Overreaction of the week: Kelowna and Swift Current are feeling the pain after trading away top picks
With the Kelowna Rockets recently being awarded the hosting duties for the 2020 Memorial Cup, the preparations have begun.
Part of those preparations for the Rockets will be gearing up their 2019-20 team as a real contender for the CHL’s crown.
That may be a little difficult as the current team is 2-9 through their first 11 games and has been outscored 45-28. 
Why are the Rockets, who seem to always be contenders, struggling this year?
Well the Rockets always seem to get the most out of their top WHL Bantam Draft picks and there is currently only one first-round pick signed to play with them.
On the way to winning the WHL in 2014, the Rockets were led by first-round picks Rourke Chartier, Nick Merkley and Dillon Dube. Previous long runs through the WHL playoffs were led by the likes of Tyson Barrie, Luke Schenn and Tyler Myers among others.
Now with 2014 first-round pick Jonathan Smart being traded away a couple seasons ago, the 2015 top pick being sent to Prince Albert as part of the Leon Draisaitl trade and the 2017 ending up with the Raiders as well for Reid Gardiner, solely Kaedan Korczak represents the Rockets as a first-round pick.
Even outside of the first round, the Rockets have struggled to bring in their high picks. Of their 2014 draft picks, only Conner Bruggen-Kate (6th round) and Kyle Topping (11th round) remain on the team.
From their 2015 draft, the Rockets have second-round pick Nolan Foote as a mainstay for this year and next year’s Memorial Cup year, but Ted Brennan (3rd round) has not found much success so far and Konrad Belcourt (4th round) was traded away.
Korczak leads the way for the 2016 draft class, but Deegan Mofford (3rd round) has yet to play for them and Michael Gildon (4th round) has committed to Ohio State University.
While they would be younger players on the 2019-20 team, the Rockets have not gotten either their top pick in 2017 Ethan Bowen (2nd round), nor their first-round selection in 2018 Trevor Wong to commit to them.
So where does that leave the Rockets?
Well they likely will have to empty the cupboards of draft picks and the rights to unsigned prospects. With the new trade rules this year, they will struggle to trade younger, more proven WHL players who would likely get more in return.
The Rockets will likely have a solid overage group next year in Bruggen-Kate, Topping and Leif Mattson, but their 2000 age group is mostly unproven. They added another player with potential to that group when they acquired Michael Farren last week.
The Rockets will be hoping for that age group to develop over the next year, setting them up in a better position for 2019-20.
Even if that does happen, they will need to dig into the cupboards and use their draft picks to bring in more, older talent.
Moving all those picks would leave them in an even worse position than they are in this year come 2021, 2022 and so on.
If they want to look at a team who emptied the cupboard and obtained their goal, they need to look no further than the Swift Current Broncos.
The defending WHL champions made many trades last year, moving future picks and top prospects along the way. They still fell short of winning the Memorial Cup.
The Broncos traded their top picks in 2014 (Dom Schmiemann), 2015 (Riley Stotts), 2016 (Logan Barlage) and 2017 (Joel Sexsmith) last year. They also dealt a lot of picks leaving them with only a single pick in the first five rounds in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft.
They do have the first-round pick in 2019 they got for Sexsmith, but they moved their own first-round pick, which could very well be first overall to the Prince George Cougars. Vancouver’s pick looks much lower than theirs.
They also traded their top pick in 2020, which could be a high pick as well.
The Broncos just recently won their first game in 2018-19 after dropping their first seven games. 
Swift Current may have gotten some of those assets back if Aleksi Heponiemi had returned to them. The 1999-born play maker had 118 points last year and could play on any top line in the league. Instead Heponiemi decided to return to Finland, where he is playing for Karpat.
The next few years look to be a struggle for the Broncos.
The Rockets will need to go all-in next year and will be placing themselves in a tough spot beyond the year they have their Memorial Cup pass stamped.
Whether or not the price that is paid is worth all the assets that are traded away is not something we will get into here, but it is a good question.
Even if things get clicking in Kelowna this year and the 2000 and 2001-born players start taking big steps forward, to say they are one of the top contenders in 2019-20 is a big stretch.
Bruce Hamilton, Kelowna’s Owner and General Manager and Lorne Frey, Kelowna’s Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel will be busy over the next 14 months leading up to the 2020 trade deadline.
