Major League Pickleball (MLP) announced multiple trades on Friday involving both Premier Level and Challenger Level teams.

The moves come as Trade Window #1 draws to a close on Saturday, Feb. 15.

Here are the details:

Premier Level
Columbus acquires Andrei Daescu
Phoenix acquires Jay Devilliers and cash considerations

Challenger Level
Brooklyn acquires Blaine Hovenier and cash considerations 
Las Vegas acquires Pablo Tellez 

Challenger Level
California acquires Rafa Hewett
Las Vegas acquires Chris Haworth and cash considerations

 

 

 

 

 

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Here are the updated team rosters:

Columbus Sliders (Premier)
Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Callie Smith, Parris Todd

Phoenix Flames (Premier)
Jay Devilliers, Meghan Dizon, Jessie Irvine, Tyson McGuffin

Brooklyn Aces (Challenger)
Daniel De La Rosa, Amanda Hendry, Blaine Hovenier, Andrea Koop

California Black Bears (Challenger)
Brandon French, Rafa Hewett, Lina Padegimaite, Layne Sleeth

Las Vegas Night Owls (Challenger)
Judit Castillo, Chris Haworth, Pablo Tellez, Chao Yi “Zoey” Wang

As a reminder, each team must declare its keepers and drop at least one player on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 6pm CT.

Now, onto the details.

Breaking things down

Let’s look at how these trades impact each team's prospects heading into the 2025 season.

Phoenix: Jay Devilliers, Meghan Dizon, Tyson McGuffin, Jessie Irvine

This is a truly shocking move for Phoenix. Just this week, the Flames traded for Dizon and McGuffin, two players that have had success playing with Daescu in the past.

Most fans believed that making that move was an effort to make Daescu as comfortable as possible, signaling that the team would move forward with Daescu at the center of its operation.

Daescu being a Proton-sponsored player supported this notion, especially since a group headlined by Charles Darling and Tim Fyke of Proton Sports recently bought a controlling stake in the franchise.

I personally thought that Phoenix would drop Dizon and look to add a left-side female in the free agency draft to join a roster of Daescu, McGuffin, and Irvine.

But, it looks like everyone was wrong.

Let’s be honest. Devilliers isn’t Daescu, but that doesn’t mean that he and McGuffin wouldn’t make a more-than-capable Premier level men’s doubles pairing.

They also have considerable history playing together. Devilliers/McGuffin picked up five medals when they competed on the PPA Tour together in 2022.

The women’s doubles pairing still faces the issue of having two traditionally right-side players, so I would expect the team’s required drop to come from here.

The decision, however, isn’t easy.

Dizon actually played mixed doubles with both Devilliers and McGuffin during the 2024 MLP season. She and Devilliers went 5-4 together on the Columbus Sliders, while she and McGuffin had a 6-5 record on the Orlando Squeeze.

Dizon—like Daescu—is a Proton-sponsored player, which could make Phoenix more inclined to keep her. The cost to do so is $150K, which is the sixth-highest amount of all women at the Premier level.

Irvine did not compete alongside either Devilliers or McGuffin in 2024, but she has extensive experience sharing the court with Devilliers on the PPA Tour. They earned 13 medals together from 2021-2023, including a title at the 2021 PPA Championships.

Irvine is also far less expensive to keep (just $5.5K), though Phoenix is probably flush with money after trading Daescu’s $265K keeper cost for Devillier’s at $67.5K and receiving money from Columbus in Friday’s trade.

Columbus: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Parris Todd, Callie Smith

Columbus is having a heck of an offseason. They began by trading for CJ Klinger, who in my opinion is the player with the most value relative to his keeper cost of just $1K.

Now, they’ve set the 19-year-old up for further success by pairing him with another top-tier talent in Daescu, who he won a PPA title with at the tail end of 2024.

After a disappointing 11^th place finish in 2024, things seem to be looking up for the Sliders ahead of the 2025 season.

Because of the (expected) strength in men’s doubles, I expect Columbus’ required drop to come from either Todd or Smith. I would expect them to drop Smith; Todd is coming off of a stellar Tucson tournament where she earned gold in singles and bronze in women’s doubles with Tyra Black.

Her singles prowess makes her a valuable asset for DreamBreakers, and I expect her to continue making massive strides in doubles in 2025.

If the Sliders do drop Smith, they—like Phoenix—would need to target a strong left side female in the draft to play women’s doubles with Todd and mixed doubles with Klinger.

Las Vegas: Judit Castillo, Chris Haworth, Pablo Tellez, Chao Yi ‘Zoey’ Wang

Friday was a busy day for the Night Owls, as they traded Rafa Hewett and Blaine Hovenier in exchange for Chris Haworth and Pablo Tellez.

Haworth will have to be dropped because he doesn’t have a UPA contract, so Las Vegas is in a position to move forward with a very solid core of Castillo, Tellez, and Wang.

Tellez and Wang have started 2025 playing together on the PPA Tour, making the Round of 16 in both Palm Springs and Tucson. They seem to have good chemistry and would make a very strong Challenger pairing.

Friday’s moves open the door for Las Vegas to pursue a left-side male to play with Tellez in men’s doubles and Castillo in mixed doubles.

It’s hard to predict who will still be available with the Challenger draft taking place the day after the Premier level draft, but I think Marshall Brown and Wyatt Stone could be potential targets.

California: Brandon French, Rafa Hewett, Lina Padegimaite, Layne Sleeth

In my last article on MLP trades, I wrote about how a lefty like Ivan Jakovljevic could be a draft target for the Black Bears.

A day later, they went and got another lefty in Rafa Hewett. Hewett and French actually played together for California during the 2024 season before Hewett was traded to Las Vegas, but they only had a 3-8 record together.

We won’t see that pairing again, though, since French has to be dropped because he was a waiver wire pickup in 2024. This means that California will most likely go into the draft with a core of Hewett, Padegimaite, and Sleeth.

Hewett and Padegimaite have played several PPA tournaments together with some good results, and I think they will make a strong mixed doubles pairing at the Challenger level.

As mentioned above with Tellez and Las Vegas, I could see Marshall Brown and Wyatt Stone as potential targets in the draft to play with Hewett in men’s doubles and Sleeth in mixed doubles.

Brooklyn: Daniel de la Rosa, Amanda Hendry, Blaine Hovenier, Andrea Koop

Not a ton changes for Brooklyn with Friday’s trade. They will still have to drop Hendry because she is not UPA-signed, and the Aces will also have to drop Hovenier because he was a waiver wire pickup in 2024.

Unless more moves are made on Saturday, Brooklyn will go into the draft needing one male and one female player to fill out its roster next to De la Rosa and Koop.