The WHL trade season is in overdrive, but so far it’s passed the Everett Silvertips by.
Everett general manager Garry Davidson is in the market to upgrade the Tips before Saturday’s WHL trade deadline. However, despite the high volume of moves made throughout the league in the week leading up to the deadline, he’s been unable to find any willing trade partners.
“We’ve been trying for two weeks to make something happen, but we haven’t been able to do anything that makes sense,” Davidson said Thursday from Regina, Saskatchewan, where the team was spending its off day prior to Friday’s game at Moose Jaw. “I’ve tried to make some additions to the team, but the cost is too much for the most part. We’re trying to add and not take away from the group, but every time I reach out to someone they want too much of our present group or too much of our future. I’m really struggling to get some of the team’s needs addressed.”
Everett currently finds itself in first place in the U.S. Division at 24-12-3-1, five points ahead of Spokane. However, Everett isn’t usually listed among the favorites to win the league championship. Kelowna, Brandon and Medicine Hat all have better records than the Tips, and all three teams have already made multiple deals to add impact players to their lineup.
Everett, which is seeking its first division banner since 2007, would like to make similar upgrades before the deadline, which arrives at 11 a.m. PST Saturday. But despite a whopping 18 deals being consummated in the league since Monday, Davidson has been unable to get involved. Yet.
“I still think there’s time,” Davidson said. “Today’s the eighth and we have until (11 a.m.) on the 10th, so there’s still the possibly something could happen. The operative word seems to be, ‘patience,’ and something might come together. I’ve been exploring, I’ll continue to do so.”
The primary area of concern for Everett is at forward. The Tips have just 13 forwards on the roster, and that includes winger Logan Aasman, who’s out indefinitely because of an upper-body injury. Everett has regularly found itself having to use spare defensemen at forward all season long.
But Davidson isn’t just concerned about depth. Everett has scored 126 goals in 40 games this season, which puts the Tips in the middle of the WHL pack in terms of goal scoring. An impact offensive performer, perhaps to skate on a line with leading scorer Nikita Scherbak, could vault the Tips into the upper echelon offensively.
“Since day one I’ve thought that we need another top-six forward,” Davidson said. “But those are very difficult to find and very expensive. Another body up front who is harder to play against might be nice, too. Time will tell if I’m able to find that out there.”
Several of the high-end forwards who were believed to be available have already been moved, most notably Regina selling off 19-year-olds Morgan Klimchuk (Brandon), Dryden Hunt (Medicine Hat) and Connor Gay (Red Deer). The biggest name who may still be available is Kamloops 19-year-old Cole Ully.
As for the defense, there’s minor rumblings the Tips may be able to upgrade without having to swing a deal.
There’s been speculation about the possibility of defenseman Mirco Mueller being sent back to Everett. Mueller, who spent the previous two seasons with the Tips, has spent this season with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, who selected him in the first round of the 2013 NHL draft. However, Mueller has been a regular healthy scratch for San Jose, and he was loaned to Switzerland for the World Junior Hockey Championships. Because Mueller is 19 and was drafted out of the WHL he cannot play professionally in the minors. Therefore, if the Sharks determine he needs to go somewhere else to play more, Everett is the only option.
Though there’s been no indication from San Jose that Mueller could be returned to Everett, Davidson did not dismiss the possibility of it happening.
“I think there’s always a chance,” Davidson said. “We’ve seen other guys get sent back (Leon Draisaitl, another 19-year-old, was returned to the WHL by the Edmonton Oilers last week and was subsequently traded by Prince Albert to Kelowna). We don’t control that or have influence on that. We want Mirco to do well and wish him the best no matter what shakes out. We’d love to have him back, but we’re not going to count on it. We’re going to do other things to try and help our group. Mirco’s addition would be outstanding, but it’s up to his parent club in the NHL.”
If Mueller is sent back, Everett would have three European players for just two import roster slots, the others being Russian forwards Scherbak and Ivan Nikolishin. However, if Mueller is sent back after Saturday’s trade deadline, making trading one of the three no longer possible, it’s believed the Tips would be able to keep all three.
Saturday’s trade deadline could be unusually quiet. Deadline day is usually greeted by a flurry of activity. However, with the large number of moves that have already been made, there may be little left in the tank come Saturday.
“(The trade market) has been pretty active,” Davidson said. “It might be that between now and the 10th not a whole lot will happen. Some of it has been interesting. There were some trades where I thought teams overpaid, and there were some where I thought a team could have got more. It’s been interesting.”
Tips on TV
ROOT Sports has released its broadcast schedule for the second half of the WHL season. The network will televise eight games on Friday nights the remainder of the season. Everett will be involved in three of those games: Jan. 23 when the Tips are at Kelowna, Feb. 20 when the Tips host Tri-City, and March 20, when Everett is at Victoria.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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