Tuesday . . . early

Anyone interested in a WHL expansion franchise or in relocating a present-day franchise will be interested to learn that the Wenatchee Wild, completing its first season in the North American league, is averaging, according to a source in the area, more than 2,700 fans per game. “The team has become very popular with the fans,” noted the source, “averaging more than 2,700 per game. The league stats have it at just over 2,600 but the difference is due to the fact the first two ‘home’ games happened at a tournament in Minnesota and drew only 1,200 each. The Wild averaged more than 3,000 for their last 10 games at home. The team ended the season 35-19-4, and went 18-3-2 down the stretch.”
The Wild will meet the Alaska Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs, with all games, due to travel costs, to be played in Wenatchee. The Avalanche play out of Wasilla. Yes, Sarah Palin’s son, Track, played for the Avalanche, as did Levi Johnson, the father of Bristol Palin’s child.
The Wild and Avalanche, who open Friday in Wenatchee, already have met 14 times this season, with the Wild holding a 10-3-1 edge.
And now, the source in Wenatchee reports, the NAHL “is looking for expansion locations here in the NW. It looked at Yakima and Bellingham.”
The source indicated there even are rumours of possible expansion to Dawson Creek, which is about a 900-mile drive from Wenatchee.
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By the way, the Wichita Falls Wildcats, who are owned by Prince George Cougars owner Rick Brodsky, will face the Topeka RoadRunners in another NAHL first-round series. The RoadRunners held a 5-1-2 edge in the regular-season series.
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Former WHL player and coach Dean Evason is an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals and is doing just fine. The blog Storming The Crease has a report right here.
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F Mitch Fadden of the Tri-City Americans is the Boston Pizza CHL player of the week. Fadden, who is from Salmon Arm, B.C., had eight points in three victories over the Everett Silvertips last week. Fadden and the Americans open a second-round series at home against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday night. . . . Sorry, nothing new to report on Kelowna F Mikael Backlund.
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Some interesting speculation in the Prince George Citizen, courtesy of sports editor Jim Swanson. . . . The most interesting piece of news has to do with Cougars owner Rick Brodsky and Marc Habscheid, who is available to coach, making a trip together to Las Vegas.
“Cougars owner and president Rick Brodsky recently spent time in Las Vegas with one Mr. Marc Habscheid,” Swanson writes, “meeting and discussing what it would take to revive a relationship that started more than 25 years ago when Habscheid, then a Saskatoon Blade, billeted at Brodsky’s house.
”Brodsky, asked about the meeting during last week’s home playoff games, indicated the two sides differed on the role Habscheid could play — he wants to return to coaching, but has designs on a larger say than he had while leading the Kelowna Rockets to that franchise’s best years. Ownership and final call in player personnel decisions are high on Habscheid’s list, and that is a difficult equation with the Cougars because Brodsky has never wavered from his stance that the team is not for sale, nor has he ever opened the door as much as a crack on suggestions Dallas Thompson is not the right man to be GM.”
The complete column is right here.