-body forward who plays up and down their lineup,” Murray said. “He’s an 18-year-old who is just scratching the surface of hopefully what he can be. We don’t expect him to come in here and replace Nate. He’s not going to do that, but we feel like he can be a piece of a puzzle here to keep us moving forward for a couple years to come.”

Ravndahl, a six-foot-one, 175-pound right shot, has a goal and five assists with 40 penalty minutes in 57 career WHL games during two full seasons and a callup during the 2020-21 campaign. He was Portland’s fourth-round pick, 83rd overall, in the 2020 draft.

“Rhett is an every-day player for them,” Murray said. “He’s a puck mover, he’s a pretty good skater, and again he’s just scratching the surface. They had a real deep team in Portland this year, an older team, so their roles will probably be expanded here. I think it’s an opportunity for them to continue to develop.

“I talked to both on the phone and they’re excited. Obviously, it’s a shock when you get traded, but they’re excited.”

The two players both have their vehicles in Portland and are working through the logistics of how they are going to get here.

In a second deal, Brandon sent 18-year-old forward Evan Groening to the Prince George Cougars for a 10th-round pick in 2027. Groening had two goals in 15 games with the Wheat Kings this season before being sent down to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals.

Groening, who the Wheat Kings drafted in the ninth round in 2020, has nine points in seven games with the Oil Caps, and is expected to stay in Virden for now.

“When he went to Virden, he was trying to get another opportunity in the league,” Murray said. “I talked to his agent over the last few days and that was their wish, to try to stay in the Western Hockey League, and we wanted to give him an opportunity.”

With another defenceman coming in, the club reassigned 19-year-old defenceman Tre Fouquette to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Nipawin Hawks.

In 24 games, the 19-year-old blue-liner from Warman, Sask., had a goal and three assists and a plus-minus of +2 despite being a healthy scratch many nights.

He made the club after a free-agent tryout at training camp after debuting in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders.

“It was a real tough one,” Murray said. “Tre is such a really good kid and he was in and out of the lineup, but like a true professional he worked extremely hard. He was a great teammate, and that’s not an easy role to be in. Just with us bringing in another defenceman today who is a year younger, out of fairness to Tre, he has to play hockey.

“For him to be out of the lineup a lot, that gets pretty old and we felt he deserved to play. Your window of junior hockey isn’t the biggest one.”

There were 17 trades across the league from the end of the trade freeze on Dec. 27 to Tuesday. On Wednesday, there were 13 more.

The most interesting may have been a three-way deal between the Edmonton Oil Kings, Saskatoon Blades and Kelowna Rockets which saw the Blades land 19-year-old defensive defenceman John Babcock.

In another big deal, the Vancouver Giants acquired Kamloops Blazers forward Connor Levis for three picks.

None of the others were near the scale of the Danielson deal.

Murray said it’s been a busy period.

“It never ends,” Murray said. “You’re talking to GMs constantly and seeing what might be there to be a fit for your team. You have things in your mind you want to do, but that doesn’t happen. We talked to a number of teams on a number of situations and you just have to weigh out for the short term. Do you want to spend a lot?

“We know what the trade market is like right now. It’s super expensive to make a lot of trades if you’re a buyer. We kicked over a lot of cans and looked at every possible trade.”

Brandon has made nine other deals since the end of the 2022-23 season.

• Nov. 30 — In a one-for-one deal involving overage defencemen, Jackson DeSouza was acquired from Kelowna in return for Kayden Sadhra-Kang.

• Nov. 13 — In a one-for-one deal involving a pair of 18-year-old forwards, Brandon acquired Matteo Michels from Regina for the disgruntled Tony Wilson, who had asked for a trade.

• Nov. 4 — Injured forward Ben Thornton, 19, was dealt to Kelowna for an unspecified conditional pick.

• Oct. 11 — Brandon acquired 17-year-old defenceman Seth Tansem from Prince Albert for a fourth-round pick in 2025.

• Oct. 5 — Brandon solved its overage logjam by trading 20-year-old forward Dawson Pasternak to Victoria for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024.

• Sept. 27 — Brandon sent 19-year-old defenceman Zach Turner to Swift Current for a sixth-round pick in 2024.

• Sept. 20 — Brandon acquired overage forward Jayden Wiens from Saskatoon for a third-round pick in 2025 and a fourth-round pick in 2027.

• Aug. 2 — Brandon sent 18-year-old forward Hayden Chaloner to Victoria for a ninth-round pick in 2026.

• May 18 — Brandon addressed its overage situation by dealing 20-year-old defenceman Logen Hammett to Vancouver for a fourth-round pick in 2024.

Murray, who joined the club as general manager in August 2023 but took on the head coaching duties as well that November, said it’s a relief to have the deadline behind him.

He met with the players in the dressing room at 4:50 p.m., and it was clearly an emotional day for everyone involved.

“I’ve been looking forward to Jan. 11 for a while,” Murray said. “You get attached to these kids, especially since moving from upstairs to downstairs and being in both chairs. They’re such a good group of kids.

“It’s hard. You see young men in there with tears in their eyes and it pulls at your heartstrings. This is not a fun day for management. I’m glad it’s over.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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