Special to the Herald

About 10 years ago a veteran WHL executive told me you could trade for anyone in the league, and it just depended on what you wanted to give up.

For the Prince Albert Raiders, the return on what they could get for captain Kaiden Guhle ended up being too good to pass up. Just seven days ago, the 19-year-old star defenceman was dealt to the Edmonton Oil Kings in a blockbuster deal.

In return, the Raiders received 18-year-old forward Carson Latimer, 17-year-old defenceman Eric Johnston, the 13th overall selection on the WHL Prospects Draft that is set for Thursday, a sixth round pick in the 2022 Prospects Draft, a first round selection in the 2023 Prospects Draft and a conditional third round selection in the 2025 Prospects Draft.

The trade came hours after it was announced Guhle was invited to the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team that begins on Thursday in Calgary.

Guhle, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 200 pounds, can be considered the best blue-liner in the WHL. He was selected in the first round and 16th overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens and has a signed NHL Entry Level contract with the storied franchise.

Guhle was a regular on the back end as a 16-year-old rookie helping the Raiders win a WHL championship in a spectacular 2018-19 campaign for the community owned franchise. He also helped Canada earn a silver medal finish at world juniors last season.

He has two goals, 15 assists and a plus-two rating in the plus-minus department in 19 games split between the Raiders and Oil Kings this season.

The reason the Raiders got such a good return for him was due to all those accolades combined with the fact the Raiders likely didn’t want to trade him. The Raiders are still in the hunt for one of the four lower playoff seeds in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

The Oil Kings sit second overall in the Eastern Conference with an 18-4-2-1 record. They are looking for a way to get on more of an even footing with the Eastern Conference leading Winnipeg Ice, who have a 22-2-1 mark.

In the present, the Oil Kings really wanted Guhle, who grew up just outside of Edmonton in Sherwood Park. To get Guhle, they were ready to pay the price.

For the Raiders, the offer was something they couldn’t refuse.

They got great draft picks to help with the future, and Latimer and Johnston might be able to help with the present and future.

Ice set arms-race with Finley deal?
The Ice appear to be setting the stage for an arms race between the two leaders in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

On Monday, the Ice made a blockbuster trade to acquire Spokane Chiefs 19-year-old captain and power forward Jack Finley, who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 223 pounds. Finley has a signed NHL Entry Level contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning and will attend the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team that begins on Thursday in Calgary.

Finley and a seventh round selection in the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft were sent to Winnipeg in exchange for 18-year-old right-winger and Prince Albert Mintos under-18 AAA grad Chase Bertholet, 19-year-old centre James Form and a second round selection in the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft.

Finley has eight goals, eight assists, 40 penalty minutes and a minus-four rating appearing in all of the outings in the Chiefs 6-12-2-1 start. As a 17-year-old in 2019-20, Finley collected 19 goals, 38 assists and a plus-32 rating in 61 games with the Chiefs.

The Ice likely made this deal to help counter the trade the Oil Kings made to acquire Guhle from the Raiders.

With the WHL U.S. Priority Draft set for today and Prospects Draft slated for Thursday, these deals by the Oil Kings and Ice might be the prelude of more trades to come.

Special to the Herald

Based on just his draft status, Dallyn Peekeekoot might always be an underdog story.

Peekeekoot was selected by the Prince Albert Raiders in the 10^th round and 220^th overall in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft, which is now know as the WHL Prospects Draft. With that selection, the product of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation had no guarantees of being a WHL regular.

The draft selection meant he would have a chance to come to at least a couple of Raiders training camps to try and make an impression. The high energy right-winger ended up being able to do just that.

Peekeekoot cracked the Raiders roster as a 16-year-old to play a shortened regular season in a bubble environment at the Brandt Centre in Regina this past March and April against the WHL’s other member teams from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The shortened season was developed to allow teams to play with health orders that were in place to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Peekeekoot, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 208 pounds, got into 15 of the Raiders 24 games in the Regina hub centre posting four goals, two assists and a minus-two rating in the plus-minus department.

His best outing came on April 8, when he had a goal, two assists and took part in a fight in 5-3 setback against the archrival Saskatoon Blades.

During that shortened campaign, it was common for the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation to hold drive-in watch parties to watch Peekeekoot play on big video screens.

He played with a lot of energy and feistiness, but he was under control. Peekeekoot only had 12 penalty minutes for the campaign.

With the way he played that season, Peekeekoot fit the mould of the romantic vision of the textbook Raiders player.

Add in that he came from the place that is the home to late great hockey ambassador Fred Sasakamoose, it amplifies Peekeekoot’s story in that he is following in Sasakamoose’s strides.

So far this season as a 17-year-old sophomore, Peekeekoot has a goal and a minus-one rating appearing in all of the Raiders games as they struggled out to a 2-7 start. Despite the start, Peekeekoot has still brought a good effort level to each game.

