Giants may move first-round pick in deal
Team has two early selections, giving GM Parneta ammunition to land immediate help
What’s an extra 2020 WHL Bantam firstround draft pick worth these days?
That’s what fans of the Giants have to be wondering with the Jan. 10 WHL trade deadline quickly approaching, especially with Vancouver’s GM Barclay Parneta sounding like he’s not done retooling his team’s roster.
Parneta landed another first-round pick to go with the Giants’ own selection next spring from the Medicine Hat Tigers as part of a swap last Saturday that saw the Giants add right-winger Tyler Preziuso and defenceman Trevor Longo to the current lineup.
The Kelowna Rockets obtained overage forward Matthew Wedman, who had 40 goals last season and has 52 WHL playoff and Memorial Cup games on his resume, from the Seattle Thunderbirds last week for a three-pick package highlighted by a 2023 first rounder.
That makes you think Vancouver could find a player who could help solve their scoring woes for a package led by that first rounder. And Parneta makes you think he’s still keen on adding to a Vancouver squad that’s been inconsistent this season, despite having much of the core group back from a team that lost Game 7 of the WHL Championship Final series in overtime last spring.
The Giants woke up Wednesday sitting 14th overall in the 22-team league, with their pedestrian 14-13-1-1 mark. They were 21st on the power play due to their man-advantage groups clicking at only 11.9 (13-of-109) per cent.
“I think we have the good base of a team here,” Parneta said. “We still have a long way to go to prove ourselves, but I think we have the pieces to go deep again.
“I’ve said all along that last year just rolled along and this year is a build toward something, and then our damage is going to be done in the playoffs.”
Kelowna is the host team for the Memorial Cup national tournament this coming spring. They need to load up on talent. That ups the prices on trades across the league. As well, this season feels like there’s more parity in the WHL, with five or six teams in both the Eastern and Western Conferences coming off as legitimate contenders. Last season, it seemed there were three or four powers in the entire league. That fact makes it a seller’s market.
“There are teams still in the mix that have players who would have been traded in other years,” Parneta said.
“When it comes to the availability of really good players the market is quite small.
“I think there’s a pretty strong group of overages in the league, so I think you won’t see a ton of action with the 20-year-olds. I think you’ll see some small movement. It’s 19-year-old players who will be sought after.”
That leads to a further complicating matter. A 19-yearold signed by an NHL club is expected to play in minor pro at least the following season rather than return to the WHL, but he isn’t necessarily the equivalent of a pending free agent in the NHL when it comes to trades at this level.
The Tri-City Americans didn’t deal Carey Price and the Giants didn’t swap out Brendan Gallagher in their 19-year-old seasons even though their clubs weren’t expected to make major playoff runs in those seasons. And the Regina Pats didn’t even make the playoffs in Jordan Eberle’s 19-year-old year, yet they didn’t trade him.
To some teams, marquee talents have meaning even after their playing eligibility is finished.
“The value in long-term recruiting that you have when a player graduates from your team is pretty important to an organization,” Parneta said when asked what the likes of Gallagher, Evander Kane and Milan Lucic succeeding in pro hockey over the years has meant to the Vancouver franchise.
“I couldn’t put a price on it, but the fact people hear those type of names and they’re associated with the Giants, it lends credibility to us, and shows that we’re able to develop pros. At the end of the day, that’s where all these kids want to go.”
The Tigers received defenceman Dylan Plouffe, centre Lukas Svejkovsky and a 2020 third-round choice in the trade with Vancouver. There’s a conditional 2021 fifth-round selection to Vancouver and a conditional 2021 third-round pick to Medicine Hat on the books as well.
Medicine Hat has its own first -rounder plus the Saskatoon Blades’ pick, which went to the Tigers in a 2018 deadline deal that saw winger Max Gerlach head to Saskatoon.
Parneta says the Tigers will decide which pick they’re giving up. As of Wednesday morning, the Tigers (21-8-10) were fourth overall in the WHL and the Blades (14-14-12) were 12th, which makes one think they’ll part with their own choice.
Along with Preziuso and Longo, Parneta has brought in defenceman Connor Horning through a trade with the Swift Current Broncos and wingers Holden Katzalay and Michal Kvasnica via signings in the past two weeks.