One of the toughest questions facing the Brandon Wheat Kings when their season began was what they would do about the 2004-born players on their roster. Today, they found the answer to that question.
The team announced it has traded forward Rylen Roersma to the Edmonton Oil Kings, bringing them down to three 2004-born players. In exchange, the team has picked up a second and fifth round draft pick.
“It’s something we’ve wrestled with as a group here internally for the last month,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “A lot goes into it as far as how we come to this. You watch players and how they perform, and sometimes it’s a little bit of what you can get in return.”
While Murray stressed all of their 2004-born players were strong Western Hockey Leaguers, the team was forced to make a decision. It wasn’t easy to move Roersma, a long-serving Wheat King, but moving him closer to his hometown of Lethbridge did take some of the sting out.
“There were some teams that inquired on all our guys, some of them from out west,” Murray said. “Rylen has been a good Wheat King, a good kid. Anything like that, those small things you can do like getting him closer to home, especially in his 20-year-old, guys probably appreciate that if they are going to have to be moved.”
For the players who remain, there is an element of both sadness and relief. On the one hand, you bid farewell to an excellent teammate and long-serving Wheat King who was among the team’s leading scorers last season. On the other hand, Nolan Flamand, Marcus Nguyen, and Luke Shipley know now they will be the team’s 20-year-olds going forward.
“They know the situation and for the 20-year-olds it’s a big weight,” said Murray. “For them, like everybody in the room, it’s a tryout every day all year long. We don’t want guys looking over their shoulder all the time but at the same time, there’s an expectation and our guys need to keep doing what they’re doing.”
The Wheat Kings, who are 2-0-0 on the young season, travel to Prince Albert to face the Raiders on Friday before a game in Saskatoon against the Blades on Saturday.
