And then there were four: T-Birds deal McKechnie to Saskatoon

The Thunderbirds announced early Thursday that they had dealt 20-year-old right wing Sam McKechnie to the Saskatoon Blades in exchange for a sixth-round selection in next summer’s Bantam Draft.

The move gets the T-Birds down to four overagers, just one over the league maximum. Seattle needs to have that number down to three by the league’s Oct. 10 deadline. The four remaining 20-year-olds on Seattle’s roster are wing Justin Hickman, goaltender Taran Kozun, and defenders Adam Henry and Evan Wardley.

With Wardley getting an extended look at the Montreal Canadiens’ training camp, it’s possible that he could earn himself a professional contract and spend the season with the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs, which would solidify Seattle’s roster for the time being.

While the sixth-round selection may not seem like much of a return, the T-Birds and general manager Russ Farwell were in a difficult position. Numerous WHL teams are still over the maximum of three overage players, and prior to today, Saskatoon was one of the few teams with the space to add another. McKechnie proved to be a hard-nosed, tough, and hard-working player in his one season with Seattle, excelling in a defensive role on the team’s checking line with Scott Eansor and Jaimen Yakubowski.

With McKechnie no longer on the roster, the average age of Seattle’s forwards is just 17.29 years old. Of the 14 forwards currently on the roster, only six have seen significant playing time in the WHL. It seems the primary question surrounding the Thunderbirds these days is who will provide secondary scoring, and had McKechnie stuck around, it’s possible he could’ve been asked to be one of those guys, as he showed he was capable of in Lethbridge two years ago when he scored 26 goals and had 43 points. Instead, Seattle will rely more heavily on talented but untested youngsters like Keegan Kolesar, Alexander True, Lane Pederson, Florian Baltram, and a host of others to put up points behind the team’s top line.

The move may allow the team’s current 20-year-olds to sleep a bit easier at night, knowing that, pending the outcome of Wardley’s tryout with Montreal, they’ll likely be spending the year in Seattle.

Henry, an alternate captain and one of the veterans fighting for the three spots, acknowledged that it’s a situation that weighs on him, but that it’s something he ultimately needs to block out to be effective.

“You just try to play as well as you can and not let it get into your head,” Henry said following the team’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Everett Silvertips last Saturday. “It can get into your head and really affect your play if you let it.”

With Hickman currently nursing an upper body injury and Wardley’s situation undecided, it appears that Seattle’s overage situation is resolved for the time being. Should Wardley eventually return from Montreal and Hickman recover from his injury, one of the remaining four would likely be dealt for more experience up front, but that’s a decision that won’t be made until it absolutely needs to be.

Follow Tim Pigulski on Twitter at @tpigulski