[{"id":77012,"date":"2026-07-29T15:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/?p=77012"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T19:32:14","slug":"blades-strike-second-deal-of-the-day-acquire-pair-of-picks-from-wheat-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/article\/blades-strike-second-deal-of-the-day-acquire-pair-of-picks-from-wheat-kings","title":{"rendered":"Blades strike second deal of the day, acquire pair of picks from Wheat Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Saskatoon Blades acquired a pair of Western Hockey League (WHL) Prospect Draft picks from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday in exchange for 2008-born goaltender Ryley Budd. The picks include a 2029 third-round pick and 2027 eighth-round selection.<\/p>\n

The deal came two hours after Saskatoon acquired a conditional draft pick in 2027 from the Vancouver Giants for defenceman Derek Thurston.<\/p>\n

“With the signing of Martin Psohlavec and a deep bench at the goaltending position, we felt this was a good move to get Ryley to a spot where he can be a regular,” said Blades president and general manager Colin Priestner. “We thank Ryley for everything he did for our club and the communities of Saskatoon and Calgary through his Be A Budd program and wish him nothing but the best!”<\/p>\n

The Calgary, AB native appeared in 11 games with the Blue and Gold last season. Budd went 4-4-1-0 with a .888 save percentage (SV%) and 3.08 goals against average (GAA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0The Saskatoon Blades acquired a pair of Western Hockey League (WHL) Prospect Draft picks from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday in exchange for 2008-born goaltender Ryley Budd. The picks include a 2029 third-round pick and 2027 eighth-round selection. The deal came two hours after Saskatoon acquired a conditional draft pick in 2027…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":77013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[{"term_id":584,"name":"Ryley Budd","slug":"ryley-budd","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":584,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"61"}],"class_list":["post-77012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-ryley-budd","category-541","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/07\/29151454\/Budd-Trade-Web.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77016,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77012\/revisions\/77016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":77009,"date":"2026-07-29T13:27:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/?p=77009"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:27:53","slug":"blades-acquire-conditional-draft-pick-from-giants-for-thurston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/article\/blades-acquire-conditional-draft-pick-from-giants-for-thurston","title":{"rendered":"Blades acquire conditional draft pick from Giants for Thurston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Saskatoon Blades have acquired a conditional draft pick in the 2027 Western Hockey League (WHL) Prospects Draft from the Vancouver Giants in exchange for 20-year-old defenceman Derek Thurston.<\/p>\n

“Derek went through an extremely difficult year with grace and positivity, and both parties felt it was better for him to continue his journey recovering in his hometown of Vancouver,” said Blades president and general manager, Colin Priestner, “We sincerely hope he will get back to the ice soon where he belongs.”<\/p>\n

Acquired by the Blades in October 2025 from the Red Deer Rebels, Thurston scored one goal and one assist in 12 games with the Blue and Gold. The 131-game WHL veteran has ten goals and 16 assists for 26 points in his career.<\/p>\n

The Blades want to thank Derek for his contributions to the city of Saskatoon and wish him nothing but the best out west!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0The Saskatoon Blades have acquired a conditional draft pick in the 2027 Western Hockey League (WHL) Prospects Draft from the Vancouver Giants in exchange for 20-year-old defenceman Derek Thurston. “Derek went through an extremely difficult year with grace and positivity, and both parties felt it was better for him to continue his journey…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":77010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[{"term_id":633,"name":"Derek Thurston","slug":"derek-thurston","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":633,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"13"}],"class_list":["post-77009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-derek-thurston","category-541","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/07\/29102927\/Thurston-Trade-Web.png",1920,1080,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77011,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77009\/revisions\/77011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":76997,"date":"2026-07-20T12:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/?p=76997"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:13:37","slug":"blades-sign-minnesota-state-champion-andersen-to-whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/article\/blades-sign-minnesota-state-champion-andersen-to-whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","title":{"rendered":"Blades sign Minnesota State Champion Andersen to WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Saskatoon Blades are happy to announce the signing of 2009-born forward Gavin Andersen to a Western Hockey League (WHL) Scholarship and Development Agreement.<\/p>\n

“Gavin is one of the fastest rising 2009-born players in North America,” said Blades general manager and president, Colin Priestner, “Over the last year he put up numbers with Warroad High School not seen since TJ Oshie and led them to an incredible state championship title as a 16-year-old. \u00a0We think he can step in and use his dynamic speed and skill set right away to help us win games as he gets accustomed to the WHL pace and style.”<\/p>\n

