Anholt speaks on new acquisitions

By Lethbridge Herald on January 7, 2025.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Herald photo by justin seward Lethbridge Hurricanes G.M. Peter Anholt spoke to reporters about the team’s new acquisitions on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s WHL trade deadline

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes got a head start of tomorrow’s WHL trade deadline with a couple of new acquisitions earlier in the week.

The Hurricanes acquired 19-year-old defenceman Caden Price from the Kelowna Rockets in exchange for 17-year-old blue liner Will Sharpe, the WHL playing rights to 17-year-old goaltender Harrison Boettiger and five draft picks.

Lethbridge sent Kelowna a 2026 first-round draft pick, a 2025 fourth and a 2025 sixth round pick, a 2027 fifth-round pick and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in the 2025 draft.

“I’ve known Price as a player for a long time,” said Peter Anholt, Canes GM, to reporters on Tuesday.

“The thing about Price for me is he’s a bit of a Swiss Army knife in a lot of ways, like he’s an all-around defencemen. He can run a powerplay if you need him to, he can be a shutdown guy, the way he skates and the way he can move the puck is very important to our hockey club.”

Anholt realized a “significant amount” went the other way to for Price.

“Giving up Will Sharpe was a real tough one for me personally” said Anholt.

“He came in and really played well for us (and) really has developed into a real good player. So that one really stings for me but to get something, you (have) got to give up something and we were in that mindset this year.”

Anholt feels with the addition of Price, that it rounds out the blueline.

“To add the experience that Caden brings I think is paramount,” said Anholt.

“(If) you look at our six right now, it’s really strong. So I think once we get everybody into our line-up, once we get through the injuries, and we get through the suspensions and the resting from world juniors and all that, it’ll be fun to see our full line-up altogether at some point but that might not be for a little while yet.”

The Seattle Kraken prospect has six goals and 32 points in 26 games this season with Kelowna. The Saskatoon product represented Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa where he had a goal and an assist in five games. He signed an entry-level deal with the Kraken in April, 2023 and has 26 goals and 148 points in 201 WHL regular season games.

Monday’s deal was the third high-calibre acquisition the Hurricanes have made this season, having acquired Winnipeg Jets prospect Brayden Yager and 19-year-old goaltender Jackson Unger from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Dec. 2. They previously traded for defenceman Vojtech Port from the Warriors on Nov. 15.

The Canes weren’t done there as on Tuesday they traded a 2026 fourth round draft pick and a 2027 sixth rounder to the Regina Pats for 2005-born forward Anthony Wilson.

Anholt described Wilson as a player who has an edge and a player who is a strong skater.

“He plays hard, he competes hard (and) has a little nastiness,” said Anholt.

Wilson had 11 points in 27 games with the Pats this season.

Anholt was asked with the roster and how it’s constructed now, what his confidence level is in it.

“The Central Division is really a juggernaut,” said Anholt.

“I think we’ve got a tough road in front of us but an exciting road. What the heck, that’s what we’re here for and I’m excited about the situation … I really like where we’re at, there’s lots of good teams, so we’re going to be challenged and hopefully that makes us better for any kind of a playoff run that we do have.”

The Price deal came in the midst of his elite World Junior teammates Tanner Molendyk being dealt to Medicine Hat from Saskatoon and Sawyer Mynio being acquired by the Calgary Hitmen from the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Anholt was asked if he was pushed to make recent deals because of what those teams have done or would he had made those trades he would had considered already.

“Once we didn’t get the (Memorial) Cup, we pivoted,” said Anholt.

“We kind of looked at our group and thought we had a solid group but we didn’t have an elite group of guys. We needed to add those guys and by adding some of the guys we’ve added, I think we’ve kept the group pretty much intact and added some elite players to our line-up.”

Anholt thinks the team is done making moves ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.

“But never say never until it’s totally done,” said Anholt.

“We’ll still poke around out there and see if there’s an (addition) for us that might fit. I think we’re in a situation where we can probably sit tight now but we’ll see.”

-With files from James Tubb, Medicine Hat News