Thursday . . .

The Calgary Hitmen, who earlier in the week showed up atop the CHL rankings, have landed the biggest fish in the WHL waters.
C Joel Broda, 19, who leads the CHL with 36 goals in 39 games, has gone from the Moose Jaw Warriors, along with LW Tomas Karpov, 19, to the Hitmen in exchange for C Brendan Rowinski, 18, and second- and seventh-round 2009 bantam draft picks.
Karpov, from the Czech Republic, has 12 points in 38 games.
Rowinski, from Winnipeg, has 31 points, including 12 goals, in 33 games.
Broda, who is from Prince Albert, goes from the Eastern Conference’s 10th-place team to the penthouse. The Hitmen hold a 19-point lead over the Saskatoon Blades, who presently are the conference’s second seed.
Calgary also is home to the WHL’s No. 2-rated offence. The Hitmen have scored 187 goals in 44 games, their 4.25 goals per game second only to the Vancouver Giants, who have 181 goals in 38 games (4.76).
The Giants are scheduled to meet the Hitmen in Calgary on Friday, Jan. 16.
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The Kelowna Rockets added a little toughness to their roster Thursday when they acquired LW Ryley Grantham, 20, from the Moose Jaw Warriors for F Dylan Hood, 18. Kelowna also gets a 2011 fifth-round bantam draft pick. . . . Grantham leads the WHL in penalty minutes. . . . The Rockets are putting together a stable of talented offensive players – including the likes of Colin Long, Jamie Benn, Mikael Backlund and Tyson Barrie – and the message now is out there that no one will be allowed to take liberties with any of them.
Grantham has 132 penalty minutes this season – remember that the WHL doesn’t include misconducts and game misconducts in its totals – and 345 minutes in his career. In his third season, he also had 34 points, including 19 goals. . . . Hood has 19 points in 37 games this season, and 39 points in 148 career games.
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The Rockets apparently still don’t know where they sit in terms of acquiring the services of Swedish F Mikael Backlund, 19. It has been widely speculated that Backlund, who has signed with the NHL’s Calgary Flames, will be assigned to the Rockets, who hold his WHL rights. However, Backlund played for the Flames last night against the visiting New York Islanders.
Backlund played 10 minutes 44 seconds, including 2:09 on the PP, as the Flames won, 5-2. He was pointless with one shot on goal.
I think you can look for him to be assigned to Kelowna sometime Friday.
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The Kamloops Blazers have sent D Nick Ross, 19, and F Alex Rodgers, 19, to the Vancouver Giants for D Curtis Kulchar, 18, and three bantam draft picks – third- and fourth-rounders in 2009 and a second-rounder in 2010.
Ross, who came to the Blazers from the Regina Pats on Jan. 4, 2008, was a first-round selection by Phoenix in the NHL’s 2007 draft and has signed with the Coyotes. A native of Lethbridge, Ross has 22 points, including 18 assists, in 40 games this season. However, he was pointless in six games before getting two assists in an 8-6 victory over the visiting Portland Winter Hawks on Wednesday night.
Still, Ross has improved markedly in his own zone, thanks primarily to working with Kamloops assistant coaches Scott Ferguson and Geoff Smith, both former NHL defencemen.
Rodgers, from Salmon Arm, was the second-last player taken in the WHL’s 2004 bantam draft. He had a goal and an assist against Portland, giving him four goals and 15 helpers in 44 games.
Kulchar, a 6-foot-0, 185-pounder from Martensville, Sask., was a seventh-round selection by Regina in the 2005 bantam draft. He had three assists in 50 games with the Pats last season. They dealt him to the Giants on Sept. 11, along with F Todd Kennedy, 18, for C Mitch Czibere, 19, and a 2009 fourth-round bantam pick.
Kulchar has one assist and 24 penalty minutes in 22 games with the Giants.
The Blazers and Giants will play each other four more times this season, starting Jan. 23 in Vancouver.