The Warroad, MN native led his team in all scoring departments last season with 35 goals and 38 assists for 73 points in 31 games with Warroad High School of the United States High School – Minnesota (USHS-MN) League. The 5-foot-10 winger helped his school claim the 2026 Minnesota High School Hockey 1A State Championship in front of 10,000+ fans at Grand Casino Arena. Andersen scored twice in the semifinal game before striking two more times in the title game, including a dramatic, game-tying goal with 46 seconds to go in regulation. The left-handed shot tied for the tournament lead with five goals and ten assists to earn a spot as 1-of-12 players on the Class A All-Tournament Team.<\/p>\n

“We feel Gavin has a very bright future with us,” said Priestner, “We\u00a0 want to welcome him and his parents, Jeff and Kristine, to the Blades family, as we continue to make exciting new inroads in the Minnesota area.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0The Saskatoon Blades are happy to announce the signing of 2009-born forward Gavin Andersen to a Western Hockey League (WHL) Scholarship and Development Agreement. “Gavin is one of the fastest rising 2009-born players in North America,” said Blades general manager and president, Colin Priestner, “Over the last year he put up numbers with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":76998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[{"term_id":655,"name":"Gavin Andersen","slug":"gavin-andersen","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":655,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-76997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-gavin-andersen","category-541","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/07\/20110856\/IMG_7681.jpeg",2268,1805,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77000,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76997\/revisions\/77000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":76991,"date":"2026-07-15T10:47:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/?p=76991"},"modified":"2026-07-15T10:49:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:49:58","slug":"blades-sign-flyers-draft-pick-psohlavec-to-whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/article\/blades-sign-flyers-draft-pick-psohlavec-to-whl-scholarship-and-development-agreement","title":{"rendered":"Blades sign Flyers draft pick Psohlavec to WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Saskatoon Blades are thrilled to announce the signing of 2008-born goaltender Martin Psohlavec to a Western Hockey League (WHL) Scholarship and Development Agreement. The Ostrov, CZE native was drafted by the Blades in the first round (42nd overall) of the 2026 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin was the number one player on our list for the last several months,\u201d said Blades general manager and president, Colin Priestner, \u201cMyself and Jeff Harvey have gotten to know him, and he\u2019s just an outstanding kid full of energy and enthusiasm, on top of being a world-class goalie going in the second round at the NHL Draft. Martin really wanted to be in Saskatoon, and we are absolutely thrilled to have him join our club.”<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old netminder was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft in June. Psohlavec attended his first NHL Development Camp a few days later with the Flyers. The 6-foot-5 goalie played for HC Energie Karlovy Vary of the U20 Czechia League last season. Psohlavec appeared in 42 games and posted a 31-11-0 record, .928 save percentage (SV%), 1.92 goals against average (GAA), and eight shutouts. Psohlavec appeared in 12 games internationally with Czechia\u2019s U18 squad, going 7-5-0 with a .910 SV%, 2.15 GAA, and one shutout. In four games at the U18 IIHF World Junior Championship, Psohlavec went 3-1-0 with a .926 SV% and 1.68 GAA.<\/p>\n

We want to extend a warm welcome to the Psohlavec family to the organization and look forward to watching Martin continue his development under the guidance of goalie coach Jeff Harvey and the rest of the coaching staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saskatoon, SK \u2013\u00a0The Saskatoon Blades are thrilled to announce the signing of 2008-born goaltender Martin Psohlavec to a Western Hockey League (WHL) Scholarship and Development Agreement. The Ostrov, CZE native was drafted by the Blades in the first round (42nd overall) of the 2026 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft. \u201cMartin was the number one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":445,"featured_media":76992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[{"term_id":650,"name":"Martin Psohlavec","slug":"martin-psohlavec","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":650,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"class_list":["post-76991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-martin-psohlavec","category-541","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/07\/15104436\/Screenshot-2026-07-11-at-8.00.57-AM-2.jpg",1320,932,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76993,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76991\/revisions\/76993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":76986,"date":"2026-07-14T13:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/?p=76986"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:09:44","slug":"blades-prospect-martiniuk-invited-to-canadas-u17-development-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-blades\/article\/blades-prospect-martiniuk-invited-to-canadas-u17-development-camp","title":{"rendered":"Blades prospect Martiniuk invited to Canada’s U17 Development Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary, AB – <\/strong>Saskatoon Blades prospect Kain Martinuik is one of 80 players invited to Hockey Canada’s Under-17 Development Camp later this week. Hockey Canada announced the full camp roster on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n

8\u20e30\u20e3 players have earned invitations to \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6\u2019s national under-17 development camp. \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n

8\u20e30\u20e3 joueurs ont \u00e9t\u00e9 invit\u00e9s au camp national de d\u00e9veloppement des moins de 17 ans du \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6. \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0https:\/\/t.co\/LcZnsLLsWY<\/a>
\ud83d\udcf0https:\/\/t.co\/Xp3k1qP5Ns<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/akpcsuZsNG<\/a><\/p>\n

— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) July 14, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n