Brandon makes minor deals at deadline

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The Brandon Wheat Kings traded a goalie and acquired another one on Thursday at the Western Hockey League trade deadline.

The Wheat Kings sent 19-year-old goalie Alex Garrett of Saskatoon to the Wenatchee Wild for a fifth-round pick in 2028, and then made a deal for the future, acquiring 17-year-old goalie Hudson Perry from the Edmonton Oil Kings for a conditional sixth-round pick in 2027.

The deadline, which was moved up a day from its traditional spot on Jan. 10 by WHL general managers, passed at 7 p.m. Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s been a hectic week.

“It was really busy,” Murray said. “You talk to everybody. It’s crazy how expensive everything is. It’s tempting, but at the same time we engaged in conversations about some of those bigger fish on the market, and for us, losing a really good young prospect or multiple draft picks, is tempting but not a path we really want to explore and do detriment to this window we have as well as the future of our club.”

Garrett was acquired from the Everett Silvertips on Dec. 27 for a fifth-round pick in 2026. He was needed with starter Carson Bjarnason away with Team Canada at the world juniors, and backup Ethan Eskit nursing an upper-body injury he aggravated during the Christmas break.

“He came in and did an outstanding job for us in an emergency situation,” Murray said of Garrett. “He gave us a chance to win five games and we won four. Those are big points, and he created a conversation for sure about what we were going to do with our goaltending.”

Garrett appeared in five games with Brandon, posting a 4-1-0-0 record, a 2.40 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage.

Unfortunately for him, the number that mattered most was 2005. That’s his birth year, which means he would be an overager next season trying to earn one of the three spots in a deep group that includes defenceman Quinn Mantei and forwards Nick Johnson, Matteo Michels and Dominik Petr.

“Eskit has had a real good first half of the season as well and he’s a year younger,” Murray said. “When you throw Garrett into the equation age-wise, him being a 20 next year complicates things. If we have a 20-year-old goalie, then that removes another really good 20-year-old we can have who is in our room right now.”

Garrett will also get a chance to contend for the starting job in Wenatchee, while he would have been behind Bjarnason if he had stayed.

Perry, meanwhile, has split this season between the Oil Kings and the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Drayton Valley Thunder.

In four appearances in Edmonton, he posted a 6.20 goals-against average and .785 save percentage, while in the AJHL, he has a 3.26 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage in three appearances.

A product of Sexsmith, Alta., he went undrafted in 2022 but was listed out of Edmonton’s training camp and signed with the club on Sept. 15, 2023. In 21 career appearances over two seasons, the six-foot-two, 161-pound goaltender has a 4-11-3-0 record, a 4.83 goals-against average and a .852 save percentage.

He is expected to stay in the AJHL unless one of Brandon’s goalies is injured.

“That’s a roster management thing a little bit,” Murray said. “We don’t have an ‘07 (2007-born) goalie in our group. We’re only going to have Eskit, as it stands right now, back for next year so it’s an opportunity for him to come in and earn an opportunity … We did it to protect ourselves and thinking about a worst-case scenario, whether it’s injuries or what have you, it makes sense to have another junior-capable player in case we need to.”

Dylan McFadyen, 16, is the only other signed goalie in the organization.

In total, there were 11 deals made across the league on Thursday after many of the most highly sought after players were dealt earlier.

On Wednesday, the Spokane Chiefs emerged as a surprise buyer of 19-year-old forward Andrew Cristall from the Kelowna Rockets. The Chiefs, who haven’t been aggressive on the trade front this season, sent 17-year-old forward Hayden Paupanekis of Winnipeg, a first-round pick in 2025, a third-round pick in 2025, a first-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2026 and a sixth-round pick to the Rockets.

Kelowna is divesting top players as it builds up to host the 2026 Memorial Cup. Cristall, a prospect of the Washington Capitals, is second in the league in scoring with 60 points, which came from 26 goals and 34 assists in just 28 games.

The Rockets dealt 19-year-old defenceman Caden Price to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Tuesday, and 19-year-old Czech defenceman Marek Rocak to the Swift Current Broncos on Wednesday.

