To Saskatoon management new Swift Current Broncos overage goaltender Logan Flodell will "always be a Blade."

The Blades sent their 2016-17 MVP Flodell to Swift Current today in a deal for 2nd (2020) and 5th (2019) bantam draft picks. Flodell will move to Swift Current to become their new starting netminder, while the move allows Saskatoon to keep Cameron Hebig, Braylon Shmyr and Evan Fiala as their three overage players.

"We weren't exactly certain of what route we were going to take with our 20-year-olds because we had four special ones," said Blades GM Colin Priestner. "We thought about potentially moving the goalie and keeping the players up front to produce a little scoring for us because we felt that was an area we needed to address."

This is the third time in recent seasons the Broncos have added an overage player from the Blades. They picked up Nathan Burns from Saskatoon in 2013-14, added Ryan Graham last season and then made a deal for Flodell this fall. Sending a top goaltender to a division rival isn't ideal, but the Blades were going to make the best deal they could.



"You don't want to trade within your division if possible on a marquee player, but at the end of the deal it was the best deal we could make so we didn't. It was also important to send Logan to a good team. I think he deserves to be on a good team. He's an unbelievable kid."

"Yes it sucks that he's in Swift Current because we play Swift Current several times. We're also trying to stay ahead of teams like Prince Albert and we want to pass a team like Brandon. (Flodell) is going to play Brandon 6-8 times and he's going to play PA 6-8 times. It hopefully gets us a few points unearned against teams we're competing against."

What are the Broncos getting in Flodell? Priestner believes he is one of the top netminders in the league and raves about him personally.

"First he's an awesome kid," Priestner said. "He's one of my favourite players we've had here. He's a fantastic person. He's just one of those guys who has a really infectious personlity. What I think the best quality about him is his consistency. You rarely get a bad game from him. He's just really, really solid."

Saskatoon only made the deal once they knew they could get 19-year-old goaltender Ryan Kubic from Vancover for a 2019 2nd round Bantam Draft Pick to replace Flodell.

"It was 100% contingent on it," Flodell said. "We weren't going to move Flodell if we didn't feel we had a guy who could be a starting goaltender for us this year and next year. I don't want to compare the two because one is a year older and obviously (Flodell) had fantastic numbers last season, but a year ago he was in an similar position to Kubic. We needed a goalie that can be if not as good at least close to it."

While no one would argue with wanting to keep Shmyr and Hebig on their top line, the Blades knew they would get questions about trading a goaltender that finished 7th in WHL save percentage, made the Eastern Conference Second All-Star team and won their Team MVP Award. They made the move with playoffs in mind.

"I think the biggest factor in what I have been explaining to people who might be shocked in us trading Flodell is we scored 190 goals last year," Priestner noted. "The average playoff team in 8th place scores about 215 goals a year. We know we had a deficit to make up. This gives us a first line we feel is comparable to any first line in the league. With (Shmyr and Hebig) playing together it's really exciting for us to have a first line. At the same time we hope we will have a goalie who will have similar numbers to Flodell."

Kubic came highly touted out of midget in Manitoba, but has failed to crack the .900 save perecentage in his WHL career. Part of those struggles could be connected with playing for a Giants team that really struggled.

"He faced a lot of nights where he didn't have a lot of veteran defencemen in the lineup," Priestner said. "With guys like Evan Fiala and Libor Hayek we feel we have a pretty good veteran d-core that we're assembling here so there's a chance maybe for him getting a lower quality of shots faced."

The Blades had explored dealing one of their other 20-year-olds and didn't like what was on the market. In trading Flodell they were able to use similar assetes to get a younger goaltender they are confident in. Trading one of the other players would only have resulted in a draft pick and a hole in their lineup.

"A second round pick for me wasn't worth nearly what a player would be," Priestner said. "What does that do for my lineup right now? I made it clear to all the teams that if they were interested in a player like that it was going to have to be a young star player coming back and nobody wants to give that up. It become pretty clear over the last two weaks we were going to have a pursue another options and look at moving Flodell if we could. Scoring was going to be at a premium at least for one more year."

The Broncos and Blades open their season against one another on Friday in Saskatoon.  You can hear the game on The Eagle 94.1 FM with Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 6:30pm.