There were some complaints that the trade deadline (week) was too predictable with trades like Faraday's move to Davos or Toronto selling everyone to Stockholm known well in advance. Well, trigger-happy Quebec GM Clinton Chevy has solved this issue by making some moves when no one expected him too.
After some perfectly legal waiver shenanigans resulting in the departure of the once highly-rated Brandon Holmes and S43 cup winner Wolfgang Strauss, the Meute got S43 cup winner Brady Stropko and the once highly-rated third round steal King Czar III. Hmm.
As it stands, Quebec is actually making a profit, as they have had their S45 second-round pick returned to them from Helsinki (with the first essentially going from Helsinki to Seattle). That's pretty good considering both players are upgrades and surprisingly only one year older (a S41 and S42 swapped for a S40 and a S41). There is expected to be more to come in the off-season but if they weren't already, the Meute seem primed to win their second Continental Cup.
For Helsinki, they move likely ninth or tenth overall for a more sure thing (the Quebec third-rounder, not Strauss, of course) and probably improve their future cap situation. Seattle might be entering their most promising rebuild since the Seattle Six were formed in S26 and the S46 draft pans out, North America could have a few stacked seasons, even if Quebec implodes in the next two off-seasons.