Jake Heisinger was instrumental in pulling one of the biggest triggers in Western Hockey League history last year as the vice-president of hockey operations and assistant GM of the Winnipeg Ice when the Ice sent two players and the Ice’s first-round WHL Prospects Draft picks in 2024, 2025 and 2026 to Vancouver for the Giants’ captain and Canadian world junior gold-medallist Zack Ostapchuk.
But every season presents a differing scenario. Heisinger is now assistant GM of the Victoria Royals but don’t look for any such dramatically sweeping moves from Heisinger this year ahead of the WHL trade deadline Wednesday.
“We are in a position where we need to look at what is best for our group now and what is best for our future,” he said. “We feel this group has played well [but] if there’s something that makes sense we will certainly look at it.”
The Royals are the most improved team in the WHL at 23-13-3 after missing the playoffs the last two seasons and placing last in the bubble season before that.
“We have seen a number of players step into big roles for us and they continue to get better each and every game,” said Heisinger. “Our goal from the start of the season hasn’t changed: We want to be playing meaningful games at the end of the season and be a playoff team.”
Heisinger joined the Ice as the hockey operations co-ordinator in 2017, when the franchise was located in Cranbrook, and was a key part of the Ice scouting staff that acquired eventual first-round NHL draft picks Matthew Savoie, Connor Geekie, Zach Benson and Carson Lambos.
The WHL regular-season champion Ice went for it all in their Memorial Cup-championship bid last season with the Ostapchuk deal. The massive trade, however, failed to get the Ice to the Canadian Hockey League championship tournament as they lost to the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL final.
But the bold make no apologies in going all in to win a championship while the window is open because it can close rapidly. That has been shown again by the several blockbuster deals made by WHL contenders this year.
“If you feel like you have the team to go for it, you are going to do everything you can to give your team the best chance to win,” said Heisinger.
Now came time to pay the piper as the Ice, now the Wenatchee Wild, traded away Savoie and Geekie during this year’s trade deadline to replenish the cupboard for all the first-round draft picks traded away in the Ostapchuk deal. But that is the cycle of life in major-junior hockey. The Royals will see Savoie on Wednesday when they play his new team, the Warriors, in Moose Jaw.
Not that the Royals have been inactive this season in the trade market, moving veteran mainstays and former Canada U-18 players Kalem Parker and Brayden Schuurman to Moose Jaw in October for five draft picks that included the Warriors’ first-round WHL Prospects Draft selections in 2024 and 2026, a second-round selection in 2025, a third-round pick in 2027 and fifth-round pick in 2026.
Trade acquisitions Ben Riche (in the Moose Jaw deal) and Dawson Pasternak (a steal from the Brandon Wheat Kings for a conditional draft pick) have played crucial roles in the Royals’ turnaround this season. The Royals have also made several other more minor deals this season.
Victoria, 2-1 overtime losers Saturday to the Pats in Regina, continues its nearly 5,000-kilometre bus trip through the East Division in Brandon Tuesday night to play the Wheat Kings (19-14-5). Following Moose Jaw (22-15-2) and Savoie, Parker and Schuurman on Wednesday, it’s on to meet the Raiders (18-18-2) in Prince Albert on Friday and the league-leading Blades (26-8-4) in Saskatoon on Saturday.
