A Review of Quebec's Recent Trades....

[Philliefan 69]

 

What have the Quebec City Meute, soon to be the Vancouver Wolves, done to prepare for the upcoming Expansion Draft in the VHL? Well, let’s dive into their plethora of recent trades and attempt to discover what, if any, influence the impending Expansion Draft will have.

 

*Please Note: Trades on or after December 17th, 2018 will be considered “recent”, and only trades where at least one player changes teams will be considered for the purpose of this story.

 

Trades:

 

Trade #	Net Gain/Loss of Players	Quebec Receives	Quebec Loses
1	-2	S65 DAV 2nd S66 DAV 2nd	Jose Gonzalez Randoms S65 QUE 3rd
2	-2	S65 HSK 1st	Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette Vesto Slipher
3	+1	Toby Fitzgerald	S66 QUE 3rd
4	-1	S66 SEA 2nd	Evengi Komarov
5	+1	Jake Davis Konstantin Mulligan S65 DAV 4th S66 SEA 3rd	Veran Dragomir
6	-1	S65 TOR 1st S65 QUE 3rd	Pat Svoboda

 

As the result of all of those trades, Quebec, among other things, shed 4 players that could very well have otherwise been forced to leave unprotected in the upcoming Expansion Draft. However, they managed to not only stay competitive, as they currently reside in 4th place in the league, but acquire what can only be described as a boatload of Entry Draft picks in the process. Over the next two VHL Entry Drafts, Quebec has managed to stockpile 4 1sts (S65 HSK, QUE, TOR, S66 QUE), 5 2nds (S65 TOR, S66 TOR, QUE, DAV, SEA), 2 3rds (S65 QUE, S66 SEA), and 3 4ths (S65 QUE, DAV, S66 QUE), according to the VHL Portal.

 

Now, of course, not all of these trades were directly motivated by the Expansion Draft, especially those where Quebec actually added players onto its roster, but there is no doubt that the Expansion Draft was more than an afterthought in many of these trades. Let’s take trade #1 as an example: Quebec shed 2 players and a 3rd rounder in exchange for 2 2nds. Instead of potentially losing one of those two for free (for context, Randoms currently has 430 TPE and Jose Gonzalez has 257), Quebec City GM Beavis managed to get quite a good return for them.

 

Despite how motivated (or not) that trade may have been by the imminent Expansion Draft, one trade that I can guarantee (via sources whose names are to be undisclosed, and may or may not be the author of this article) that trade number 6 was definitely motivated by the upcoming Expansion Draft. While a return of a 1st rounder and a 3rd rounder is certainly a good one, the main factor that motivated Quebec to make this trade was the Expansion Draft. Pat Svoboda was one of their better players that they simply did not have the room to protect with their 8 protection slots (including the one of Beavis’ GM Player). Getting a 1st and a 3rd is a good return, however one still must take into account that Quebec must lose a different player of value in the draft.

 

Overall, I do not think that the main motivator for all of these trades, one simply cannot deny that the impending Expansion Draft has played a significant role in a number of recent decisions made by the Front Office of the soon-to-be Vancouver Wolves.