A team on a five-game winning streak and fresh off their most successful out-of-conference road trip ever could be forgiven for thinking they had all the pieces in place. The Brandon Wheat Kings, however, chose to make a strong squad even stronger with an important pick up.
The Wheat Kings have announced the acquisition of forward Aiden Foster from the Prince George Cougars. In exchange, the Wheat Kings send a 2028 third-round pick (originally belonging to Penticton), a 2029 first-round pick (the later of their own or Penticton’s), a 2029 sixth-round pick, and a fourth-round pick in 2030.
“He’s a kind of player that everyone is trying to covet and is becoming rarer every year,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “He’s a big power forward type guy with a bit of a mean streak that has a scoring touch. We think that this was part of our team that we could improve on, some grit, some sandpaper, and he certainly brings that.”
Foster, a fourth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2025, has shown scoring touch and grit aplenty so far this season. The 6-foot-4 forward has five goals in four games with the Cougars this season, including two shorthanded goals.
“He’s a guy who plays both wing and centre,” Murray said. “He can compliment skilled players, he’s got enough skill, and he gets to the dirty areas. He can compliment our skilled guys and at the same time he can probably play a shutdown role too. We as a staff have a lot of options where we can throw him in. It’s an exciting time, and we’re thrilled to have Aiden on board.”
Murray noted the Wheat Kings were not the only team interested in Foster (understandably, given his nearly-unique skillset) and this led to paying a premium to acquire him. But getting Foster to the Wheat Kings early in the season was yet another enticement to getting the deal done now.
“You’d probably pay even more on January 10 to get a player like this, now you get him for the full year,” he explained. “We’re nine games in, and he’s a player that we’re going to have for 85 percent of the year. That was appealing to us too, to get him into the mix right away and build him into our team culture.”
And while some might say a strong road trip is all the more reason to stand pat, Murray saw the opportunity to add Foster not only as a chance to bolster his club but to send a message of support and belief to both his players and the fanbase.
“You never know how often a player like this is going to become available,” said Murray. “For us, it shows our team we believe in them and our fans as well, that we feel like we have the ability to do some good things this year. By showing the commitment by bringing a player like this in, hopefully that stamps that.”
In addition to his size and skill, Foster brings a number of other intangibles. The Lloydminster native has fought 27 times in his WHL career, and more than that, he brings 32 games of WHL playoff experience, including a trip to the Western Conference Final in 2023-24.
“You don’t make a trade of this magnitude to sit in the middle,” Murray said. “We have high expectations for the team and I think the guys showed on the road trip was a good indicator that we can do some good things. We wanted to make that commitment. We had a few assets from the (Nate Danielson and Gio Pantelas) trades that were sitting there. It’s nice to have those in the hopper, but we want to give this organization the best chance to win and go on a deep run.”
Foster is serving a two-game suspension and will not be eligible to play for the Wheat Kings this coming weekend. He could make his Brandon debut on Friday, October 23, when the Wheat Kings host Seattle.
