FIVE MINUTE MAJOR It’s a new week in major junior hockey and with that comes a lot of news.

It’s a new week in major junior hockey and with that comes a lot of news. The world junior championship is over with the USA defeating Finland in overtime 3-2 to claim gold.

While the world junior tournament was happening, Western Hockey League teams were wheeling and dealing making trades ahead of Thursday, Jan. 9 trade deadline.

Wenatchee has been improving, but they’re still working to take care of what they need to build for the future after the franchise’s move from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Wenatchee then announced a big trade last Thursday with the Calgary Hitmen acquiring forward Maxim Muranov and the WHL playing rights to NCAA-committed forward Mason Moe and 2009-born goaltender Mark Djomo. They also received a pair of WHL Prospects Draft selections and the third-round selection in 2026 originally assigned to the Regina Pats, and the second-round pick in 2027 originally belonging to the Saskatoon Blades. Going the other way was 2004-born goaltender Daniel Hauser.

Calgary wasn’t done there however as they made a deal with the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday. Seattle acquired Sawyer Mayes, Linden Burrett and four future draft selections. The Hitmen received Vancouver Canucks draft selection, Sawyer Mynio.

The Saskatoon Blades are in an interesting spot as well with how they have the talent for a deep run, but also have to start building for the future. Because of that, they completed a pair of deals with the Royals and Thunderbirds in the past week. Then on Monday night they completed a blockbuster deal with the Medicine Hat Tigers centered around defenseman and Nashville Predators’ prospect Tanner Molendyk. He and forward Misha Volotovskii went to Medicine Hat. Saskatoon received forward Hayden Harsanyi, defenseman Jack Kachkowski and five future draft selections.

Wenatchee, Saskatoon and many others would make more deals ahead of the trade deadline including a few more big ones. The same thing happened in the OHL, including multiple blockbusters involving NHL prospects.

In non-trade news, it was announced on Monday that Wenatchee Wild captain Evan Friesen was named the WHL Player of the Week for the week ending Sunday, Jan. 5.

He led all WHL skaters with six goals (including a hat trick) and three assists for 10 points and a +5 rating through four games.

Vancouver Giants’ goaltender and rookie Burke Hood was named WHL Goaltender of the Week with his stellar performance. Hood led all starting goalies with a 3-0-0-0 record, 1.10 goals-against average, a .965 save percentage and back-to-back shutout victories.

Speaking of rookies, the Royals had this week’s WHL Rookie of the Week in 16-year-old defenseman Keaton Verhoeff. He tallied two goals and two assists for four points in four games.

The weekly CHL top 10 rankings were released Wednesday with the OHL and QMJHL both leading the way with four teams each while the WHL checked in with two. In the OHL, the London Knights landed at the top spot, Kitchener Rangers at the four spot, Windsor Spitfires at five and Barrie Colts at eight. In the QMJHL, the Moncton Wildcats slid in at the two spot, Drummondville Voltigeurs at six, Rimouski Océanic at seven and the Chicoutimi Saguenéens at nine. That left the WHL’s Everett Silvertips at three and the Spokane Chiefs at 10.