A number of interesting moves have been made since the Bandits locked up the 2024 Championship back in May. Here are the trades that have been announced, as well as a bit about the movement of the start of free agency. There have been no free agent signings because of that, but there was one important announcement about a significant free agent.

Obviously there will be more moves once the free agency period opens, and we might even have a dispersal draft. I’ll be back with more on those once they happen.

Trades

Albany sends Justin Geddie and a 2025 first to Las Vegas for a 2026 4th and a 2027 first

• Las Vegas gets a young goalie and a first round pick next year, so this works out great for them. Albany gives up their first next year and gets back Vegas’s first in 2027. But that’s after Las Vegas is a bit more established so it’s less likely to be, say, a top three pick. But it’s still more likely to be higher than Albany’s 2025 pick. Good trade for everyone.

Calgary sends Shane Simpson an a 3rd round pick in 2027 to Las Vegas for Griffin Hall, a first in 2024 (14th overall) and a 6th in 2025

• I did not see the Roughnecks trading away Shane Simpson, one of the brightest young transition stars in the game. I have no idea how old Griffin Hall is because Las Vegas didn’t have that info on their web site last year, and Calgary hasn’t added him to theirs yet. I suspect he’s early-mid 20’s, putting him at least five years younger than Simpson. But he’s also more of a defensive defender and less of a transition threat, or at least that’s how he was used in Vegas.

Albany sends Nathan Grenon to Ottawa for a 2nd round pick in 2027

• Grenon (pictured right) is from the Ottawa area and so this will be good local promotion for the team, and also great for Grenon.
• Fun fact: I lived in Ottawa from June 1992 (after graduating from university) until August 1993 (starting grad school). The apartment building I lived in was on Grenon Ave.

Vancouver sends Kyle Killen to Las Vegas for a 2025 second and conditional 2027 third

• After a couple of 50+ point seasons (including 43 goals in 2022), Killen scored only 12 goals and added 22 assists in 2024. Sometimes a change of scenery can have a dramatic effect, so maybe hitting the desert will bring Killen’s numbers back up.

San Diego sends Curtis Dickson and a 2024 4th to Calgary for Zach Currier, 14th overall pick in 2024, and 2nd round in 2026

• I saw the Roughnecks trading Zach Currier away even less than I saw them trading Shane Simpson away. I definitely didn’t see them trading both. The two combined for 41 points in 2024, so Dickson will most certainly make up the scoring numbers they are losing, but there’s a lot more to great transition players than scoring stats, and as good as Dickson is, he won’t make that up.

Albany sends Anthony Joaquim to Rochester for a second round pick in 2026

• Rochester will be Joaquim’s fifth team in seven seasons. Only two teams allowed more goals last year than the Knighthawks, and adding a 6’2″ veteran defender with a Championship behind him is never a bad thing.

Toronto sends Brandon Slade to Rochester for a 2024 third

• Rochester adds another solid defender, though Slade has a bit more of a scoring touch than Joaquim. Slade isn’t a big guy but he’s effective, and can play shifts out the O door if needed as well. Slade is one of those guys who you may not notice much if you watch a Rock game, but in interviews with the coaches and his teammates, his name comes up a lot. They certainly notice his contributions.

Free Agents

Christian Del Bianco announced via Instagram (July 23) that he would not be re-signing in Calgary, preferring to focus on his Coquitlam-based business and upcoming wedding. This strongly implies that a Calgary/Vancouver trade is upcoming but given this announcement, Vancouver knows that the Roughnecks are not exactly in a strong position. As a result, Calgary is unlikely to get market value – or what would have been market value a month ago. The trade deadline (see the Other section below) has come and gone and no trade happened. Calgary put the Franchise Player tag on CDB anyway, likely so that once free agency opens up again, he doesn’t just sign somewhere else. If he did that, all Calgary would get is an end-of-first-round compensatory draft pick. In a trade, as I said before, they may not get market value for one of the top goalies in the game a year removed from an MVP season, but they should get more than that.

Retirements

Surprisingly, there have been none so far. Ryan Benesch said during the 2024 season that it would be his last, but hasn’t announced his retirement, so perhaps he’s changed his mind. There will probably be veteran players who will be quietly released from rosters, or just not re-signed and will retire with no fanfare but there are usually at least a couple who make an announcement about their retirement; think Shawn Evans or Rhys Duch last season.

Other

Just a few days before teams were allowed to start talking to free agents, the league announced that that free agency date was being moved from the end of July to the end of August, and no trades or signing of (or even talking to) free agents would be allowed in the meantime. They didn’t say why they were doing this, but there are rumours that it’s to allow Panther City to decide whether it will be folding, moving, or playing next year under new ownership. All that’s been confirmed so far is that the owners are looking to sell. If the team folds, we’ll have a dispersal draft, probably in early September before the entry draft. When PCLC and Las Vegas entered the league, they were announced well over a year before they started playing, to give the promotions team enough time to boost interest in the new team. Moving Panther City now would only give the team a few months to get ready for the next season, so unless they’re staying in Dallas/Fort Worth but just changing venues (which seems unlikely), I don’t seem them moving at this point.

The Philadelphia Wings announced that Ian Rubel, their former defensive coach, is now the team’s head coach. Paul Day announced a while ago that he’d be stepping down as coach but will stay on as GM. There were more rumours that Day was waiting for PCLC to fold so that he could hire Tracey Kelusky, who works with Day for the Peterborough Lakers. Since that didn’t happen, it’s possible that the rumour wasn’t true in the first place, or Day knows that PCLC isn’t folding so Kelusky isn’t available. It’s also possible that Day decided they couldn’t wait any longer to hire a coach. Or maybe they just thought Rubel would be a better fit in Philly than Kelusky.