Vancouver Giants land veteran defenceman in Brandon Wheat Kings swap

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The Vancouver Giants have gone the trade route with the Brandon Wheat Kings once again.

Vancouver announced Friday that they had acquired 20-year-old defenceman Logen Hammett from Brandon in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2024 WHL Draft.

Vancouver’s team most valuable player last season was centre Ty Thorpe, an overager who came to the Giants from the Wheat Kings in an August 2021 swap. Thorpe also took over the team captaincy after Zack Ostapchuk was traded to Winnipeg at the January trade deadline this past season.

Hammett is a 6-foot-1, 190-pound left-handed shot with two full seasons of WHL experience. He’s been a steady, stay-at-home influence with Brandon — four goals, 37 points in 144 career games — but Giants general manager Barclay Parneta thinks the Regina native may have more to give offensively as well

Teams can carry only three 20 year olds and Vancouver finished last season with six 19 year olds: wingers Skyler Bruce and Kyle Bochek, centre Sammy May, defencemen Carson Haynes and Brenden Pentecost and goaltender Brett Mirwald.

Brandon finished last season with six 19 year olds.

Hammett had four fighting majors last season and that included one for a bout against Bochek in a Oct. 14 game at the Langley Events Centre, which Brandon won 4-2. Bochek had laid a heavy check on Brandon winger Ben Thornton near the Wheat Kings’ bench just before the fight. Bochek was tossed from the game with a checking from behind major and wound up with a three-game suspension from the league office.

Vancouver went with a forward, a defenceman and a goalie (Thorpe, Dylan Anderson and Jesper Vikman) for its three 20 year old last season, a foward and two defencemen (Adam Hall, Connor Horning, Alex Cotton) the season before that and two fowards and one defenceman (Tristen Nielsen, Eric Florchuk and Alex Kannok Leipert) in 2020-21.

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