Edmonton brings in Benjafield and Loschiavo; moves out Bowman, Murray, Miller and Mohr

With the WHL’s Bantam Draft and so many WHL team’s upper management on hand at the Sheraton in Red Deer, Alberta on Thursday, there was the potential for some moves.

We saw just that as 1998-born power forward Quinn Benjafield was traded along with a fourth round Bantam pick from the Kamloops Blazers to the Edmonton Oil Kings for 19-year-old forward Kobe Mohr.

Vince Loschiavo (Andy Devlin)

Benjafield was one of four possible overage returnees for Kamloops with the others being goalie Dylan Ferguson and forwards Jermaine Loewen and Luc Smith.

Benjafield piled up 127 points in 261 games over parts of five seasons with Kamloops. He was originally drafted our of North Vancouver, BC with the 19th overall pick in 2013. The Blazers moved two other possible overage players in Garrett Pilon and Ondrej Vala at the trade deadline, though both are signed to pro deals and will likely not come back anyway.

Mohr, who was picked in the first round, 20th overall back in 2014 by Edmonton, had 11 goals and 17 assists for 28 points in 58 games last season. This was only an improvement of four points on his output in 2016-17. He’s a 5-foot-10, 164 pound, left-shooting native of Lloydminster, Alberta.

Mohr joins a group of talented but mostly unproven 1999-born forwards in Travis Walton, and Justin Sigrist.

Another 1999-born forward in Erik Miller was moved to Swift Current. As the Broncos roster stands now, they only have seven forwards not born in 1998, coming back. Miller cannot play for the Broncos until next year.

Edmonton acquired their second overage player of the day when they moved talented 2000-born forward Nick Bowman to the Warriors for forward Vince Loschiavo.

Loschiavo coming in means Edmonton now has three overage players for the 2018-19 season in goalie Josh Dechaine and Benjafield and Loschiavo. Entering the day, they only had Dechaine.

Loschiavo was brought in from Moose Jaw in exchange for Bowman and a 6th round pick. Loschiavo was originally a second round Bantam draft pick by the Kootenay Ice in 2013 and he put up 89 points over 215 games with the Ice. He was traded from Kootenay to Moose Jaw on December 12th, in exchange for 16-year-old Jakin Smallwood and a 3rd round pick in 2020.

In his time with the Warriors, the 1998-born winger had 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points in 40 regular season games but had just a single goal in 14 playoff games.

Bowman scored six goals and added six assists for 12 points in 2017-18, a slight dip from the 14 points he compiled in 2016-17 as a 16-year-old. The 2000-born center comes into a depleted forward group that saw Jayden Halbgewachs, Brayden Burke and Tanner Jeannot age out and could see the 1998-born and NHL-drafted Brett Howden turn pro as well.

He should be given every opportunity to build off of the potential that he has shown.

Moose Jaw still needs to look at moving more 1998-born players as goalie Brody Willms, defensemen Oleg Sosunov (import), Brandon Schuldhaus, Dmitri Zaitsev (import) and forwards Barrett Sheen, Branden Klatt and Tristin Langan are all eligible to return. That is four over the legal limit of thee overage players.

Lastly, the Oil Kings dealt 1999-born forward Davis Murray to Kootenay for a 3rd round pick. Murray scored once and added four assists in 45 games last year.

He was another Oil Kings forward who saw a dip in his production this year, as he put up 11 points in his rookie campaign with Edmonton. With Alec Baer and Colton Veloso aging out of the WHL, the ICE could be a place where Murray bounces back and has a career renaissance.

At the end of the day, Edmonton acquired Benjafield and Loschiavo, a 3rd round pick in 2018 and a 7th round selection in 2019, for Kobe Mohr, Nick Bowman, Davis Murray and Erik Miller and a 6th round pick in 2018.