Welcome back . . .

Welcome back . . .
Actually, I’ve always wanted to do that.
Welcome back . . .
That is my impersonation of a TV sportscaster.
You’ve been on your couch all night. You haven’t gone anywhere. He/she takes a commercial break and when he/she returns, he/she opens with: “Welcome back.”
Even though you haven’t gone anywhere . . .
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Just back from Victoria. LGIW and I were there on Boxing Day of 2003 when the RCMP’s great raid on the B.C. Legislature took place. Just wanted to go back and see if anything had changed. It hasn’t. The mess has yet to be cleaned up. Victoria looks the same.
Of course, whenever I travel to Victoria from Kamloops, I have to make my way through the Lower Mainland. And I can only marvel at the inept road system. It is absolutely incredible and whenever I drive it I give thanks, over and over again, that I am not the driver of a big rig.
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So what has happened while I’ve been gone? Well . . . in chronological order, things unfolded something like this . . .
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THE MacBETH REPORT: D Joel Kwiatkowski (Tacoma/Kelowna/Prince George) signed a one-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg (KHL). He had 13 goals and 12 assists with Severstal Cherepovets (KHL) last season. . . . F Jarad Bourassa (Swift Current/Moose Jaw) signed with Gardena (Italy Serie B). He had 29 goals and 40 assists in 39 games with Gardina and one assist in three games with Odessa (KHL) last season. Bourassa joined Odessa after the season ended in Italy. . . . F Jeremy Colliton (Prince Albert) signed a one-year contract with Rögle Ängelholm (Sweden Elitserien). He had one assist in six games with the New York Islanders and eight goals and 28 assists in 56 games with Bridgeport (AHL) last season.
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The Swift Current Broncos dealt D Zach Habscheid, 17, to the Chilliwack Bruins for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft. Habscheid, a ninth-round pick in the 2007 draft, had 18 points and 166 penalty minutes in 42 games with the midget AAA Swift Current Legionnaires last season. . . . The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Habscheid is the son of Bruins’ GM/head coach Marc Habscheid. . . . The deal was the last one made by Broncos’ GM/head coach Dean Chynoweth because . . .
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The Swift Current Broncos are looking for a general manager and a head coach following the resignation of head coach Dean Chynoweth. He announced Friday that he is leaving to join the NHL’s New York Islanders as an assistant coach. . . . The 41-year-old Chynoweth, who had been with the Broncos for five seasons, will work with head coach Scott Gordon with the Islanders. Chynoweth, 41, recently had had his option season picked up by the Broncos. He had joined Swift Current after four seasons as head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . The Islanders actually selected Chynoweth 13th overall in the 1987 NHL draft. He had been a hard-nosed defenceman with the Medicine Hat Tigers and won two Memorial Cups there. Injuries limited him to 241 NHL games. . . . Now, of course, people now are wondering just what might have happened had Marc Habscheid, who is from Swift Current, not signed with Chilliwack. Al Stewart, the chairman of the Broncos’ board of directors, told Elizabeth Hunter of the Prairie Post: "This is my personal feeling . . . I am not sure that our budget could have supported hiring a guy of Marc's quality. That being said though, Marc made a decision that he feels is right, it is a perfect opportunity for him too because he has moved up into the general manager/coaching ranks and that is a step forward for him. Marc has made a decision to go to Chilliwack and things happen." . . . The most obvious move for the Broncos’ board is to promote assistant general manager/director of hockey operations Sheldon Ferguson and assistant coach Tim Kehler, but only time will tell.
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The WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets are in the market for an assistant coach following the resignation of Jeff Finley. The former NHL defenceman, who did a terrific job with the Kelowna defence, stepped aside in order to spend more time with his family. Finley, 42, had been with the Rockets since July 24, 2007. After playing four seasons in the WHL with the Portland Winter Hawks, Finley went on to play 15 seasons in the NHL. . . . Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier that he received seven resumes within one hour of the club announcing Finley’s resignation.
"Coaching in hockey isn't like what it was a few years ago, where there was a shutdown period in the summer; it's now 12 months of the year because something's going on all the time," Hamilton told Potenteau. "And because of that, wives and kids have to make a lot of sacrifices. So I fully support . . . what Jeff wants to do, and that's spend time with his family.
"We're losing a very good person and an excellent coach, but I'm happy with his decision because he's happy. And I'm sure there's going to be a lineup of people who want to fill the position."
At the same time, Hamilton said head coach Ryan Huska will make the final decision on a new assistant coach and that assistant coaches Ryan Cuthbert, Kim Dillabaugh and Kim Gellert would continue in their roles.
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The Everett Silvertips are still without a head coach but they have signed D Nicholas Walters, the eighth overall selection in the WHL’s 2009 bantam draft. Walters, from St. Albert, Alta., was named the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League’s top defenceman after putting up 52 points in 32 games with the St. Albert Sabres. He also had 68 penalty minutes.
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The Sault Star is reporting that Craig Hartsburg has agreed to a two-year contract as head coach of the Everett Silvertips. The story is right here.
