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The Saskatoon Blades are making some big moves, trading away star winger Brandon Lisowsky while securing crucial draft picks for this year and next year.
In exchange for Lisowsky and a fifth-round pick in 2028, the Blades picked up 20-year-old forward Tanner Scott and second-round draft picks in both 2025 and 2026 from the Victoria Royals.
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Lisowsky is the Blades’ fifth all-time goal scorer. (Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades)
Blades president Colin Priestner said the decision to trade away Lisowsky, the franchise’s fifth leading goal scorer of all time, was one of the most difficult calls he’s had to make in his time leading the team.
“Brandon was one of the best goal scorers the club has ever seen, and was a major part of five very successful seasons with the Blades,” Priestner said in a statement.
“He did everything we ever asked of him and more, and his work over his years here was more than what we ever hoped for when we selected him in the first round of the WHL Prospects Draft.”
Priestner said he and Lisowsky spoke extensively during the offseason about the direction the team may need to take in order to regain some high draft picks, and both agreed that the trade was “the best outcome.”
The second-round pick the Blades secured for 2025 as part of the trade will be the second-best second-round pick from Victoria, “which can’t be determined until the draft order has been finalized,” the team noted in a release.
Scott, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., comes to the Blades in his final season of eligibility, with six goals and 10 assists under his belt over 25 games. Over his 245-game WHL career, the five-foot-eight winger has amassed 58 goals, 88 assists, 142 points and 54 penalty minutes.
Priestner said the addition of Scott to the trade helped ease the pain of giving up a player like Lisowsky in exchange for important draft picks.
“Getting second-round picks in the next two drafts from Victoria was critical for us, but the only way we were going to move a player like Brandon was if we got a high-quality 20-year-old back on top of the draft picks and we feel we got that in Tanner Scott,” the Blades president said.
“Tanner had 56 points last year and has just come off some injuries this year and we feel there is a lot of upside for him to be a very important player for us in the second half of the season.”
The league’s trade deadline is set for next Thursday.
Saskatoon Blade’s GM weighs in on trade
Priestner wants to make sure that fans are aware this isn’t the Blades throwing in the towel or waving the white flag.
“Our players have earned the right for us to stay competitive. This is not a fire sale,” he said. “Anyone who wants our rental players has to give us high picks and good young players.”
Before this trade, the Blades didn’t have a draft pick until the 4th round in the 2025 WHL Bantam Draft, and the 8th round in the 2026 WHL Bantam Draft.
Priestner said getting these high up draft picks was critical to the team’s success going forward.
“That’s not sustainable, you can’t max the credit card of picks going for it every year,” he said. “We’ve been in on mostly every player for seven years that comes available, at some point you have to pay off the credit card.”
Priestner said the two second round picks don’t pay off the debt completely, but it’s a good start.
The Blades currently have a pair of young guns who were second round picks on the active roster.
“We’ve got the dynamic duo out there of 16-year-olds Cooper Williams and Zach Olsen that have been turning heads every night,” Priestner said. “Those are two second round picks, Ryley Budd is a goalender we took in the second round that year as well.”
The Blades also drafted goalie Nolan Maier — the all time WHL wins leader — in the second round as well.
The other big name that has all eyes on him as the trade deadline approaches is Tanner Molendyk.
Molendyk is under a player freeze due to being at the World Juniors, which means he can’t be traded until Canada’s time at the tournament is done.
Priestner said no deal is close as of this moment but conversations do continue.
“We are talking to lots of teams … We aren’t just interested in how many draft picks you can give us,” he said. “We need someone back in a deal that we think can be a real good top four defenceman going forward for us.”
But it’s not just the WHL Bantam Draft that is crucial to a team’s success now, Priestner said the US draft has become way more important meaning he doesn’t feel the need to have a draft pick in every round for the WHL Bantam Drafts.
“That draft became five times more important than it used to be, because those guys are coming,” he said. “So if you’re picking in the first round of the US draft you’re getting a first round WHL talent and they’re coming most likely.”
This is because of the new NCAA and CHL rule that allows college committed players to go play major junior hockey in Canada now.
