(Inset of Brent Sutter: Red Deer Rebels)

By Ian Gustafson

Patience

Rebels owner Brent Sutter shakes up roster at trade deadline

Jan 10, 2025 | 2:23 PM

Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz once said that patience isn’t a virtue; it’s a necessity.

That’s what Red Deer Rebels owner, president, and general manager Brent Sutter says is the key in the newly formed roster following the trade deadline on Thursday evening.

“The biggest thing with this group is we need to show some patience. When you make a turnover like this it’s going to take a little bit but I expect the coaches will get these guys to gel,” he said.

“Hopefully, we can be a good hockey team from now until the end of the year.”

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This comes after Red Deer’s roster received a major shake up prior to the deadline trading away key players such as Matteo Fabrizi, Carson Birnie, and Hunter Mayo. They also moved on from Cole Peardon, Taylor Tabashniuk, Trae Wilke, and a handful of draft picks.

Meanwhile, players on their way to Red Deer include 18-year-old Doogan Pederson, 15-year-old Miller Robson, 17-year-old Parker MacDougall, 16-year-old Ethan Dundas, 17-year-old Ty Coupland, 20-year-old Keaton Dowhaniuk, and 18-year-old forward Nishaan Parmar. They also added five draft picks including a pair of third rounders.

Since November, they’ve acquired seven new players, traded 10 away, and have added nine new draft picks, while trading four away.

“The makeup of the team needed to change,” Sutter said in a media scrum on Friday. “To me the team, and the direction we were going and how we were playing we had a lot of guys fighting and struggling in their game, especially our older guys.

“It was time and you can go through all the stats whether it’s goals for, goals against, our powerplay, penalty killing, our goal differential, and puck possession time. All of those boxes weren’t checked off for me.”

Moving forward Sutter wants his squad to play a more improved team game and hopes the moves can ignite their scoring struggles. As of Friday, no one in the WHL has scored less goals than Red Deer.

“We’ve added some really good players that have skill, can make plays, and are going to be here for a couple of years,” he added.

“On the back end we wanted our team to be more mobile so we’ve been able to do that with Dowhaniuk and Pederson… You look at the game today and the direction it’s going that’s a big part of it now.”

Sutter explained he wasn’t willing to sit back and not do anything to improve the team.

He isn’t happy with their 15-18-3-2 record and expected more from the group. As a result, he got on the phone and made the changes that needed to be made.

“My responsibility is to get it back to where it needs to be and at the same time I felt like we needed to acquire more picks to help us down the road and we’ve been able to accomplish that,” he said.

Even though the deadline has passed, the work is just beginning for the Rebels who are currently outside of the playoff picture.

With plenty of new faces including the newly signed Russian forward Gleb Semenov, the team has to learn how to play together once again.

“We chase the game too much right now and that’s not a recipe for success,” he said.

Other teams in the Central Division went the opposite direction by loading up their roster to make a run. The Medicine Hat Tigers added the biggest name on the market, defenceman Tanner Molendyk and the Lethbridge Hurricanes defenceman Caden Price. In addition, the Calgary Hitmen acquired defenceman Sawyer Mynio, who previously won a WHL title.

Sutter said the moves made by their rivals did not factor in to any of his decisions.

“They can do what they want to do. I know what our focus is and how we need to do things. I believe you build internally as much as you can. We do have some really good young players coming underneath and we know that,” he said. “We do really like our young players on our team now.”

It may not be an easy road but the playoffs are still within grasp and remains the goal for Sutter.

“Underperforming is not acceptable and my expectations here for this team and organization is high,” he said.

“You’re not going to win every game and I get that, but it’s the way you lose games that really bother me… You can’t be inconsistent like we have been and think you’re going to be able to get on any good run and win games.

“There needed to be a culture change… We need better leadership from the group and there’s got to be a higher level of accountability and being team players. Play for the front of that jersey.”