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The Kootenay Ice, fighting the injury bug in its forward ranks, has acquired RW Ryan Fox, 18, from the Calgary Hitmen for LW Kris Foucault, 18. The Ice has lost F Dustin Sylvester (ankle) and F Steele Boomer (concussion) so needs some depth. Fox had four points in 22 games with the Hitmen. . . . Foucault, who is from Calgary, was selected by the Swift Current Broncos with the 85th pick of the 2005 bantam draft. He is with the AJHL’s Canmore Eagles.
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The Anaheim Ducks taketh and they giveth back.
The Ducks signed D Matt McCue, 20, of the Medicine Hat Tigers last month and assigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Chops, who are based in Des Moines.
On Thursday, McCue, who has yet to make his pro debut, was returned to the Tigers.
It turns out there were immigration issues – his work visa didn’t arrive until Wednesday – and McCue never did leave Alberta, although he missed five Tigers games.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound McCue will be back in the Tigers’ lineup Saturday against the visiting Swift Current Broncos.
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JUST NOTES: Before being dealt, C Joel Broda, then of the Moose Jaw Warriors, learned he had been named the Boston Pizza CHL player of the week. He had 11 points, including nine goals, in four games as the Warriors went 3-1-0-0. All four games were played on the road. . . . Broda is the first two-time winner of the award this season; he also won it for the week ending Sept. 28. . . . Martin Jones of the Calgary Hitmen is the ADT CHL goaltender of the week. He was 3-0-0-0 with two shutouts, a 0.33 GAA and a .986 save percentage. . . . F Oscar Moller, who played the last two seasons with the Chilliwack Bruins, has a fractured clavicle. Moller returned to the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings with the injury, apparently suffered Dec. 31 in Sweden’s 5-0 victory over Russia at the World Junior Championship in Ottawa. Still, Moller played in Sweden’s remaining two games. He returned to L.A. and complained of shoulder soreness so the Kings’ medical staff checked him out and found the injury. He will miss at least seven games.
The Spokane Chiefs have received an international release for F Ondrej Roman, and the 19-year-old, who played for his native Czech Republic in the World Junior Championship, should play Saturday against the visiting Everett Silvertips. Roman spent the last two seasons with the Chiefs and was on their Memorial Cup-winning roster last spring.
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WHL trades since Dec. 26:
Dec. 30: Kootenay trades G Thomas Heemskerk, 18, to Everett for a 2010 third-round bantam draft pick.
Jan. 5: Saskatoon trades F Brody Sutter, 17, to Lethbridge for a 2009 fifth-round bantam draft pick.
Jan. 6: Prince Albert trades F Robbie Ciolfi, 17, to Prince George for RW Ryan Kowalski, 17.
Jan. 6: Prince Albert trades F Matt Robertson, 20, to Regina for F Michael MacAngus, 20, and a 2009 fourth-round bantam draft pick.
Jan. 6: Everett trades LW Kyle Beach, 18, and D Mike Alexander, 19, to Lethbridge for D Alex Theriau, 16, LW Daniel Iwanski, 18, and a 2009 first-round bantam draft pick.
Jan. 7: Spokane trades C Seth Compton, 20, and a 2010 third-round bantam draft pick to Kamloops for RW Brady Calla, 20.
Jan. 8: Moose Jaw trades LW Ryley Grantham, 20, and a 2011 fifth-round bantam draft pick to Kelowna for F Dylan Hood, 18.
Jan. 8: Kamloops trades D Nick Ross, 19, and F Alex Rodgers, 19, to Vancouver for D Curtis Kulchar, 18, and three bantam draft picks – third- and fourth-rounders in 2009 and a second-rounder in 2010.
Jan. 8: Kootenay trades LW Kris Foucault, 18, to Calgary for RW Ryan Fox, 18.
Jan. 8: Moose Jaw trades C Joel Broda, 19, and LW Tomas Karpov, 19, to Calgary for C Brendan Rowinski, 18, and second- and seventh-round 2009 bantam draft picks.