2021 Regular Season

[Some_Arrogant_Jerk]

I wonder if two previous shortened seasons will make this a busier deadline...after certain assurances that theyll actually be playing a full season+post season, of course. After all, given the loony environment we are in right now, the possibility there's no trades or even a season next year still exists. Teams may want to double down this year to make moves while they can?

Also I noticed, while making this reply, that Calgary already made a notable deal with RD by moving a Dman(van der leest is a very different type of D compared to Evans, though it is still assets spent) . At least Red Deer is confident that theyll see a post season, and therefore are not throwing assets into the wind. But its possible that teams are not as worried as I suspected?

Could this be the catalyst to the rest of the teams acting? or one team wandering off the reservation?

[Fight Guy]

Well this was a little surprising, but looks like Smith was released or maybe could be moved still? Though not sure who would be interested other than PA. I guess that takes care of the overage situation... though still really hoping we see Evans moved.

Looks like we get some hockey this weekend and next week! Bedard will get to pick up where he left off with the Warriors hopefully, though you'd think they'd have a new game plan to try to slow him down. Possible factor (though there have been times where it hasn't meant a thing), MJ will be playing their third in 48 hours, while the Pats will be playing their first game since New Years day. According to Dante Dicaria (sp?), Bedard looks to have been practicing on a different level than he has seen before. Will he have another monster game?? I'm guessing he just takes off in the second half. Should be fun to watch.

[dsquared]

Looks like Geci is no longer with the team.................... but I guess this is not news worthy - Vanstone didn't mention it in his LP article discussing other recent departures/changes to the Pats.

[Fight Guy]

It wasn't announced at all, but Geci was released or left last week before the roster deadline and Logan Linklater took his spot.

First trade of the day happened and I'm fairly happy with it. As much as I would have liked to seen him as a 20yo next season, Englot goes to the Blazers for Tye Spencer, a player I wanted the Pats to draft in 2019 (they chose Huck a few picks before him). He's been burried in the bottom six on a contending Blazers team. Has always been a goal scorer. Should be a very productive player for the Pats once he settles in.

[dsquared]

Cadieux to the Giants for a couple of picks 5th round in 22 & 3rd round in 23

[chopper]

All in all the trade deadline was very anticlimactic league wide. The Blazers probably did the most although there were some big name deals done. The Blazers clearly felt they needed to get a bit bigger and more rugged in that big Western Conference. Englot is a big rugged kid and Toporowki is fairly gritty and experienced. I guess we'll id Sourdif is worth what Edmonton paid. I'm not convinced on that one.

IMO the Pats fell far short of what they had hoped might happen. The total take away from the day wasn't too impressive in my mind. We added Tye Spencer who scored big in Bantam but wasn't too productive in Midget AAA and he wasn't overly productive at the WHL level. He did have a 4 assist outing once, so four of his points came in that one game. At 5'8" - 145 he is going to spend a lot of time in the weight room to beef up and strengthen up. He was available to the Pats when they took Huck but they also had Firkus available to them. Firkus has what? 21 goals and 40 some points. Huck wasn't on anybody's radar but I guess that's how it goes. We will have to see what Spencer amounts to but we have to accept that a small team just got smaller. His weight is the biggest problem. Both Howe and Bedard are around that 180 mark. That's his goal.

Judging by the comments here we were all of the opinion that Evans would/should be moved for assets. Evidently the deal just wasn't there. Paddock looked a little upset at his presser. I almost get the sense that some team backed out on him when it came down to the short strokes, and he sort of intimated that. He said he spoke to Evans the night before that he might be moved. I doubt he would have said much if there wasn't something in the works. As far as the upcoming draft the Pats have 5 picks in the first three rounds so they are in good shape. It would have however been nice to add another 1st because you can never have too many 1st round picks. With Evans, Svosil, Fiest and Salame the Pats have the makings of a very strong defence. It should be interesting to see how this teams gels and how it progresses towards locking down a playoff position.

[dsquared]

Paddock looked a little upset at his presser. .

He always looks that way.... He could easily have been up in the balcony with Statler and Waldorf ......

[Some_Arrogant_Jerk]

I dont know what was proposed to John, but Id suspect, with a high level of certainty, that he was dealing with Winnipeg. Not only were there very few teams looking to add a D(Edmonton had picked up Guhle, Everett is covered for all star defence, Kamloops already has two OA dmen), but it would explain their overpayment for a relatively underwhelming dman in the final hour. Spending a 1st for a player who produces like Cadieux does suggest Vancouver didnt want to part with him. Hell, it's likely no coincidence Vancouver was the team who traded for Cadieux in the same time frame, but for more reasonable value.

Evans being a 20 must've been the main hurdle between them. Moving an OA wasnt going to happen, as Smallwood is a big part of their offence, moving Orzeck would go against the point of defensive depth, and good old Cole Muir would be awfully sour at the prospect of moving back to his old team after grinding through the Kootenay rebuild, just like we did to him before our first run. Also, the prices for OAs are low compared to previous years. Three OA swaps followed the same formula of "better OA for pick and necessary throw-in without value". I imagine Paddock is too nice to say he was lowballed.

