The Giants were also able to keep the rights to a Slovak prospect thanks to a WHL rule seldom heard about
The Vancouver Giants made additions and subtractions on Tuesday morning, and also a key retention.
With the WHL’s trade deadline quickly approaching on Thursday, the Giants completed a pair of swaps, acquiring goaltender Brady Smith, 19, from the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for netminder Matthew Hutchison, 18, and two WHL Draft picks, and landing 20-year-old Russian forward Maxim Muranov from the Wenatchee Wild in return for fellow over-age forward Tyson Zimmer.
Teams are permitted two import players on their active roster. Vancouver had been playing with just one — Czech winger Adam Titlbach — after Slovak forward Tobias Tomik, 17, opted to stay home this season and suit up in the pro league there following Vancouver selecting him in last summer’s CHL Import Draft.
The WHL head office confirmed Tuesday morning that Vancouver could play both Titlbach and Muranov and move Tomik to a special exemption list, keeping his rights for next season because he remained on Vancouver’s overall list after Nov. 1.
The only caveat is that Tomik cannot join the Giants this season. It’s not a rule you hear much about in the WHL.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Tomik was the youngest player on the Slovak team at the recently completed world juniors in Ottawa. He had no points in five games with the squad.
“He’s a really good player. He’s a potential NHL Draft pick,” Giants GM Barclay Parneta said of Tomik.
Parneta didn’t rule out Vancouver making any more deals before Thursday’s cut-off, but maintained he wasn’t going to being pitching swaps to other teams.
The Giants were slated to face the host Prince George Cougars (22-10-3-2) on Tuesday night and Parneta said after the trades that both Smith and Muranov were en route to Prince George.
Vancouver (19-14-4-0) woke up Tuesday morning seventh in the Western Conference. They were eight points up on eighth-place Wenatchee (15-18-3-1), who hold down the final playoff spot in the 11-team loop. Vancouver was five points in back with a game in hand on the fourth-place Victoria Royals (20-11-3-4), who are in the final spot that garners home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Vancouver’s been wildly inconsistent this year. They had won six of their last seven going into Tuesday. They had lost seven of eight in November. They have wins of 7-0 and 10-1 on their resume along with two loses of 7-1 and another setback of 7-2.
They were tied for sixth in the WHL in goals for (141) and sixth worst in goals against (145) ahead of league action Tuesday.
Vancouver has never been expected to be the trade mix for Andrew Cristall, the Kelowna Rockets winger who would seem to the big fish left on the market now.
The ninth-place Rockets (14-18-2-1) are hosting the Memorial Cup national championship tournament next spring and are looking to build up their roster for that run. Cristall, 19, who is a signed Washington Capitals prospect, was second in the WHL in scoring on Tuesday morning, with 60 points, including 26 goals, in just 28 games.
Kelowna parted ways with Team Canada world junior defender Caden Price on Monday, dealing the 19-year-old Seattle Kraken prospect to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for two players and five draft picks. Price was the second Team Canada blueliner moved on Monday, as the Saskatoon Blades shipped Nashville Predators prospect Tanner Molendyk, 19, to the Medicine Hat Tigers for two players and five picks. Medicine also received 19-year-old winger Misha Volotovskii from Saskatoon.
Medicine Hat (22-15-2-0), Calgary (21-11-3-1) and Lethbridge (20-14-1-1) are all part of the Central Division, and two of those teams are likely to square off in the first round of the playoffs.
Lethbridge made a key trade on Dec. 2 when they added Team Canada captain Brayden Yager, 20, landing the Winnipeg Jets forward prospect from Moose Jaw in a deal that featured five players and six draft picks.
Smith was part of that swap as well, making the Giants his third team in just over a month.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder from Cloverdale was 2-5-0-0, with a 4.01 goals against average and an .896 save percentage with the Warriors. Moose Jaw (10-22-3-2) was last in the 22-team WHL to start action Tuesday.
Smith is 16-16-2-1, with a 3.58 goals against average and a .887 save percentage in his WHL career. He has made 43 appearances, which is identical to Hutchison’s playing time in the league. Hutchison is 14-22-2-0, with a 4.49 goals against average and an .870 save percentage in his Giants career.
Vancouver came into this season with Hutchison and rookie Burke Hood, 17, as their goaltending duo. It marked the first time since 2017-18 the Giants had started a season without a goalie either 19 or 20 years of age, and both Hutchison and Hood have had their ups and downs.
This the second trade this season for Muranov as well, as he went from the Calgary Hitmen to Wenatchee last Thursday in the swap that brought Calgary goalie Daniel Hauser, 20.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound left-shot forward had 22 goals and 50 points in 63 games last season with the Hitmen and eight goals and 25 points in 34 games this year. He never suited up for a game with Wenatchee.
Zimmer, who joined Vancouver from Lethbridge just ahead of last year’s deadline, has 10 goals and 25 points in 35 games this season.