Before this 24 game season is over, the Thunderbirds will have employed the services of 12 WHL rookies. Honestly, it could have been more but there are only so many minutes in a game and just 24 spots on this roster. So if my humble math skills are correct, that would still be 50 percent of the team, right? At least that's what my trusty calculator tells me.
While two of the rookies still await their debuts, the other 10 have combined for 21 points through nine games on six goals and 15 assists. That's about 30 percent of the team's offense so far. They've also chipped in two game-winning goals and they've complied a 5-4-0-0 record in net with a 3.16 GAA and a save percentage of .901, with one shutout.
In a normal season this doesn't happen. But this season is far from normal and with no championship to play for, no playoff spot to hunt down and with nothing but pride on the line, this is the approach you should take. Because this season is not about this season. For Seattle, it's really about next season and the season beyond that.
This is like baseball spring training where teams play about 20 games to prepare for 162. The T-Birds are playing a 24 game preseason to prep for the (hopefully) 68 game 2021-22 campaign. They are utilizing all these first year players in all scenarios to see how they handle the pressure of the WHL. Wins are still celebrated and losses still sting, but lessons learned and experience gained hold greater value.
Pundits like to evaluate trades as soon as they happen. They give them grades or declare a winner and a loser before the ink on the deal has dried. But especially when draft picks are involved, evaluating a trade can take months if not years. In the end, most transactions benefit both parties, one in the short term and one in the long term.
I'll make an exception though. The 2019 Draft Day trade Seattle GM Bil La Forge made with the Kelowna Rockets not only goes into the win column for the T-Birds, it might be outright larceny. La Forge sent three players to Kelowna in exchange for three high draft picks and Conner Bruggen-Cate.
To be fair, the Rockets were building for their role as Memorial Cup hosts, a tournament that was canceled due to the pandemic, something completely out of their control. But even before that tournament was canceled, Kelowna, even with those additions from Seattle, was floating around .500 and barely holding onto a playoff spot.
In fact it was their mediocre performance the first half of the 2019-20 season that necessitated another trade with the T-Birds in December of 2019 with the T-Birds shipping Matthew Wedman to the Rockets for three more draft selections.
In the end here is what Seattle got from Kelowna in those two deals: three first round picks, two second round picks and one fifth rounder. Kelowna received Matthew Wedman, who played well for the Rockets but aged out after 35 games. They also got San Jose Sharks prospect Dillon Hamaliuk, who will age out after this season and just 60 plus games. Neither player will have played one playoff game with Kelowna before their time in the Okanogan is done.
Defenseman Jake Lee is still there and has been solid in 60 plus games and is eligible to return to Kelowna next season as a 20-year old. The same is true of goalie Cole Schwebius. He has another year of eligibility if the Rockets want to bring him back as a 20-year old. They can also try to recoup some of their lost draft capital if they choose to trade either player this summer.
The T-Birds though have already turned one of those draft choices they received from Kelowna into gold. With the 10th overall pick in the 2019 Bantam Draft, Seattle used Kelowna's pick to select defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Korchinski, at age 16, is already getting heavy minutes. He's a slick, smart, puck moving defenseman who is helping resuscitate Seattle's power play.
The T-Birds used the fifth round pick they got in the Wedman deal to choose forward Reeve Sukut in last spring's draft and with no training camp last fall, we've yet to get a look at him to see what the T-Birds got with that choice. But it's the draft picks the T-Birds banked in those deals with Kelowna that should have you salivating.
Still to be cashed in from those deals are two more first round picks, one in 2022 and one in 2023, as well as 2021 and 2022 second round picks. La Forge and his team of scouts, led by Cal Filson and Mark Romas, have already laid down a pretty good track record of using picks acquired in trades on elite if not solid prospects. We've already mentioned Korchinski, but Conner Roulette, Gabe Ludwig, Thomas Milic, Nico Myatovic and Scott Ratzlaff are all players on the current roster that Seattle selected with draft picks obtained from other WHL teams.
No one bats a thousand but I'll put my money down that the T-Birds will make good use of those picks they have sitting in the vault. If Seattle can maximize the value of these extra picks, they should be a force in the WHL for next five to six years.
My T-Birds Three Stars for the last two games:
Third Star: W Keltie Jeri-Leon. The lone 20-year old on the roster is making the most of his shortened last season in the WHL. He scored two goals and added an assist. He's on pace to be a point a game player. He leads the team with six goals.
Second Star: W Conner Roulette. Had a three point game against Spokane Sunday. Included in that was the game winning goal in OT. He currently sits atop the leaderboard in team scoring with ten points and is ready to head to Texas to represent Canada at the U18 World Championship.
First Star: C Henrik Rybinski. He's been the team's best player from the first puck drop opening night. He saw his five game point streak snapped Tuesday in Kennewick but was still one of the best players on the ice. He set up the game winner Sunday against the Chiefs, in a game he took over as the T-Birds overcame a two-goal deficit. I'm sure Seattle would love him back next season as a 20-year old but the Florida Panthers 2019 fifth round pick is playing like someone who wants that first NHL contract.
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