“I think any time you're dealing with a roster deadline and you're in a position where you're balancing the future of the club and trying to strengthen your team in the moment, it's a challenge,” general manager Alan Millar said. “Maybe it's at a different level just because the two markets from this year to last were so different. So it's been a challenging day, a challenging few days and a challenging couple of weeks.”
The Warriors made a pair of deals on deadline day, first adding Regina product Carson Denomie from the Kamloops Blazers for a seventh round pick in 2019 and closing out the day by adding Swift Current Broncos leading scorer Alec Zawatsky for defenceman Tyler Smithies, a fourth-round pick in 2020 and a fifth-round pick in 2021. A day earlier, the Warriors sent defenceman Brendan Kwiatkowski to the Kootenay Ice for a ninth-round pick in 2019.
Zawatsky, 19, has 13 goals and 26 points in 39 games this season while Denomie, 18 – a member of the Pat Canadians 2017 Sask. Midget AAA champions – has a goal and four points in 36 games.
Both players are expected to add depth to the team's forward corps, a goal Millar had going into the trade deadline and one he feels has been successfully met.
“Lots of teams made some moves, lots of teams got better and I'm hopeful we're one of them,” Millar said. “Just with the experience we've added, I look at the way our team has played and being able to compliment that group with a couple of veteran forwards, I think it'll be good.
“And it's good timing; the trade deadline is when it is, but we have a couple of home games here that are important and then our guys get on the road for seven games in 13 games, and from a team bonding, team building perspective really help the team perform the rest of the season.”
The 2019 deadline ended up being fairly sedate when it came to major deals. Last season, the Tribe – then contending for the WHL regular season championship – made one of the major splashes on a busy day, adding Team Canada defenceman Kale Clague for a package of players that included Central Scouting-ranked Luka Burzan.
That trade was one of many head-turners on deadline day and in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 10.
“A year ago you had nine teams who thought they could win the WHL championship; it was a very aggressive market. This year was much different,” Millar said. “The market was very thin in terms of players available, it was forward heavy and there are as many as 19 teams still playing for something. So it was totally different at our end and it got to the point that we wanted to compliment our forward group, hopefully add some varied scoring and start with some depth and experience.”
A major question mark was what the Warriors would do with World Junior defenceman and team captain Josh Brook. The second-round Montreal Canadiens draft pick is having an outstanding season and was rumoured to be off to one of the Western Conference contenders or even part of a draft pick package to the CHL top-ranked Prince Albert Raiders.
In the end, Brook remained a Warrior and will do so for the remainder of his junior career.
“I think that whenever you consider trading someone like Josh Brook, it's a very similar situation to where we were with Brayden Point,” Millar said. “There are a lot of variables and certainly the performance of you club is a variable. But it's also where your team is at in the big picture and what you have and don't have in terms of assets, and most importantly what the market bears.
Both new players were expected to make their debut on Jan. 12 when the Warriors hosted the Seattle Thunderbirds.
