Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president hockey, tells me the tentative plan is for the league office to release the entire 2008-09 schedule on Aug. 7. If all goes according to plan, that release will be made late in the morning Calgary time. . . . The league’s plan is for it to have all changes OK’d by Aug. 5 at noon, have the schedule inputted (is that a word?) and proofed on Aug. 6 and out to the hockey public on Aug. 7. . . . Doerksen said the WHL office has made “seven or eight changes” to the schedule since the Western Conference scheduling meeting in Kelowna on Thursday and is waiting for the particulars before making one more change. . . . One of those Western Conference changes involves a Kelowna at Kamloops game that is scheduled for a Tuesday but may get moved to a Friday.
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THE MacBETH REPORT: F Matt Keith (Spokane/Red Deer) signed with Ingolstadt (Germany DEL). He was mostly with Portland (AHL) and Bridgeport (AHL) last season but got into three games with the New York Islanders.
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JUST NOTES: The Tampa Bay Lightning, its brass gathered in Victoria for a prospects camp, will reveal today that Steven Stamkos, the first overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft, has signed a three-year contract. As per the CBA, that deal will be worth US$850,000 per season with a maximum of $2.85 million in attainable annual bonuses. . . . If you haven’t been interviewed by GM Garth Snow for the New York Islanders’ vacant head-coaching job, perhaps it’s only because you didn’t apply. Already Snow has chatted up John Tortorella, Paul Maurice and Bob Hartley. Mike Sullivan met with Snow on Monday and Scott Gordon gets to pitch himself on Wednesday. Joel Quenneville, Marc Crawford and Gerard Gallant also are scheduled to be interviewed. What? No Pat Quinn? No Pat Burns?
