Every year a major junior team is selected to host the Memorial Cup, junior hockey's top prize.
This year the Quebec Ramparts are hosting, and when a team hosts they are given an automatic berth in the tournament that features four teams.
The other three are decided by the winners of each the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior League.
Should the host team win their respective league, the team they beat in the final is given the last spot at the Memorial Cup.
When the Saskatoon Blades hosted in 2013, they made some big trades to ensure they had the best chance for a long playoff run and a national championship.
It didn't exactly go as planned.
Their first big move in preparation for hosting was acquiring Brenden Walker from the Brandon Wheat Kings in May of 2012.
In the deal, which included a pair of second round picks and a third going to Brandon, the Wheat Kings were given the choice of swapping first round picks in the 2014 WHL draft.
Walker was coming off an 81-point season and did exactly what the Blades were hoping the 20-year-old veteran would, rack up points.
He finished with 76 in 72 games during the 12-13 season.
The Blades made two more big trades that season, this time at the trade deadline.
They traded their first round pick in the 2015 WHL draft and a fifth round pick in 2013 to Spokane for Collin Valcourt.
Valcourt didn't exactly light it up with the Blades, scoring 11 goals and adding seven assists in 32 games.
They also traded their 2013 first round pick to Brandon for 20-year-old Michael Ferland.
Ferland faired a little better than Valcourt, scoring eight times and adding 21 assists in 26 games.
This also doesn't include the Brayden Schenn trade from the 2010-11 season, where the Blades sent their first round picks in 2011, 2012 and the 2012 CHL import draft along with two 15-year old prospects to Brandon in exchange for Schenn.
By the way, one of those prospects was the Blades 2010 first round pick Tim McGauley, who finished third in WHL scoring this season with 105 points.
Feeling salty yet, Blades fans?
Now the Blades were prepared for their playoff and Memorial Cup run.
Except it didn't happen.
Despite finishing atop their division, and fourth overall in the WHL, a first round matchup with the Medicine Hat Tigers proved disastrous.
The Blades were swept in four straight games, outscored 15-4.
Because they were ousted in the first round, the 2013 first round pick they sent to Brandon became the sixth-overall pick.
With that pick the Wheat Kings selected Kale Clague, a defenceman from Lloydminster who was coming off a record-setting season in Bantam AAA.
While he battled through injuries for most of the year, Clague finished this season with 13 points in 20 games for the Wheat Kings.
No big deal however, since the Blades were hosting they now had an extra long layoff to make sure everyone was fully healed and ready to go for the real deal.
After 51 days off the Blades finally played another game, this time against the OHL champion London Knights. They lost 3-2.
The Blades went 79 days in between wins, as they ended the 2012-13 regular season on a seven-game losing streak then four more in the playoffs.
They defeated the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads 5-2 on May 19, but would lose their next two games against the Portland Winterhawks and Knights to see their season officially end.
It's not unusual for a team to struggle the season after going all in for a championship, but for the Blades, it went from bad to worse.
After finishing third last in the league, the Blades then won the draft lottery moving them up two spots and giving them the first overall pick.
Great news, right? But wait, remember when I said the Wheat Kings were given the option of swapping first round picks in the 2014 draft in the Walker trade?
So not only did the Blades miss the playoffs, they also missed out on the first overall pick.
The pick, which belonged to Vancouver in a trade from early in the 2012-13 season, was of course swapped and Brandon selected Stelio Mattheos of Winnipeg with the first overall pick.
Surely this year the Blades would bounce back, right?
Wrong. This year the Blades finished dead last in the WHL, subsequently giving away the first overall pick for the second year in a row.
Another thing, that fifth round pick in 2013 the Blades sent to Spokane with their first pick this year? That turned into Kailer Yamamoto, who finished second in rookie scoring this season with 57 points in 68 games.
Since I'm already rubbing things in for Blades fans, the Wheat Kings finished first in the WHL this year with McGauley, Clauge, and Brandon Papirny, who the Wheat Kings selected with the Blades first round pick in 2011, playing important roles.
The Blades do have a future to look forward to however, as they have a pair of first round picks in this years WHL draft from Kamloops (originally Kootenay) and Everett.
They also have their own 2016 first round pick along with their own and Victoria's in 2017.
So let this be a warning to any and all teams who plan on mortgaging their future in an effort to win now.
You can't but wonder where the Blades would be if they didn't move a few of their first round picks.
