in the following 2016–17 season, the storm finished last in the conference with a 21–31–6–2 record. the storm started the season with points in three straight games (2–0–0–1) and were 7–5–1–2 a quarter of the way through the season. from december 1 through the end of the season, tri-city went 14–26–5–0. the storm made a number of mid-season trades aimed at building for the future. on february 6, the storm moved assistant captain joey matthews, second-leading scorer charlie kelleher, and odeen tufto to sioux city for draft picks and a player to be named later. the same day, tri-city executed two separate trades with waterloo, moving captain alex limoges (for forward caleb rule, a draft pick and a player to be named later) and starting goaltender dayton rasmussen (for d tyler borsch). after the trades, the storm went 6–12–1–0. tri-city sent a league-high five players to the 2017 ushl/nhl top prospects game and forward paul washe was named team west mvp (two goals) in sioux falls. washe became the second straight storm player to win team west mvp after wade allison in 2016. three storm players (alex limoges, paul washe, dayton rasmussen) won the gold medal with the us junior select team at the 2016 world junior a challenge in bonnyville, alberta.