The Spokane Chiefs are making moves for the present – and the future.

The Chiefs traded standout forward Mathis Preston to Vancouver on Monday in exchange for defenseman Marek Howell, forward Tyus Sparks and a first-round pick in this year’s WHL Prospects Draft. Spokane included a conditional 2029 second-round pick in the deal.

With the acquisition, Spokane now holds two first-round picks in this year’s draft.

Preston, 17, from Penticton, British Columbia, was third in Chiefs scoring with 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in 36 games this season.

The Chiefs return an 18-year-old Meridian, Idaho , native in Sparks, who has 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) this season, along with Howell, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound 19-year-old stay-at-home defenseman from Calgary.

“Today, we made what we consider a hockey trade,” Chiefs general manager Matt Bardsley said.

“It is tough to move on from a player like Mathis, but we believe this enabled us to add a forward in (Sparks) who is having an excellent season offensively, along with (Howell) who is an experienced defenseman that is difficult to play against. The first-round pick will provide us flexibility in acquiring a player via trade or draft.”

Preston, who is expected to be a first-round pick in this year’s NHL draft, was one of several players the organization hoped would take a big step up from last year, when he tallied 45 points (23 goals) in 53 games while playing mostly on the third line.

“It’s hard to move a player like (Preston),” Bardsley said. “I mean, he’s a projected (NHL) first-round pick. But we felt that with where a team’s at, you know, there was potential opportunity to add these players plus get a first-round pick. … We selected him third overall. We put a lot of time in with his development. But you know, this is probably about as much of a ‘hockey trade’ that you can make.”

The Chiefs last season won the Western Conference before bowing to Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League championship series. In doing so, they led the league in scoring and were second on the power play.

But the organization graduated all five of its top scorers, including Berkly Catton – who turns 20 on Jan. 14 and is now earning minutes with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. As a result, the Chiefs only have one player – the recently acquired Logan Wormald – in the top 50 individual scorers in the league and they are last in the league by a wide margin on the power play at 11.2% (16 of 143).

Entering play this week, the Chiefs are ninth in the conference – one point behind Kelowna for the final playoff spot and four points ahead of 10th-place Vancouver.

“We all feel that we are a playoff team,” Bardsley said. “We just have to find more consistency in our game. A trade like this, and moving out a popular player – and certainly an elite player in (Preston) – it’s probably surprised some people. But again, I believe this is a hockey trade where we able to bring in some offense to replace Mathis and given us a very experienced defenseman who provides good size and is hard to play against.”

In addition to the players acquired, the added first-round pick in this year’s prospects draft could be used to retool later this year or to package for another player closer to the trade deadline, which is Thursday.

“Being able to add a pick that can help our team, right now or in the future, was huge,” Bardsley said. “We’re always looking at ways to improve our team. I know there’s probably some people that are really surprised that we moved (Preston), and we certainly weren’t looking or wanted to move Mathis, but this was a way that was going to help us add to our team overall.”