Blades trade Brandon Lisowsky for Tanner Scott, two draft picks

The Saskatoon Blades are making some big moves, trading away star winger Brandon Lisowsky while securing crucial draft picks for this year and next year.

In exchange for Lisowsky and a fifth-round pick in 2028, the Blades picked up 20-year-old forward Tanner Scott and second-round draft picks in both 2025 and 2026 from the Victoria Royals.

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Blades president Colin Priestner said the decision to trade away Lisowsky, the franchise’s fifth leading goal scorer of all time, was one of the most difficult calls he’s had to make in his time leading the team.

“Brandon was one of the best goal scorers the club has ever seen, and was a major part of five very successful seasons with the Blades,” Priestner said in a statement.

“He did everything we ever asked of him and more, and his work over his years here was more than what we ever hoped for when we selected him in the first round of the WHL Prospects Draft.”

Priestner said he and Lisowsky spoke extensively during the offseason about the direction the team may need to take in order to regain some high draft picks, and both agreed that the trade was “the best outcome.”

The second-round pick the Blades secured for 2025 as part of the trade will be the second-best second-round pick from Victoria, “which can’t be determined until the draft order has been finalized,” the team noted in a release.

Scott, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., comes to the Blades in his final season of eligibility, with six goals and 10 assists under his belt over 25 games. Over his 245-game WHL career, the five-foot-eight winger has amassed 58 goals, 88 assists, 142 points and 54 penalty minutes.

Priestner said the addition of Scott to the trade helped ease the pain of giving up a player like Lisowsky in exchange for important draft picks.

“Getting second-round picks in the next two drafts from Victoria was critical for us, but the only way we were going to move a player like Brandon was if we got a high-quality 20-year-old back on top of the draft picks and we feel we got that in Tanner Scott,” the Blades president said.

“Tanner had 56 points last year and has just come off some injuries this year and we feel there is a lot of upside for him to be a very important player for us in the second half of the season.”

The league’s trade deadline is set for next Thursday.