Monday . . .

To sum up the last little bit:
The Kamloops Blazers acquired G Kurtis Mucha, 20, from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday for a fourth-round 2010 bantam draft pick. The Blazers then placed G Justin Leclerc, 20, on waivers, which kept them at the maximum of three 20s.
On Monday, the Blazers dealt D Giffen Nyren, 20, to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional 2010 sixth-round draft pick. That left Kamloops with an opening for a 20 to go with F C.J. Stretch and and Mucha.
The Blazers filled that spot by dealing LW Brett Lyon, 18, to the Vancouver Giants for D Ryan Funk, 20. The Blazers had acquired Lyon from Vancouver last season for a 2010 sixth-round draft pick. The Giants had acquired Funk from the Saskatoon Blades in the offseason for a 2010 fifth-round pick.
Moving Funk allowed the Giants to stay at three 20-year-olds, what with F Garry Nunn soon to return from a broken leg and sprained ankle. The Giants’ other 20-year-olds are F Milan Kytnar and D Nolan Toigo.
The Giants are hopeful that Lyon and F Connor Redmond, 17, who was acquired from the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday, will add some size and grit to their forward ranks. It’s obvious that GM Scott Bonner and head coach Don Hay don’t feel the Giants are nearly hard enough to play against.
The Giants also announced that F Todd Kennedy, 19, is no longer with the team and that they are trying to trade him within the WHL. He didn’t have any points in seven games this season.
The Blazers, meanwhile, are hoping that moving Nyren, who is a high-risk, high-reward puck-rushing defenceman, and bringing in Funk will help shore up the defence of a team that has given up more goals than any other club in the WHL.
In Calgary, Nyren will join F Joel Broda and F Del Cowan as the Hitmen 20-year-olds.
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The Bonner brothers now have combined for six trades since Craig took over as the Blazers’ GM prior to the 2008-09 season. The Kamloops defence now includes Ryan Funk, Curtis Kulchar, Bronson Maschmeyer and Linden Saip, all of whom have come over from the Giants.
Before joining the Blazers, Craig was the Giants’ assistant GM/assistant coach, under his brother Scott, who is the only general manager the Giants have had since they entered the WHL for the 2001-02 season.
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The Prince George Cougars also added some size Monday when they acquired F Spencer Asuchak, 18, from the Tri-City Americans for a 13th round pick in the 2010 draft. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Asuchak played some minor hockey in Prince George, before his family moved to Salmon Arm, B.C., and later to Kamloops.
Asuchak had seven points in 38 games as a rookie last season, and had four points in 12 games this season.
The Cougars, with sniper Brett Connolly on the verge of returning from a hip injury and then a bout with the flu, are looking for Asuchak to get in on the forecheck and bang some bodies.
Connolly was to have returned last weekend for a double-dip against the visiting Kelowna Rockets, but he came down with strep throat. Now he is expected to play for Team WHL against the Russians on Thursday in Kelowna and then return home to face the Vancouver Giants on Friday and Saturday.
Considering that Connolly originally was injured (hip flexor) while playing for Canada in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in August, the Cougars are keeping their fingers crossed.
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Let’s start a rumour: D Travis Ehrhardt, 20, has been a healthy scratch for a number of recent games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and has but one assist in eight games. Could Ehrhardt, who is under contract to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, be headed back to the Portland Winterhawks, who have room for a 20-year-old after trading G Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers on Sunday?
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The Phoenix Coyotes have fired Greg Ireland, the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. Assistant coach Ray Edwards has been named interim head coach. As well, Mike Pelino has signed on as an assistant coach with the Rampage. He spent five yearfs (2004-09) as an assistant with the New York Rangers. Pelino once worked in the WHL as an assistant with the Spokane Chiefs (1997-99).
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The Regina Pats will be missing a couple of key performers for two games in the U.S. Division this week as F Jordan Eberle and D Colten Teubert join Team WHL for two Subway Super Series games -- Wednesday in Victoria and Thursday in Kelowna. Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post, on his Slap Shots blog over there on the left, does a good job of pointing out how ludicrous this is. . . . Not only do fans in Portland and Kent, Wash., miss out on watching these two players for the last time -- East Division teams visit the U.S. every second season and Eberle and Teubert both will have moved on before the 2011-12 season -- but the last time I looked the Pats were in a fight for a playoff spot. . . . Here’s hoping the Pats don’t lose both games and then miss the playoffs by a point or two. . . . If that happens, they may look back at the week two of their top players left to take part in a meaningless exhibition series and wonder what might have been.
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The Portland Winterhawks will be without D Brett Ponich for two games -- Tuesday against Regina and Wednesday in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans -- as he joins Team WHL for the two exhibition games. . . . The Americans will be without F Brendan Shinnimin on Wednesday, as he, too, joins the WHL team.
Meanwhile, D Tyson Barrie of the Kelowna Rockets is looking at having to play four games in as many nights. He has been selected to play Wednesday and Thursday with Team WHL. He will rejoin the Rockets for games Friday in Chilliwack and Saturday against the visiting Kootenay Ice.
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You know, it’s bad enough that season-ticket holders and the ticket-buying public don’t get to watch the league’s best players from early December and into January when they are with their various country’s national junior teams. But to deprive fans of watching these players because of a couple of exhibition games against a touring Russian side that has no chance of winning, well, there is something smelly about it. . . . If the WHL is going to persist in having some of its players take part in the Super Series then it is time for the league to do right by its fans and suspend its schedule for the few days necessary to pay those games.
Yes, there are only four midweek games scheduled this week but that is still four too many.
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If you were wondering, the WHL has won 11 of 12 games with the Russians in this series over the years. And the WHL has a 59-18 edge in goals scored. . . . So far in this year’s exhibition series, the Russians are 0-4 and have been outscored 21-8. The QMJHL opened with 3-1 and 8-3 victories, before the OHL posted a pair of 5-2 victories.
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Former WHL defenceman Tyler Boldt (Kamloops, Brandon, Saskatoon, 2000-05) is going to work for the WHL in a brand new position. Boldt will start work in January as the manager of player development and recruitment. Boldt, 25, is in his third season with the junior B Chase, B.C., Chiefs, his second as general manager and head coach. He will continue with the Chiefs until the Christmas break.
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The ECHL’s Florida Everblades have signed F Dylan Stanley (Tri-City, 2000-05). Stanley, 25, signed with Florida over the summer but was injured in training camp with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons. He spent last season playing in Germany.
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The Red Deer Rebels have lost F Nathan Green, 20, for up to eight weeks. He suffered a broken fibula and a severed ligament after a linesman fell on him at the end of Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Tigers in Medicine Hat. Green won’t need surgery to repair the damage, however. . . . Red Deer D Colin Archer, the team captain, is being monitored after experiencing concussion-like symptoms after Sunday’s game. . . . The Rebels already were without F Daulton Siwak, who suffered a concussion Nov. 14, and D Justin Weller (ribs).
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D Dennis Brown, who is with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, has committed to attend Western Michigan and play for the Broncos. Brown, from Cypress, Calif., was once considered a prospect by the Kamloops Blazers.
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F Robbie Czarnik has left the U of Michigan Wolverines and joined the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers. The Los Angeles Kings selected him in the third round of the NHL’s 2008 draft. He has 22 points in 51 games with Michigan since the start of last season.