Make a push for the post-season or trade off some valuable assets and load up for the future.
That is the question facing the Vancouver Giants ahead of next week’s Western Hockey League trade deadline.
The league deadline for player movement is Jan. 10.
On the surface, Vancouver’s record looks unremarkable: 15-20-1-2 and their 33 points have them nine back of a playoff spot with just under a half season (34 games) remaining. But remove an early season swoon — when the team won just one of their first eight games — and they are a very respectable 14-13-1-2.
In fact, the Giants are in virtually the exact position they found themselves in at this point of the 2015/16 WHL season when the team was 13-20-3-2 and 31 points. That team would finish 20 points back of a playoff position.
So what should first-year general manager Glen Hanlon do?
“I guarantee I don’t have to call because they are calling us,” Hanlon told the Times prior to the league’s holiday break.
“When a team is calling, they are not calling for a 16 or 17-year-old player. They are calling for a player who will put them over the top.”
Hanlon also said the team’s deadline strategy will depend on the team’s position in the standings.
Should they go the seller route, one obvious name to move would be Thomas Foster.
The forward is in his final season of junior as an overage player and has 10 goals and 24 points in 34 games.
Vancouver also has a pair of defencemen who will age out after this year in Dmitry Osipov (one goal, 11 points, -1) and Jeff Rayman (three goals, +3).
Next up come the team’s six 1997-born players with teams only permitted to carry three 20-year-olds.
Ty Ronning and Radovan Bondra are the two biggest names on this list but both have been drafted — Ronning by the New York Rangers and Bondra by the Chicago Blackhawks — so they could conceivably sign pro contracts and play in the American Hockey League in 2017/18.
Bondra leads the Giants with 18 goals and 29 points in 29 games while Ronning is second in goals (14) and points (30) in 35 games.
Darian Skeoch could be an attractive trade candidate as the rugged blue-liner had been the team’s most consistent defenceman prior to going down with injury last month.
He has a goal and 10 points in 27 games and at +4, is one of just three at his position to be on the positive side of the +/- ledger (Rayman and rookie Bailey Dhaliwal are the others).
The other trade candidates up front are Jack Flaman, Alec Baer and Johnny Wesley.
Flaman is tied for third on the team with 10 goals while Baer is third with 15 assists.
Wesley, currently injured, is averaging nearly half a point per game with six goals and 11 points in 24 games.
But what would most likely land the Giants the biggest return in a trade would be captain Tyler Benson, who leads the team with 42 points (11 goals, 31 assists) in 33 games.
A second round pick in last year’s NHL entry draft, Benson signed a three-year entry level deal with the Edmonton Oilers over the weekend.
In all likelihood, Benson would most likely return for one more season of major junior next year, meaning if a team traded for him, it would be more than just a rental for the stretch drive.
But that could also mean the Giants would like to keep their captain in the mix for next season.
Another player who could yield a good return would be 1998-born puck-moving defenceman Matt Barberis.
He leads the team’s blue-liners with seven goals in 26 games.
