A Grip on Sports: Business side of junior hockey shows every trade deadline, but at least Chiefs gave Toporowski a chance at title
A GRIP ON SPORTS • When the crowd shuffles into the Spokane Arena on many mid-winter Saturday nights, they are to see high school-aged players, for the most part, play professional hockey. And with any professional sports, there are aspects that are eye-opening in a lot of ways.
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• Monday, the Spokane Chiefs traded Luke Toporowski. Unlike many Western Hockey League trades, this one actually benefited the player being traded, as the 20-year-old Toporowski is headed to Kamloops, an organization that actually has a shot at winning a WHL title this year.
The Chiefs? They are rebuilding.
Which means, as the trade deadline approached yesterday, their more experienced players became more than just young men trying to build a future in hockey. They became assets.
If they could help the franchise in the future, they were staying. If not, the market beckoned.
Toporowski’s trade is a little unique. Then again, he has always been a little unique. A legacy. The fourth member of the family to play in Spokane. Brother, father, uncle. He didn’t billet with strangers while spending his time in Spokane. He lived with his grandparents.
His Spokane roots have always been deep. But the Chiefs haven’t grown into a championship contender while he was maturing. Part of it was the pandemic iced their best chance a couple years ago, part of it is it’s just hard to be successful in the competitive U.S. Division.
With Kamloops, Toporwoski, a former first-round bantam pick who scored 76 goals in 223 games with Spokane, has a chance to hoist some sort of trophy.
“(Spokane is) a super young team, so (Chiefs general manager) Scott (Carter) thought it was the best thing for me and for Kamloops and for the (Chiefs) organization,” Toporowski told our Dan Thompson on Monday. “I think it’s pretty easy to tell we’re going through a rebuild right now.”
And a rebuild doesn’t need many 20-year-olds. Another Chief, Cordel Larson, was traded to Moose Jaw yesterday. In the two deals, Spokane received a couple of players and two draft picks. It’s the picks that are important.
“Picking up a second-round pick in an upcoming draft provides us a valuable asset as we build around our young core,” Spokane general manager Scott Carter said in a news release about the Toporowski trade.
You wonder if this is where college football is headed. If Washington State could, in the not-so-distant future, trade a second-string defensive back to Eastern Washington for the rights to the Eagles’ third-best recruit two years down the road.
But that might be the case if schools start paying players and begin to serve the same role in the future as WHL teams’ management serve today. That’s a discussion for another day. Today we want to say goodbye to a Chiefs’ player who continued a family tradition, donned a Spokane sweater and competed his derriere off in the Arena more than 100 times.
That derriere (and the rest of Toporowski) is off to Kamloops now. Let’s hope he wins some hardware. Maybe even gets to play in a Memorial Cup. And that the second-round pick Spokane received in return turns out to the player that puts the Chiefs on a Memorial Cup run of their own. Unless, of course, when he turns 20, he can help at the trade deadline.
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Gonzaga: The Zags ascended to the top spot in the Associated Press poll this week, barely edging Auburn. Jim Meehan has the poll story but it was Theo Lawson who contacted voters about their choices and which team they put No. 1. … Monday is also the day the West Coast Conference hands out awards. The Bulldogs’ Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren were honored again. Jim also has those stories. … GU’s Bree Salenbien earned WCC freshman of the week honors. It is her first time winning the award. … Back to the men, though Gonzaga is barely mentioned in this bubble watch (the Zags are considered a lock), the rest of the WCC stuff is interesting.
WSU: For the second time this season, the Cougars’ Mouhamed Gueye earned the Pac-12’s freshman of the week award. Colton Clark has all the particulars in this story. … Speaking of awards, freshman punter Nick Haberer overcame his second-half-of-the-season ankle injury to win a national one. Colton also has that story. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, both Arizona State and Utah have been struggling. So it may not come as a big surprise the host Sun Devils scored late to top the Utes, 64-62. … Arizona moved up to No. 3 in the polls. … Colorado has a big game with USC coming up. … Oregon is back on the NCAA bubble. … On the women’s side, Oregon State picked up a much-needed win over 22nd-ranked Colorado in overtime. … There was also another great game in Oregon yesterday, with the Ducks walloping No. 9 Connecticut. … The clash between Oregon coach Kelly Graves and Arizona’s Adia Barnes isn’t going away. … In football news, at least three-dozen impact players with eligibility remaining have entered the NFL draft. … Washington is losing some of those, including its punter. … It is time to look at Oregon’s depth chart.
Idaho: The Vandals lost 74-72 yesterday in Flagstaff. It is just another in a series of tough losses. … Around the Big Sky, Weber State used a big second half to rout Idaho State 78-61. … Northern Colorado is using the 3-point shot to its advantage.
Whitworth: JT McDermott’s bout of COVID-19 last year wasn’t one of the mild cases. It was really bad. And he was scared. He’s back now with the Pirates, leading them in scoring and will lead them into a key matchup with Linfield tonight. Jason Shoot has the story.
Chiefs: We have the trade story above. We also have some news about the Chiefs in our latest local briefs column.
Seahawks: The Times is reporting the Hawks are changing defensive direction, sort of, as coordinator Ken Norton Jr. is being fired. … There was one playoff game last night, with the Los Angeles Rams beating up on NFC West rival Arizona.
Kraken: It took a shootout but Seattle snapped its nine-game losing streak last night. The Kraken got past Chicago 3-2.
Mariners: A former M’s bullpen coach died Monday at age 46. Brian DeLunas was well-liked and credited with helping many young prospects reach their potential. … It’s Hall of Fame voting time. Voters are confronted with many PED questions. There are no good answers.
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• We probably should have delved into the Seahawks’ decision to part ways with Norton this morning. But the more we thought about it, the more we realized no matter who Pete Carroll hires, he’s the guy in charge of that side of the ball. So we’ll wait to see who the new person is with the title and then try to figure out if anything will change. Until later …