Humboldt Broncos General Manager Darcy Haugan has swapped Morgan Messenger's junior "A" rights to the Whitecourt Wolverines of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

In late May it was announced the Messenger and defenseman Graydon Smith's rights were shipped to the Broncos to finalize the deal that sent Greg Moro to Lloydminster.

Messenger will now return to the Wolverines where he was prior to playing for the RBC Cup hosting Bobcats.

Named initially in the deal is 1997 born 6'5" defenseman Stephen Wack.

"I was instantly attracted to his size and his skating," Haugan said of the 19 year-old blue liner. "His physical play was evident every time I watched him, he competes hard, he makes the other team aware when he is on the ice."

The St. Albert product has 73 AJHL games under his belt but he's looking forward to a new start with the green and gold.

"It's pretty exciting, I had a good conversation with Darcy," he said over the phone Friday afternoon. "He had a lot of good things to say about Humboldt and it sounds like we're going to have an exciting year next year."

Haugan was disappointed Messenger wasn't keen on playing in Saskatchewan but he feels at the end of the deal process this is the best case scenario for the organization starting with the acquisition of Wack.

"Morgan was a dynamic player for the Lloydminster Bobcats, he did want to go back to Alberta and at the end of the day we want people that want to be here but at the same time we weren't going to give him away for free. We feel this is a deal that helps the Broncos immediately and years to come."

The futures aspect should be finalized prior to the season starting, something Wack hopes comes sooner rather than later even though he admits there might be some learning curves in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

"Yeah I had to ask Darcy some questions," he joked. "I have a couple buddies in Saskatchewan I also talked to them too, they had nothing but good things to say about Humboldt."

The stay at home rearguard has three goals and 18 points in regular season action, he has another assist in eight post season contests.

You can hear more from both Haugan and Wack below in their interviews with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.