Thursday . . .

The AJHL’s St. Albert Steel has fired head coach Norm Lacombe, a former NHLer who played with the Edmonton Oilers. He was canned by owner Greg Parks, who is also the GM and assistant coach. "I guess when you're the owner, general manager and coach, you can do whatever you want," Lacombe told the Edmonton Journal’s Cam Tait. "Twenty games? I mean, we hardly knew each other. But there can be only one man in charge and that wasn't going to be me, so I wasn't going to be around." The Steel, at 10-11-1-2, is sixth in the North Division. . . . Gee, St. Albert is where Dean Clark began his coaching career. You don’t suppose . . .

The Portland Winter Hawks, with the WHL’s worst record, made two trades Thursday in which they shipped out five players and brought in seven. . . . Portland GM Ken Hodge began the day by sending F Nick Hotson, 20, F Colton Sceviour, 18, and D Lucas Alexiuk, 18, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for F Jacob Dietrich, 20, F Nick Dietrich, 18, D Ryan Kerr, 18, D Travis Bobbee, 17, and a fifth-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft. The Dietrichs are brothers; they also are the sons of former Brandon Wheat Kings D Don Dietrich. . . . Hodge then packaged that fifth-round pick with F Frazer McLaren, 20, and D Ty Ariss, 17, and cut a deal with Moose Jaw for D Travis Ehrhardt, 18, F Keith Voytechek, 20, and F Jason Grecica, 17. . . . Sceviour, Kerr, Bobbee and Ehrhardt all are former first-round bantam draft picks.

The Kamloops Blazers have dealt D Keaton Ellerby, 19, and a conditional bantam pick to the Moose Jaw Warriors for RW Brady Calla, 19, and a conditional bantam pick. Both players’ NHL rights are held by the Florida Panthers. Ellerby was the 10th overall pick in the NHL’s 2007 draft; Calla was a third-round selection in 2006. . . . Ellerby was a healthy scratch Tuesday as the Blazers dropped a 2-1 shootout decision to the visiting Red Deer Rebels. He is a cousin to Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who now is one of the Blazers owners. . . . Calla has 12 points in 14 games with Moose Jaw. He also has played with the Everett Silvertips. . . .

Garth MacBeth, our man with his eye on Europe, files this report today: F Zdenek Bahensky (Saskatoon) has been loaned by Litvinov (Czech Extraliga) to Karlovy Vary (Czech Extraliga) until Dec. 24. Bahensky has played for Litvinov and Most (1. Liga) this season. . . . F Konstantin Pushkarev (Calgary) has signed with CSKA Moscow (a/k/a Central Red Army) in the Russian Superliga. He was with Iowa (AHL), playing in eight games. . . . F Billy Tibbetts, who played nine games for Tri-City in 1993-94, has signed with Olten in the Swiss NL B. Tibbetts played in Finland for HPK Hämeenlinna and HIFK Helsinki last year.