Scooter scoots; Willie stays

The Portland Winter Hawks without Dean Vrooman is like bacon without eggs, Brooks without Dunn, hotel heiress without Paris Hilton.
It just isn’t right.
But that’s the situation in Portland today after Dean (Scooter) Vrooman announced that he is leaving the Winter Hawks.
Vrooman was the play-by-play voice of the Winter Hawks for 25 seasons. His company, Portland Sports Broadcasting, also was contracted to work on corporate sponsorship sales.
“It was the greatest job a human being could have had for 25 years,” Vrooman wrote in an e-mail. “How can you beat watching and calling play-by-play (as) the best amateur hockey players in the world put it all on the line every game to try to get to the NHL?”
Vrooman leaves the Winter Hawks without having a job to which to go. He said he will take some time off and then will figure out in which direction he will go.

In Medicine Hat, Willie Desjardins, the Tigers’ GM and head coach, was on radio Thursday morning, announcing that he is staying put.
Desjardins had been offered a position by the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes -- as head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage.
After contemplating it, Desjardins has decided to stay with the Tigers, who he guided to the WHL championship last season.

C Tanner Gillies, 20, has left the WHL after three seasons. Had he returned to the Tri-City Americans, he would have been one of five 20-year-olds vying for three spots. Gillies, a 6-foot-3, 210-pounder from Moose Jaw, had 24 points in 70 games last season. Gillies plans on attending the U of Regina in the fall. . . . The Americans have four 20-year-olds -- D T.J. Fast, LW Erik Felde, C Shaun Vey and LW Colton Yellowhorn -- on their roster.