It's the biggest question around the City of Moose Jaw, and the entire Western Hockey League for that matter, what are the Moose Jaw Warriors going to do with Brayden Point?

The superstar centre is on his way back from captaining Team Canada at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. He has 43 points in 19 games this season with the Warriors, which has him tied for 17th in the league despite missing the past 18 games.

The 19-year-old is the biggest asset in the WHL and the trade question has been the focus of much speculation throughout the season, and continues to be with the WHL Trade Deadline just five days away.

“There's a lot of moving parts in terms of deciding to keep him,” said General Manager Alan Millar on Monday's 800 CHAB Heartland at Noon. “Brayden is a guy that's going to be one of the top-10 leading scorers in our franchise history, he's going to be a Hall of Fame guy, he might be a retired number type of guy and he does a lot of things culturally for our team in terms of winning.

“Brayden brings a lot to the table, but in saying all that, you have to do your due diligence, you have to look at what's in your best interest of the franchise, so there's positives in keeping Brayden Point and there's positives in listening (to trade offers).”

The Warriors are built around the 1998 age group, which features players like Brett Howden, Noah Gregor, Nikita Popugaev, Brody Willms and five other players on this year's roster. A trade of Point would help the team add players in and around that age group to build for the next few years, based on what the team would be looking for in return.

The other part of the equation is that the Warriors currently sit third in the East Division, entrenched in a playoff spot, and they would have to weigh their playoff possibilities with Point and without.  If they keep him, do they add more experience to their lineup to help with a playoff push or stay status quo.  All those options remain on the table for the Tribe.

“With what we've gone through the last few years (missing the playoffs three straight seasons) is that, you need to learn how to win, you need to get out of that rut of not being a very good team,” said Millar. “We've been building towards being a good, consistent team at this level and the process is starting this year.

“If there's a deal out there that keeps us competitive for this year, continues to allow us to be a playoff team this year, but can really set up the franchise for the next two or three years, you need to listen, but saying all that, it's a real difficult trade.”

Finding a trading partner willing to give up some of their top prospects, as well as picks, for Point is the delicate dance that Millar and the Warriors need to do.

“Talking to fans, they say, 'Well you're going to get Nolan Patrick, Kale Clague, Dillion Dube out of Kelowna, you're going to get all these top 16 and 17-year-old players', well first of all, teams have to be willing to give up those guys and secondly, all those players that are in high school have no-movement clauses, their families are protected to protect their academic investment,” said Millar.

“As an organization, we spent a lot of time in preparation for this week. We've spent a lot of time discussing how we potentially tweak our team, how we potentially improve our team, sure I have teams calling about Point, but we're still a long ways away from if anything may or may not happen on that front.”

The WHL Trade Deadline hits at 1:00pm on Sunday.