PHOTO COURTESY WENATCHEE WILD RUSS ALMAN
Wenatchee Wild defenceman Jonas Woo was one of three players acquired by the Medicine Hat Tigers during the WHL's Prospects draft on Thursday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers utilized the WHL draft Thursday as their own trade deadline.
Exactly eight months ahead of the league’s trade freeze, Medicine Hat swung four moves to acquire three players during the prospects draft.
The Tigers acquired two 18-year-old defencemen, Jonas Woo from the Wenatchee Wild and Bryce Pickford from the Seattle Thunderbirds, and 20-year-old forward Mat Ward from the Swift Current Broncos.
Medicine Hat sent a 2025 third-round pick and 19-year-old defenceman Reid Andresen to Wenatchee, and also traded soon-to-be 20-year-old captain Tyler MacKenzie to the Everett Silvertips for the 64th overall pick in Thursday’s draft that then flipped to Seattle alongside a 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd and a conditional 2027 5th-round pick.
They traded the 42nd pick in this draft, a 2027 3rd and a 2028 4th to the Broncos for Ward.
It was an exciting and emotional day for general manager Willie Desjardins, who says they will miss MacKenzie and Andresen.
“Tyler McKenzie, just an outstanding individual, such a good person, did everything for our program,” Desjardins said. “We had the same situation last year with Owen MacNeil, we didn’t move him and he didn’t get a spot and that wasn’t fair either. We thought it was the best if Tyler had a chance to go to Everett, which is an outstanding program, Teague Patton was there last year and he couldn’t say enough good things about it. I’m happy the way that turned out.
“Andresen the same thing, a guy who sees the ice real well, a good puck mover. We wanted to get a little younger there, he was 19, we brought in a couple guys who are 18 that gives us two years with them. So that was the reason we wanted to make that move.”
Ward is a name Tigers fans are well accustomed to, having played 199 games for Swift tallying 73 goals and 208 points. In 21 career games against Medicine Hat, the gritty forward has 10 goals and 32 points.
“He’s really great at being one of their leading players for the last three years,” Desjardins said. “We’re pretty excited to get him as part of our group, he’s going to be an outstanding player.”
Desjardins says they like how both Woo and Pickford can move the puck and their competitiveness. Woo has 11 goals and 58 points in 146 career WHL games between the Winnipeg Ice and Wenatchee franchise. He has 40 games of playoff experience with one goal and seven points.
Pickford has played 121 games for the Thunderbirds, tallying eight goals and 35 points. He was part of their 2022-23 championship team, playing in 25 postseason games with two goals and three points.
The added benefit of the two new D-men is they are both 2006-born, giving them two additional years before an over-age slot becomes a factor as it would have with Andresen after next season.
The Tigers still have a younger blue line, with local product Josh Van Mulligen the elder statesmen as a 19-year-old with now three 18s (Woo, Pickford and Nate Corbet), two 17s (Matt Paranych and Jack Kachkowski) and two 16s (Riley Steen and Koray Bozkaya) looking to make the jump.
Desjardins says they’ll look around when it comes to adding a 20-year-old defenceman and says the Import draft could be an avenue used.
“But we have some good players right now, if neither one of those (trades) turned out, I’m satisfied with the defence the way we have it,” Desjardins said.
The Tigers showed an all-in approach when they carried three over-age defenceman last season, Desjardins says that was their sign they wanted to do something with that group and he reiterates they would have if they weren’t hit as hard as they were with injuries.
With Dru Krebs, Rhett Parsons and Bogdans Hodass all graduating, he says they had to replace them while also giving this group their own opportunity to get to that next level.
Moving out nine draft picks was this year’s sign that the Tigers’ focus is tied to immediate success the next couple of seasons.
“Other teams have paid a little bit of a price, they didn’t get anything back when I moved guys, but it was all for what we were building,” Desjardins said. “We want to be an exciting team, I’m excited about the group we have, but that was the plan.
“Sometimes people probably wondered if I ever had any kind of a plan but it was to bring this group and now we’re excited about what we’re going to put on the ice.”
