Another one out in Lethbridge

Roy Stasiuk was fired as general manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Monday morning.
The move came just a few days after Stasiuk, who had one year left on his contract, announced that head coach Michael Dyck’s contract wouldn’t be renewed when it expired May 31. Stasiuk had been GM since Nov. 8, 2005.
Just one year ago, the Hurricanes reached the WHL’s championship final, where they lost in four games to the Spokane Chiefs. Today, the Hurricanes are coming off a seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference, although they did upset the No. 2-seed Saskatoon Blades in the first round.
Today, they don’t have a general manager or a head coach.
If there was any doubt as to which WHL franchise is the most dysfunctional, all of this removes all of that.
---
THE MacBETH REPORT: F Joni Lindlöf (Kelowna) signed a one-year contract with Briançon (France Ligue Magnus, the top league). He had 35 goals and 20 assists in 33 games with Asplöven Haparanda (Sweden Division 1) this season.
---
JUST NOTES: The Regina Pats have renewed the contracts of Todd Ripplinger, their long-time director of scouting, and athletic therapist Greg Mayer, while promoting Cliff Mapes to vice-president of business operations. Mayer just completed his fifth season with the Pats. Mapes has been with the Pats since 2004 as director of marketing. . . . The Medicine Hat Tigers have signed C Hunter Shinkaruk, the 14th overall pick in the 2009 bantam draft. Shinkaruk, whose father, Roger, has been the Calgary Hitmen team dentist since 1995, played for the bantam AAA Calgary Royals. . . . The Everett Silvertips have deleted D Mike Alexander, who would be going into his 20-year-old season. He was dealt to the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Kyle Beach exchange in January, but was reacquired a couple of days later. However, the second half of his season didn¹t amount to much, thanks to injuries. . . . For what it’s worth, the Kelowna Rockets apparently had a toonie buried in the ice in front of their bench at Prospera Place. Players dug it out of the ice after they won the WHL championship Saturday night. . . . The BCHL’s Vernon Vipers won the Royal Bank Cup, Canada’s junior A championship, by beating the Humboldt Broncos 2-0 in the sudden-death final in Victoria on Sunday. The Vipers now have won five junior A titles, more than any other franchise. They had been tied with the Prince Albert Raiders, who dominated the Canadian junior A game before moving into the WHL. The Vipers are coached by former WHL player and coach Mark Ferner. . . . Vernon is a few slapshots from Kelowna, which means both the WHL and Canadian junior A titles will spend the summer in B.C.’s red-hot Interior. . . . F Joel Broda of the Calgary Hitmen is the Boston Pizza WHL player of the week. He had six points, including three goals, in four games. Calgary G Martin Jones is the WHL nominee as the ADT CHL goaltender of the week. He was 2-2 with a 1.70 GAA and a .946 save percentage. . . . The Buffalo Sabres have signed Kelowna Rockets D Tyler Myers to a three-year NHL contract. The 6-foot-8 Myers, who was the MVP of the WHL championship final, was the 12th overall selection in the 2008 NHL draft. . . .


---
The Anaheim Ducks pulled the plug on their affiliation with the AHL's Iowa Chops late last week. "The Ducks’ affiliation with the Iowa Chops of the American Hockey League has ended," read a statement posted Friday on the Anaheim website. "The Ducks are currently working on establishing a new AHL affiliate or affiliates." The relationship ended after one season, although it originally was intended to run for at least two seasons. The Chops, who played out of Des Moines, are owned by Schlegel Sports, which also owns the NAHL's Texas Tornado and a triple AAA baseball team in Tacoma, Wash.
---
The QMJHL champion will be decided Tuesday night in Drummondville. The Shawinigan Cataractes forced a seventh game in the final series by scoring a 2-1 overtime victory over the visiting Voltigeurs on Sunday. Shawinigan won it on Nicholas Petersen’s goal at 19:19 of OT. . . . The Cataractes have won two in a row after trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. . . . The winner of Game 7 will join the Kelowna Rockets (WHL), Windsor Spitfires (OHL) and host Rimouski Oceanic at the Memorial Cup, which begins Friday. The opener will have Kelowna meeting the Oceanic.