Entering the WHL prospects draft, Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray said he would ideally use some of his draft capital to bring in a new batch of prospects, and some to bolster the team in the present. As it turned out, he was able to achieve just that.
The Wheat Kings swung a massive trade with the Swift Current Broncos, bringing in 2005-born forward Luke Mistelbacher and 2005-born defenseman Grayson Burzynski in exchange for their own first-round pick in 2025, a second-round pick in 2025 that originally belonged to Saskatoon, their own third-round picks in 2027 and 2028, a sixth-rounder of their own in 2028, and 2009-born prospect Alex Letourneau.
“It’s a good day for our organization,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We’ve sat in the chair before where we’ve been in selling mode, having to move a Jake Chiasson or Nate Danielson but now we have these assets, and you don’t want to throw everything completely out the window but we felt it was a good opportunity to make a statement to our group and let our organization and our fans know we mean business this year.”
Mistelbacher, from Steinbach, had been a consistent scorer in 2023-24 with 20 goals and 53 points in 64 games, but he absolutely skyrocketed in 2024-25. He not only led the Broncos with 42 goals and 93 points in 67 games played, he also made his professional debut, scoring once in two games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild.
“He finished eighth in the league in scoring last year, he had 93 points and was one of a handful of guys over 40 goals,” Murray said. “He has the ability to put the puck in the net. Where we’ve been the last couple of years, you need guys to be elite producers. You look at the teams in the finals right now, they have 110 or 120-point guys. We don’t want to put any pressure on guys, but you need those guys that can produce points every night. That’s the difference a lot of the time.”
Burzynski, a Winnipeg native, found another gear last season in a big way as well. The 6-foot-4 blueliner posted a career-best 11 goals and 47 points in 62 games while also playing a punishing physical style.
“I kind of joked with him when I talked to him on the phone that he was a Wheat King killer last year,” said Murray. “He had about two points a game against us, I said I was sick of seeing him score against us so we might as well bring him here. He kind of laughed and said there was something about the Keystone Centre ice that he loves. He’s a guy that had close to 50 points last year and he’s a smart player.”
The team was also able to add these two valuable pieces without giving up any parts of their current roster. The message to Wheat Kings fans and players alike is simple:
“It means that we’re serious about having a really strong year,” Murray said. “We felt that we’ve been close, last year we were close, and there were a variety of things that make you double-think. One of them was (Roger) McQueen’s health, things like that. We just felt like these players are available and we owe it to the kids and to our fanbase to really put our best foot forward and try to make a statement this year.”
Murray added the team hasn’t yet decided exactly how they will address the 2005-born player situation facing them, as they now have six 2005-born players on their roster.