As a 10^th round draft selection, he has already surpassed any expectations of what a team can get from a player picked in that spot.

Still, you hope Peekeekoot continues to give more reasons to cheer him as his WHL career goes on.

WHL notes: Blade dynamic duo start hot, Pats struggle

The Saskatoon Blades dynamic duo of Tristen Robins and Kyle Crnkovic have picked up where they left off the past two seasons.

In helping the Blades get out to a 6-1-1 start, Robins, who is his 20-year-old and is signed by the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, has four goals, 11 assists and a plus-four rating playing his centre position. Crnkovic, who has been the left-winger on Robin’s line since the start of the 2019-20 season, has six goals, six assists and an even rating.

For the bulk of their WHL careers, Robins and Crnkovic, who is 19-years-old, have been consistent scorers. In their swan song season as linemates, you can expect them to continue to score and help the Blades pile up wins.

• Safe to say a 9-0 start makes the Winnipeg Ice the team to beat in the WHL this season. On a side note, Brian Munz, who was the Raiders play-by-play voice from 2001 to 2004, became the Ice play-by-play voice at the start of this season.
• Phenom centre Connor Bedard is starting to encounter some struggles 16-year-olds go through in the WHL. The Pats have slipped to 2-7 and are currently on a seven-game losing streak. Over those nine games, Bedard has four goals, two assists and a minus-nine rating.

Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer with more than 20 years of experience covering the WHL. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com, where he covers the Saskatoon Hilltops, Saskatoon Valkyries, University of Saskatchewan men’s and women’s hockey, U Sports football and Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey. He has the distinction of being in the building both times Game Seven of the WHL final went to overtime, including 2019 in Prince Albert.

Special to the Herald

The Prince Albert Raiders traditional logo may have been nixed, but the great memories the team created while using that insignia will live on.

With a late release that was sent at 9:29 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2, the WHL issued a statement about the Raiders new alternate uniforms that were unveiled one day earlier. They were patterned after jerseys the club wore from 1982 to 1996.

The statement seemed to bring an end to the Raiders continuing use of their traditional logo with the Arab on skates caricature.

While Raiders followers were disappointed over this decision, it doesn’t erase the memories the team created. That old logo was drawn up part way through the 1973-74 season, when the Raiders were still playing in the junior A ranks.

They won their four Centennial Cups as national junior A champions and the WHL title and Memorial Cup as major junior champions in 1985 wearing that logo. Terry Simpson’s lengthy list of wins as the team’s head coach and general manager came in that era.

Raiders fans saw Dan Hodgson, Dave Pasin, Emanuel Viveiros, Pat Elynuik, Dave Manson, Mike Modano, Dean McAmmond, Jeff Nelson and Chris Phillips perform heroics wearing jerseys that the dumped alternate third jersey was styled after.

All those moments from that era remain in Raiders lore.

I believe the WHL and the Raiders took a reading about possible heat after the new alternate third jersey was unveiled and made a decision to get ahead of the story. That move ultimately made the heat disappear.

It feels like the pressure against the third jersey and logo originated from outside of Prince Albert. The criticism is the logo is insensitive to Middle East cultural groups.

The Raiders had been selling merchandise with that old logo for years, because it was that well loved by Raiders fans, who bought the products. Here is hoping the team is allowed flexibility to clear out the inventory of items they have with the old logo.

No matter where you sit on this matter, the memories of the Raiders great past history will remain.

Guhle returns, P.A. deals for Stanick

The Raiders are getting some much needed help with the return of their captain Kaiden Guhle.

They also attempted to strengthen up their forward group as well.

On Monday, Guhle was assigned by the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens back to the Raiders. The Sherwood Park, Alta., product is a gifted enough player that he will add a tremendous boost to the Raiders back end.

That should help the team break out if its 0-4 start.

On Tuesday, the Raiders traded 18-year-old defenceman Adam McNutt, who stands 6-feet and weighs 200 pounds, to the Regina Pats for 18-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 177 pounds.

McNutt was a minus-four in the plus-minus department in four games this season, while Stanick had two goals and two assists in five games for the Pats.

Stanick put up points coming up through minor hockey but hasn’t had a breakout in his first two complete seasons in the WHL. The change of scenery might help give him a new start.

I should note, the Raiders were 99-39-11-7 over the last three regular seasons, and in junior hockey, the reload does eventually catch up to you. It appears the Raiders will be working through that this season.

Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer with more than 20 years of experience covering the WHL. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com, where he covers the Saskatoon Hilltops, Saskatoon Valkyries, University of Saskatchewan men’s and women’s hockey, U Sports football and Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey. He has the distinction of being in the building both times Game Seven of the WHL final went to overtime, including 2019 in Prince Albert.