The englot trade was probably one of the only independently planned moves in the entire day, the rest being reactions from other moves. He wouldve been on my shortlist for OA next year(can always pick him up again Robbie Holmes-style in the offseason, I suppose), but value-wise, pats definitely came out on top here. A young roster player for a middle 6 veteran center is a great return. And Cadieux is underrated, but honestly on the bubble for next year. Thinning out our 02s was preferable to going scorched earth rebuild. So maybe all of this all works out for the best? 4 points separate us from 7th, 10 points from 4th and we have plenty of games in hand and are well rested. We have the league's best forward, a veteran defence, some youth getting good ice and a goalie who could get hot. Playoffs are certainly attainable.

[Reider]

The trade deadline was underwhelming. Moving Tom Cadieux was a no brainer in my mind and the return the Pats got for him was fair. It was also understandable that Kamloops was interested in Drew Englot for their playoff run and the Pats got a younger player in return, who can hopefully get bigger and stronger and become a bigger point producer as time goes on.

After that, I was hoping that the Pats would move more players in order to stock the shelves a bit more for their rebuild.

I don't know why, but for some reason, people (GM's included apparently) seem to have a difficult time seeing Ryker Evans' value. He has a great skill set and if you look at the stats, he's leading the WHL in points for defensemen. Not second, not tied for first. He is #1 in the league right now. And he's doing it on a basement dwelling team. We saw what the return was for Guhle was and we saw what the return was for Sourdif. So if you are a fan or GM who thinks that Ryker Evans is only worth a 2nd round draft pick or something along those lines, that's absolute nonsense. I'll save you the time, Guhle is way down the list at #25 and Evans even has more points than Sourdif right now, even though Sourdif has played 8 fewer games.

I think it was a lose-lose-lose for everyone that Evans wasn't moved. Evans doesn't have a chance to play for a Championship this year, all of the contending teams are missing out on having him on their teams and the Pats are missing out by not having those resources in the coffers for the future. It will definitely be great to have Evans finish his WHL career with the Pats and hopefully the Pats can have a strong second half push and make their way into a playoff spot.

Apart from those moves, the Pats did shuffle the deck a bit. Smith and Geci are both gone as well. Linklater and Spencer are in. Hopefully, Linklater and Spencer are able to add something to the offence and we see better team chemistry in the second half of the season. On defense, Salame essentially replaces Cadieux, so the Pats actually got older on defense. Even though I was hoping that the Pats could have gotten a bigger return at the trade deadline, I'm now hoping that the Pats have a strong second half and that they are able to make the playoffs. Players like Evans and Nijhoff etc.. should be on playoff teams this year and if they couldn't be moved at the deadline, then perhaps the Pats can just go ahead and make the playoffs themselves.

[Reider]

The home and home tonight and tomorrow Vs. Brandon has been postponed and the Pats have had a number of other games postponed due to "cases." I haven't kept track of how may Pats games have been postponed, but it is not sustainable and something is going to have to give somewhere. The worst case scenario is that things get out of control and the season would have to get cancelled. It doesn't look like that's going to happen at this point. The NHL is going to stop testing healthy players in early February and hopefully the WHL does the same. This insanity has to stop. They have to stop postponing games unless a lot of players are actually sick and teams can't ice a team due to illness, which I doubt is ever really the case. These postponed games are probably going to be re-scheduled, which is going to create a busier second half schedule. And if there are too many postponed and rescheduled games, then it will get overwhelmingly busy for many teams.

As of now, the league can probably just re-schedule the games, but if games keep getting postponed, then the league will have to look at extending the season and / or perhaps expanding the roster limit size and / or allowing 16 year old players in their 15 year old seasons to play more than 5 games.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is that the Pats' coaches and GM have been saying recently that this is probably the best their defensive core has been, since the Memorial Cup. I can't say that I disagree with that sentiment. They have two OA defensmen, one (Evans) which is NHL drafted and leading the league in points for defensmen, Svozil, who's in his 18 year old season, NHL drafted and WCJ caliber, and then the rest of the defensive core is competent / good and there's a good mix of talent and toughness. I don't think the Pats have any weak links on defense right now. I really like their defensive core. They'll lose Evans and Salame next year, but they have Corbin Vaughan ready to join the team full time next year. And speaking of Salame, I don't know what anyone else thinks of him as he's only played one game for the Pats so far, but I thought he looked good vs. Calgary. He's essentially taking Cadieux's spot on the roster and I don't think the Pats got any worse with that trade off.

We haven't seen Tye Spencer or Logan Linklater in a Pats uniform yet, but hopefully one or both of them can add something to the Pats' offense.

Hopefully the Pats can play good enough in the second half of the season to earn a playoff spot and it would be even better if they didn't have to play Winnipeg in the first round.