From Axel to Koletrane

Who doesn’t remember Axel Blomqvist?

I mean, the guy was huge when he was chosen 17^th overall by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2012 CHL Import Draft. At the time, he was 6’5” and would later be listed at 6’7”. Only a trio of other players I could find measured up that tall in Hurricanes history, including Mike Varhaug, Adam Johnson and Gavin McHale.

The behemoth made an impact upon arrival, picking up 33 points and 66 penalty minutes in 59 games in his first season in North America.

Blomqvist added 13 points in 19 games in 2013-2014 before being traded with a conditional WHL bantam draft pick in 2016 to the Victoria Royals for a fourth round and an eighth round pick in the 2014 draft.

It appears that conditional pick the Hurricanes sent to Victoria was in the seventh round, which the Royals used to select Mason Kruse, who didn’t see any action in the WHL.

As for the Hurricanes’ haul, they used that fourth round pick, 84^th overall to select current defenseman Koletrane Wilson. That worked out alright.

With that eighth round pick they acquired, the Hurricanes actually traded it back to Victoria for an eighth round pick in 2015. They would go on to use that pick on forward Tristan Jones, who has ten points in 17 games for the Westshore Wolves in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.

Now, I thought I’d dig just a little deeper on this trade tree and show just how much of an impact Blomqvist is still having on the WHL.

He was later traded with two picks from Victoria to Moose Jaw for Alexey Sleptsov, Justin Paulic and a sixth round selection in the 2015 draft.

Moose Jaw used those two picks to take Louis Jamernik in the third round of the 2015 draft and Cory King with the fifth round pick in 2017. Jamernik is with the Okotoks Oilers while King has three points in 20 games for the Warriors this season.

The pick sent to Victoria is a bit of a mystery. Moose Jaw’s actual pick was used by Everett, who chose Dawson Butt. The problem is: I haven’t been able to track down exactly how that pick came to be.

The Royals did make a selection in the sixth round and that was Luke Bast, a former Brooks Bandit who is now at the University of North Dakota. The problem there is the same: I haven’t been able to figure out exactly how that one came to be because that pick originally belonged to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

I’ll update you if I figure out this little mystery.