The first big trade involving the Saskatoon Blades ahead of next Thursday’s W-H-L trade deadline happened Thursday.
It saw five-year veteran left winger Brandon Lisowsky (pictured) and a fifth round pick in the 2028 Prospects Draft go to Victoria for 20-year-old left winger Tanner Scott and second round selections in each of the 2025 and 2026 Drafts. A 20-year-old Port Coquitlam, B-C, product, Lisowsky finishes his Saskatoon career as the fifth leading goal-scorer in franchise history with 143. Scott will be in the Blades’ line-up Friday when Saskatoon hosts Brandon at 7 o’clock at SaskTel Centre. A second big deal that could happen involving the Blue and Gold would be trading 19-year-old defenceman Tanner Molendyk. That can’t happen until after Canada is done at the World Junior Championship. Following is the news release from the Bridge City Bunch plus the media scrum, in three parts, with Blades’ President and General Manager Colin Priestner…..
Saskatoon, SK – The Saskatoon Blades have acquired 20-year-old forward Tanner Scott, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 second-round pick (VIC) from the Victoria Royals in exchange for overage winger Brandon Lisowsky and the Blades 2028 fifth-round selection.
The 2025 second-round pick will be the second-best second-round pick owned by Victoria, which can’t be determined until the draft order has been finalized.
“This is obviously one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make in my time as GM,” said Blades president and general manager, Colin Priestner, “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. 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.”
The Blades want to thank Brandon and his family for his contributions to the organization and the community of Saskatoon during his five years with the team.
“Brandon and I were very honest with each other throughout offseason about the coming year. Brandon knew it was a huge year for him to earn an ELC with an NHL team. We talked about the direction we may have to take the team in the second half to recoup some high draft picks, and we agreed in September to sit down at Christmas and discuss what the second half might look like for him either here or elsewhere on a team with the assets to load up for a championship run, and after talking we both agreed this was the best outcome.”
Scott, a Sherwood Park, AB product, comes to the Bridge City in his final season with six goals, ten assists, 16 points, and a +2 rating in 25 games. The left-handed shot was drafted in the third round (48th overall) by the Royals during the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft. Scott has 245 career WHL games under his belt with 54 goals, 88 assists, 142 points, and 54 penalty minutes in that span. The 5-foot-8 winger’s best offensive season came last year in 68 games with Victoria, setting career highs in goals (19), assists (37), points (56), and +/- at +9.
“We currently lead the league in points by rookies, and if you look at both of our 16-year-olds, Cooper Williams (24 points) and Zach Olsen (14 points), these are both second-round WHL Draft picks which shows how important picks like that are,” said Priestner, “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. 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.”
Scott helped Victoria return to the postseason in 2024 for the first time in five years. The fifth-year veteran showed well in his first taste of playoff action, scoring two goals and one assist in four games with a +1 rating.
Scott joins the Bridge City Bunch one week prior to the league’s trade deadline on Friday, Jan. 10.
“The reality of the situation we are in is that have been “all in” for several years in a row loading up to make title runs,” said Priestner, “Those runs came at a significant future cost, as we traded multiple first and second-round picks away over the last few years knowing that one day we’d have to move out some older players to get some of these picks back. We did not have a first or second-round pick last May in the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft, but we feel strongly that our scouts were able to put together a great group of future Blades. However, that’s not a feasible plan to rely on for 2 or more years in a row. We know our fans expect a winning competitive team every single year, and in the last seven years we have had the best winning percentage in our conference by a fairly significant margin because we’ve drafted and developed great players and we feel strongly that we can continue our position as a conference leader as long as we have a decent compliment of picks each year.”
“In order to maintain the long-term prosperity of the club, we need to recoup some of these high picks to stay competitive in the future. It’s not easy to do, especially when the players and coaches have put us in a situation where we are in first place of our division at the half way point. But when you look at our upcoming two drafts and not having a draft pick until the fourth round this coming year and no picks until the eighth round in 2026, it’s simply irresponsible of us to not contemplate moving out some players who are in their final year of junior to regain some of these higher round picks. In junior hockey, two consecutive draft class will eventually make up around 40% of your roster, and unlike the NHL, we don’t have free agency and long-term contracts to neutralize having a weak draft class.”
The Blades want to welcome Tanner and the Scott family to the organization and look forward to working with him on the final stretch of his junior career.
“This does not mean this is a fire sale, or that we are looking to move all of our older players,” said Priestner, “Any trades we are considering from now until the deadline will have to include both high picks and quality younger players coming back to us to consider doing, and we are firmly committed to making the playoffs this season with the goal of winning the division still a major factor in any moves we make.”
