Winterhawks Make Moves at the Trade Deadline


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The WHL has always had a dramatic tint around the deadline for trades, and this year is no different. Outside of Stumptown, the fearsome Kelowna Rockets have just revealed the ace in their sleeve in the form of recent NHL-level Leon Draisaitl, who they acquired from Prince Albert after striking a deal with the same team for Josh Morrissey during the holidays. This stacks the Rockets even further against the rest of the Western Conference, as if they needed the extra help from atop the rankings.

Meanwhile, the Winterhawks have had two large trades go through; while one seems the inevitable conclusion of an ongoing saga, the other is some fresh daylight in one of the larger dark spots on the Portland roster.

The trade news started on Tuesday with the swapping of Brendan Burke and a 2016 Bantam draft pick for fellow goalie Evan Johnson of the Calgary Hitmen. Johnson is a rookie with an encouraging career start, complete with a GA average of 2.84 and a .894 save percentage. Clearly, Coach/GM Kompon has decided that Adin Hill has earned his stripes as the starter and that another eager young buck in the net is a better investment than the oft-maligned Burke, whose yo-yoing performance this season (.888 save percentage, GA average of 3.63) has cost the Hawks several games and cost him the starting slot twice. This switch might be advantageous to the Arizona Coyotes prospect as well, given that he will get more time against teams from a different conference and some work with an altogether different style of defense out in front of him.

The other trade boon for Kompon came a few hours later. League veteran Adam Henry was traded from the Saskatoon Blades for Portland’s second round draft pick for 2017. The 20-year-old defenseman will be putting on his third different jersey for the year, after opening his season playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds before being traded to Saskatoon. Henry has exactly what Kompon and Portland fans have been clamoring for most of the season: experience and responsibility on defense. Hopefully he will add a grounding presence to his pairings and reduce the work that Hill and Johnson will be doing in the more intense back-half of the season.

These shrewd changes to the roster seem to cement Kompon as a general manager who is eager to fix what has been broken. While Burke has gotten a much worse rap than is deserved from fans, his four years with the Hawks have been spotty at the worst times and culminated in the absurd four-goalie roster several months ago. The balance of youth and experience that Kompon is building is a good idea for the Winterhawks because of the WHL’s highly competitive and constantly changing standings. Johnson will certainly come in handy when Hill is inevitably whisked away to the NHL, but as the surplus of rookies start moving up to the main offensive lines and defensive pairings there needs to be someone who can show them how to work together and stand toe-to-toe with the meaner lines from Canada.

We will soon get to see the fruits of Kompon’s labor, with a road trip to Kamloops and Prince George coming up next week. Here’s hoping the new kids on the bus fit in with the fan favorites.

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Kyle Martinak
In addition to being a hockey nerd, Kyle is also is an on-camera personality for www.escapistmagazine.com and maintains various podcasts and webcomics revolving around movies, video games, and comics at his personal site, www.chaingangmedia.com.
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