The Saskatoon Blades made two trades on Wednesday to solve the team’s overage player dilemma while solidifying their future in net.
Overage goaltender Logan Flodell was dealt to the Swift Current Broncos in exchange for a second-round pick in 2020 and a fifth-round pick in 2019.
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The Blades then acquired goalie Ryan Kubic from the Vancouver Giants for a second-round pick in 2019.
The trade leaves the Blades will three overage players on the roster: Braylon Shmyr, Cameron Hebig and Evan Fiala.
Blades general manager Colin Priestner said while it was hard to trade Flodell, it was done with an eye on what’s best for the team now and in the future.
“All four guys are special and in any scenario we were going to lose a star player,” Priestner said in a release.
“We know how good Logan is and what an incredible season he had with us last year, and losing him is difficult.”
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Priestner said keeping Shmyr and Hebig will help protect the team’s young players.
“We simply felt the combination of Hebig and Shmyr playing together as 20’s would give us a first line on par with any other in the league and would insulate our young star players from having to play against top lines and top d-men every night,” Priestner said.
“We now have a five-year plan in net moving forward and this fills the gap that would have been created with Logan graduating next year.”
That plan includes Kubic, who has represented Canada at the World U17 Hockey Challenge.
“Ryan was one of only six 1998 born goalies to play for Team Canada at the World U17 Hockey Challenge and is a very athletic and confident goalie,” Priestner said.
“He had three consecutive shutouts in his rookie season behind an extremely young D-core and we feel very confident with him in our net for the next two seasons.”
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Kubic is expected to start for the Blades on Friday when they take on the Swift Current Broncos to start the 2017-18 WHL season.