NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Dallon Melin points to Andrew Basha after scoring in the first period of a 6-4 loss against the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Why didn’t the Medicine Hat Tigers trade for Connor Bedard at Tuesday’s trade deadline?
Even if the Regina Pats superstar wasn’t totally available for trade, why didn’t the Tigers make the deal to get better this season? Besides the fact it would have cost so many first round picks that the latest one would be a kid who is still in diapers, it wasn’t their time.
It’s the same reason the Tigers made the right choice in not adding to their lineup, subtracting from the team or actually making any move at all, this isn’t their time.
Like all sports teams, the Tigers will have a window where they will be at their best and should then be making deadline deals like the Kamloops Blazers, Seattle Thunderbirds and Winnipeg Ice did.
This season, one year removed from their worst campaign in franchise history, isn’t in that window. That doesn’t mean this season doesn’t matter and should be overlooked, the Tigers are in the playoff hunt and have remained competitive by not subtracting from the team.
That’s very important to the future of this team and was a key message from Willie Desjardins after the deadline passed and no Medicine Hat deals were made. They did not want to become an uncompetitive team and did not want fans to have to watch a team like last year again. It wasn’t worth whatever could have been added or subtracted.
The deadline stalemate allows the Tigers’ young roster to showcase what they have and what they can become while playing competitive hockey. It’s not easy for players to develop and get better when they are playing from behind early in games, and that’s what the 2021-22 season was for the Tigers.
Now, with a team sitting just on the outside of the playoff run, their lineup has the opportunity to learn what it takes to win on the chase for a playoff spot and how different the game turns as the regular season approaches its end.
Even with longer-term injuries to Tyler MacKenzie and Brendan Lee, there aren’t a lot of open spots in the lineup for any new players who could have been brought in. It would take moving a player out or scratching a guy who has filled a role through the first 40 games.
The rest of this year is about competing every night, learning from the top-tier opponents and getting better while making a push for the playoffs. Once this season comes to an end, whether that’s before the playoffs are started or after any round, the Tigers’ window will swing open.
That window is the next three seasons with Gavin McKenna in the lineup on a nightly basis, surrounded by other top prospects Hayden Harsanyi, Kadon McCann, Matthew Paranych and whoever else cracks the roster. That next wave of prospects will flank the core who learned what it takes to win this season and endured the gruelling 11-win 2021-22 with the lesson of how much harder it is to not be good enough.
In those next three years the Tigers have to be active and doing everything they can to capitalize on their young talent and what they are projected to be. That is when Medicine Hat will take the reins and can swing deals at the deadline and move picks and players for World Junior gold medalists.
Hopefully by then the price won’t be as extravagant as it was this deadline. That’s another reason the Tigers had it right by not wading into the buyers market.
Shaun Clouston and the Blazers have been the talk of the entire league since pulling the trigger on the Olen Zellweger and Ryan Hofer deal with the Everett Silvertips. The return of four first-round picks, four other draft picks and four players is crazy enough and makes any social media manager cringe at the idea of putting that many items on a single graphic.
Even the Zach Ostapchuk trade from Vancouver to Winnipeg that saw the Ice part with three first rounders and four skaters, was a massive price. Both teams got big-time and big-moment players in return but have moved substantial building pieces of their futures.
Talking with people around the league during the deadline, there were a lot of comments on the price for players and how it started higher than it had ever before. Desjardins said the teams who went all in priced those on the outside out very quickly and even turned sellers away from moving pieces.
Making a move now, even if it was to bring in a player who would be part of that three-year window, would have cost the Tigers players they want to see develop who could be part of that window or picks that can be moved for cheaper at a later point.
There will come a time when teams who went all in at this year’s deadline will either be steam cleaning the champagne (or sparkling apple juice) out of the dressing room carpets or reflecting on falling short of a championship. Those teams might not have any more time in their window and will be looking to salvage anything for their best players as they begin their road from the bottom.
That’s when the Tigers can strike, make their moves and be the talks of that deadline. Until then, it’s about seeing who can be part of the future and who gives them the best chance to get back to their winning ways.
There is exciting Tigers hockey going on right now and there are some truly competitive seasons on the way.
That was true entering the trade deadline Tuesday, and it’s true coming out of it. The future is still tomorrow, but today the Tigers did it right.
James Tubb is a sports reporter at the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached at jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
