Sunday . . .

Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reported Sunday evening that the Regina Pats have reached agreement with Curtis Hunt on a three-year deal as the WHL team’s head coach. According to Harder, a news conference will be held Monday or Tuesday at the Brandt Centre to announce the hiring. . . . Harder also writes: "Parker made a formal offer on the weekend and the deal was subsequently consummated — according to another source — after Hunt officially parted company with the Ottawa Senators, informing them that he won’t return next season as the head coach of their AHL affiliate in Binghamton." . . . Hunt left the Pats a year ago when he signed on as an assistant under head coach Craig Hartsburg with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. Hartsburg was fired in midseason and replaced by former Kootenay Ice head coach Cory Clouston, who had been with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. When Clouston was promoted, Hunt was assigned to Binghamton as that club’s head coach. . . . The Pats hired Dale Derkatch to replace Hunt, but fired him earlier this month. Derkatch had one year left on his contract.
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That leaves the Chilliwack Bruins, Everett Silvertips and Lethbridge Hurricanes without coaches. Of course, the Bruins also are without a permanent general manager — governor Darryl Porter is the interim GM — while the Hurricanes also are without a GM.
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The Saskatoon Blades have signed C Ryan Olsen, the 20th overall selection in the WHL’s 2009 bantam draft. Olsen played this season with the bantam AAA South Delta, B.C., Storm. He had 132 points in 60 games. He is likely to play next season with the major midget Greater Vancouver Canadians.
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THE MEMORIAL CUP: The Kelowna Rockets had the opportunity to take out the Windsor Spitfires in the round-robin portion of the tournament in Rimouski, Que. Had Kelowna won that Tuesday game — the Spitfires won, 2-1 — Windsor would have been 0-3 and on its way home. . . . Instead, the Spitfires regrouped and ended up winning their last four games and the Memorial Cup. On Sunday, they scored on their first three shots and beat the Rockets, 4-1. . . . “The problem we had is we should have put them out of here earlier in the tournament when we had a chance to finish them off," Rockets president/GM told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier. “We didn't, and that's what happens. Any team that's a champion from their own league, and you get a chance (to knock them out) . . . they did what they had to do." . . . Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska told Potenteau: “When you let a team off the hook, you're giving them new life. And, really, that's what it ends up coming down to a lot of times. We just didn't have enough tonight, and Windsor played a very good game. They deserve a lot of credit for the style they played and for our inability to generate much offence.” . . . The bottom line is that Windsor beat each of the other three teams in elimination games. . . . The Memorial Cup all-star team comprised G Marco Cousineau (Drummondville), D Tyler Myers (Kelowna), D Ryan Ellis (Windsor), F Jamie Benn (Kelowna), F Taylor Hall (Windsor) and F Patrice Cormier (Rimouski). . . . Hall was the tournament MVP, F Yannick Riendeau (Drummondville) was the most sportsmanlike player, Benn was the leading scorer (with nine points) and Cousineau was the top goaltender.
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Interesting piece by well-known hockey writer Larry Brooks in the New York Post on Sunday. He writes that the New Jersey Devils should let head coach Brent Sutter out of the final year of his contract.
“Brent Sutter sure sounds like a man whose heart is in Red Deer, whose life is in Alberta and whose head couldn't be farther from Newark. Fair enough,” Brooks writes right here. “But now it's time for general manager Lou Lamoriello to make it easy for Sutter to follow his heart by relieving the Devils' head coach of the obligation to fulfill the third and final year of his contract.”
That, of course, would free up Sutter to join the Calgary Flames as their head coach. Darryl Sutter, Brent’s brother and the Flames’ GM, announced Friday that Calgary head coach Mike Keenan had been fired with a year left on his contract.
However, Rich Chere, who covers the Devils for the Newark Star-Ledger, wrote on his blog Friday that “Brent Sutter has told me he did not want to coach the Flames, so close to home, in the past. He also said he was not interested in working for Darryl.”
You can read Chere’s blog entry right here.
There are some observers who wonder if Brent Sutter wouldn't rather be coaching the team he owns, the WHL's Red Deer Rebels. They have missed the playoffs three of the last four season.