The other major shoe to drop came when the Saskatoon Blades sent 19-year-old forward Ben Riche of Bethune, Sask., to the Prince George Cougars for 18-year-old forward Hunter Laing of Kelowna, the rights to 15-year-old defenceman Luke Dumas of Beaverlodge, Alta., a first-round pick in 2026 and a fifth-round pick in 2028.

Riche is having a career season, with 23 goals and 31 assists in 37 games. He will be joining his fourth WHL team.

While it would be nice as the head coach to go out and acquire a bunch of talent, Murray noted the general manager has to be a little more cautious. After all, it’s a team that’s internally considered to be good enough to contend for the next few years.

“We could have traded away all of our draft picks and built a heckuva team for three months and hope we get past the top teams and have a historic run,” Murray said. “That might work out or it might not. The thing for us is, what’s it look like coming to the rink for the next four years? Brandon is a franchise that I don’t think that sits well.

“I know there are fans out there that think we should go all in but the prices for everything are multiple draft picks. I don’t think it’s a short-term thing that you can have the opportunity to go all the way.

“We still feel really good about our group, but at the same time, you have to be careful. We don’t want to be that team that is first in the conference and then the next four years we’re battling to keep our heads above water.”

In the age of the super teams assembled through multiple trades, however, Murray acknowledged there is a pressure to keep up.

“It kind of appears to be that way,” Murray said. “It’s not saying we don’t want to win. If there is a time that maybe we can get more aggressive. That’s something to look at and might happen down the road. In order to do, a few things have to happen. You have to be healthy, and our biggest prospect and best player has been on the shelf all year and we don’t know exactly what is going to happen.”

Brandon has been active participant at the trade deadline in recent years.

A year ago, they sent their captain, Nate Danielson to the Portland Winterhawks for forward Nick Johnson, defenceman Rhett Ravndahl, first-round picks in 2025 and 2027 and a fifth-round pick in 2026.

In 2023, they acquired Nolan Flamand from the Kelowna Rockets and sent Jake Chiasson to the Saskatoon Blades, and back in 2018, they moved Tanner Kaspick to the Victoria Royals and Kale Clague to the Moose Jaw Warriors for picks and players.

Prior to deadline day, Brandon made six trades since the end of last season.

• Jan. 7 — Defenceman Charlie Elick of Calgary, 18, and a third-round pick in 2026 were sent to the Tri-City Americans for forward Jordan Gavin of Surrey B.C., 18, and defenceman Merrek Arpin of Calgary, 18.

• Jan. 7 — Defenceman Rhett Ravndahl, 19 of Birch Hills, Sask., was sent to the Kamloops Blazers for a fifth-round pick in 2026.

• Dec. 27 — A fifth-round pick in 2026 was sent to the Everett Silvertips for goaltender Alex Garrett, 19, of Saskatoon.

• Sept. 24 — Overage forward Rylan Roersma of Raymond, Alta., was sent to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a second-round pick in 2026 and a fifth-round pick in 2027.

• Sept. 16 — Defenceman Seth Tansem of Kelowna, 18, was sent to the Wenatchee Wild for a sixth-round pick in 2027.

• June 5 — Forward Reed Brown of Tempe, Ariz., 16, was sent to the Portland Winterhawks for overage forward Marcus Nguyen of Calgary.

All in all, especially with the return of Bjarnason and forward Dominik Petr from the world juniors, Murray thinks his team is better than it was a week ago.

“I think Jordan Gavin has the ability to do really good things,” Murray said. “He’s a second overall pick and ranked to go in the second, third, fourth round of the (National Hockey League) draft. I think he can push to be a 100-point pace guy in the second half of the season.

“With Merrek, he’s a stay-at-home, knows-what-he-is defenceman and that’s what we’re hoping to get out of him. When you combine that with getting Petr back, getting Bjarnason back and then the big thing is that we’re hopeful Roger will come back at some point. That would be huge for us. We feel really good about our four lines we can put out night in and night out, and if Roger comes back, we’re a real deep team up front.”

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