Thursday

These must be Interesting times in Salmon Arm where Randy Williams, owner of the BCHL’s SilverBacks, has dumped general manager Garry Davidson and head coach Ty Davidson. The new GM/head coach is Rylan Ferster, who at one time was the head coach under Garry Davidson. Ty is Garry‚s son, by the way. . . . After leaving Salmon Arm, Ferster spent three seasons with the BCHL’s Victoria franchise. . . . . Just in case you don’t think hockey is a goofy world at times, at the time of the change Salmon Arm was 15-3-0-1 with the BCHL’s second-best winning percentage (.816). Only the Nanaimo Clippers (.882) were better. . . . What makes all of this even more interesting is that Williams purchased the SilverBacks from, yes, Davidson who had hoped to buy the dormant Williams Lake franchise and put it in Wenatchee, Wash., where there had been grand plans for a new arena. That doesn’t seem to be happening, though, so all appears to be on hold. . . . Davidson’s contract as GM in Salmon Arm was to expire at midnight Dec. 31, so it seems Williams decided to end it all two months early. . . . Ty Davidson’s contract ran through the end of this season. . . .

The Tri-City Americans (12-4-0-0) are in for an interesting weekend. They play host to the Vancouver Giants (11-3-1-2) tonight and meet the Thunderbirds (6-3-2-1) in Seattle on Saturday. Earlier this season, the Giants and Thunderbirds handed the Americans losses on consecutive nights. Seattle won 6-2; Vancouver won 4-1. . . . Skating instructor Vanessa Hettinger of the Edmonton-based Quantum Speed spent a couple of days with the Americans this week. . . .

Talk about a road trip! In the ECHL, the Florida Everblades are to play the Aces in Anchorage three times this weekend. Anchorage is 4,926 miles from Estero, Fla., and the ECHL is laying claim to this as the longest-ever road trip made by a North American pro team. Yes, it is said to be longer even than the trip the Dawson City side made in 1905 when it traveled, in part by dog sled, from the Yukon to Ottawa to play for the Stanley Cup. . . . Among the former WHLers on the two ECHL teams are Joey Hope, Barrett Heisten and Kimbi Daniels (Aces) and Jarret Lukin and Tyler Plante (Everblades). . . . Turn about will be fair play later in the season when the Aces travel to Florida for games Nov. 28-Dec. 1. . . .

News from our European correspondent has F Mike Bayrack (Lethbridge/Medicine Hat/Prince George) signing a four-game tryout deal with Heilbronn in Germany’s 2.Bundesliga. He joins Dan and Patrick Baum on the Heilbronn roster. Bayrack started this season with Sonderjysk in the Danish Elitserien . . . Meanwhile, the European leagues are preparing to break for various national team tournaments in the approaching week. The big one is the Karjala Cup in Helsinki (Nov. 8-11), with Finland, Sweden, Russia, and the Czech Republic participating. There are five ex-WHLers who have been chosen to participate: G Milan Hnilicka of Liberec (Swift Current), D Filip Novak of Ceske Budejovice (Regina), D Josef Melichar of Linköping, Sweden (Tri-City) and F Vaclav Varada of Langnau, Switzerland (Tacoma/Kelowna) will play for the Czech Republic, while F Oleg Saprykin of CSKA Moscow (Seattle) will be on the Russian side. . . . Our man also reports: “The other main tournament is the Deutschland Cup in Hannover, Germany, on the same dates. The teams participating in this tournament are Germany, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Japan, and USA.” . . . D Aaron Keller (Kamloops) will be on Japan’s team. He plays for Oji Paper in the Asian Hockey League. . . .

And in a late flash our European source adds that Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark have named their national teams for the Deutschland Cup in Hannover, Germany, Nov. 8-11. D Jason Holland (Kamloops) of Ingolstadt will play for Germany. Former Portland assistant head coach Julius Supler is Slovakia's head coach and the roster includes G Rastislav Stana of Linköping, Sweden (Moose Jaw/Calgary). . . . Wondering about Canada? It will play in the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland, at Christmas time.