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Everett claimed C Alex Poulter, 20, and D Colin Scherger, 20, off waivers from the Prince George Cougars. Poulter had 23 points in 65 games last season, while Scherger had 10 points in 65 games. . . . The Silvertips now have five 20-year-olds on their roster, the others being D Shayne Brown, C Zack Dailey and F Shane Harper. Brown’s status is in doubt, though, after his 2008-09 season was ruined by a hip flexor problem.
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By the way, Alan Caldwell, over at Small Thoughts at Large, has reported that Everett and the Medicine Hat Tigers have agreed on compensation from the deal in which the Silvertips landed D Shayne Brown. Everett gave up D Tyler Kieffer, who turns 20 on July 20, in that deal but he never reported. If he doesn’t report in 2009-10, the Tigers will get a fourth-round 2010 bantam pick from the Silvertips.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings and the Keystone Centre’s board of directors have cut a deal that will, according to a press release, “result in the hockey team making a significant investment in the private suite project in Westman Place that will allow for the construction of all seven private suites, as originally planned.” The Keystone Centre didn’t have the financial wherewithal to foot the entire tab, so the Wheat Kings, the host team for the 2010 Memorial Cup, have agreed to get involved. “This investment supports the importance of the Memorial Cup coming to our facility and the City of Brandon, and as well, will serve the needs of the Wheat Kings and the Keystone Centre for many years to come,” Kelly McCrimmon, the franchise’s owner, said in a release. . . . The boxes are to be completed in January.
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Ryan Smith, who coached the MJHL’s Winnipeg South Blues last season, has been hired as head coach of that league’s Selkirk Steelers. Keith Cassidy, the Steelers’ GM and head coach for three seasons, had resigned. . . . The Blues, meanwhile, hired former U of Manitoba Bisons head coach Don MacGillivray as their new GM/head coach. Former WHLer Ray Neufeld will serve as assistant GM/assistant coach and another former WHLer, Sonny Mignacca, will be the goaltending coach.
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Adam Deadmarsh and Steve Konowalchuk, both of whom played in the WHL for the Portland Winter Hawks, have been added to the coaching staff of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche under head coach Joe Sacco. . . . Konowalchuk will be on the bench; Deadmarsh will be the team’s video/development coach.
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F Andrew Clark and F Matt Lowry, both of whom used up their WHL eligibility with the Brandon Wheat Kings last season, have received invitations to attend NHL training camps. Clark, who had 78 points, including 40 goals, in 72 games last season, will go to camp with the Columbus Blue Jackets, while Lowry, who had 77 points in 71 games, will skate with the Ottawa Senators. . . . If Clark isn’t able to earn a pro contract, he’ll attend Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., and play for the Axemen.
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I know you will be as shocked as I was to learn that the Calgary Flames are expected to announce perhaps as early as today that Brent Sutter is their new head coach. Why don’t the Flames just offer jobs to all of the Sutter brothers and get it over with? . . . Once Brent is in place, he will join Darryl, who is the GM, Duane, who is director of player personnel, and Ron, who is a scout. Missing from the payroll are Brian, Rich and Gary, with the latter being the only brother not to have played in the NHL.
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The Flames also are expected to name former WHL player and coach Ryan McGill as an assistant coach – he was head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Quad City Flames, last season. Also expected to be named an assistant coach is Dave Lowry, who spent last season as head coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.
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Should Lowry leave the Hitmen, it will mean that at least seven WHL teams (Calgary, Chilliwack, Everett, Lethbridge, Prince George, Regina and Swift Current) will open the season with new head coaches.
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In Lethbridge, Brad Robson resigned as the Hurricanes’ assistant GM and director of scouting, telling radio voice Pat Siedlecki that that board of governors was taking too long to hire a GM so he had decided to move on. Robson had applied for the GM’s position that was vacated when the board fired Roy Stasiuk on May 11.
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I was told late last week that the Hurricanes were negotiating with veteran NHL assistant coach Perry Pearn in an attempt to sign him as their general manager. Pearn spent 1994-95 as the Medicine Hat Tigers’ head coach. . . . However, I have since been told that the Hurricanes are poised to announce that their new GM is Dave Barr. He spent four seasons running the OHL’s Guelph Storm, left to become an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche and lost his job when the Avs fired head coach Tony Granato and assorted other coaches.
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Old friend Morley Jaeger, the radio voice of the Prince Albert Raiders for 1,272 games, passed away Sunday at the age of 72. He handled Raiders’ games on 900 CKBI from 1972 through 1988, including four Centennial Cup championships – as the national junior A championship was then known. He also called the play of the Raiders’ Memorial Cup season (1984-85). On Nov. 15, the Raiders honoured Jaeger by naming the broadcast booth in the Art Hauser Centre in his honour. . . . Details of a celebration of Jaeger’s life will be announced early in the week.
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That’s it. You’re up to date . . . for a day or two. And, as Morley Jaeger used to say to end his sportscasts, “Until then, you know the score.”
Which beats the hell out of “welcome back.”