Wednesday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Tyler Beechey (Kootenay, Calgary, 1997-2002) signed a one-year contract with DEG Metro Stars Dusseldorf (Germany DEL). He had 24 goals and 33 assists in 56 games for Augsburger Panther (Germany DEL) last season. Beechey had signed with the Frankfurt Lions (Germany DEL) in late April for next season but became a free agent when Frankfurt lost its DEL license for financial reasons last week. . . .
D Trevor Johnson (Kootenay, Seattle, Tri-City, 1998-2003) signed a one-year contract with Valpellice (Italy Serie A). He had no goals and three assists in 16 games for the Kassel Huskies (Germany DEL) and two goals and eight assists in 14 games with Bolzano (Italy Serie A) last season.
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MAKE GOOD DEPT.: Apologies to Steve Hamilton for having him spend four years of his life with the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Saints. Yes, it should have been the Spruce Grove Saints. . . . Sheesh. I later had him with the St. Albert Saints. . . . Should be able to remember Spruce Grove, if for no other reason than Doug Messier screaming at me in the Spruce Grove Mets' dressing room after a game in the Winnipeg Arena a long, long time ago. . . . And thanks to all who emailed to point out the mistake. Seriously, I don’t mind. I want to make the corrections and I’m mostly flying without a copy editor. . . . Also, I had Mike Pelino as an assistant coach with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage, when he has moved on and now is the head coach of the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. But perhaps the Rampage will update its website now that it has removed the interim from head coach Ray Edwards’ title and hired Jeff Truitt as an assistant coach.
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How important is it to WHL teams that one of their brethren play host to things like the World Junior Championship every once in a while? Consider that the Moose Jaw Warriors showed a profit of $16,978 for their fiscal year, thanks to having received $74,524 in revenue sharing from the 2010 World Junior Championship. The Warriors played host to a pretournament game. The WJC was held in Regina and Saskatoon.
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As expected, the Tri-City Americans announced Wednesday that Terry Bangen, the team’s assistant GM and director of player personnel, has retired. He will stay involved as a special advisor and consultant to GM Bob Tory. Bangen spent five seasons with the Americans and helped build the franchise into the success it is today.
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F Joel Broda (Tri-City, Moose Jaw, Calgary, 2004-09) has signed a three-year deal with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. Broda was a fifth-round selection of the Washington Capitals in the 2008 NHL draft but never signed. After playing out his eligibility last season, he signed with the EC Red Bull Salzburg. That contract will have had an escape window in it, though, and Broda obviously has used it to sign with the Wild. He presently is at the Wild’s development camp in Saint Paul, Minn.
“The Australian deal was timely,” Gerry Johansson, Broda’s agent, told John MacNeil of the Prince Albert Herald. “We had to commit to it, or not. It was a really good option for Joel, so we committed to it, but we had a period of time where he could sign a National league contract. So we took the bird in the hand, but we could still search for that other bird in the bush, kind of thing.
“We had several teams we were speaking with, and the deal (with Minnesota) then came together pretty quickly after that. Joel was able to get out of his Austrian contract, but he was already over in Salzburg training for a few days. So, logistically, it wasn’t easy for Joel. He was covering the world, but it worked out well.”
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Jay Varady, the Everett Silvertips’ associate coach, has been named an assistant coach with the U.S. U-18 team that will play at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Piestany, Slovakia, Aug. 9-14. . . . Varady, 33, was the video co-ordinator with the U.S. team that won the world junior title in Saskatoon in January. . . . The head coach of the U-18 team is Tim Army, who is the head coach at Providence College. . . . The U.S. held a development camp July 7-13 in Rochester, N.Y. The roster picked from that camp includes D Tanner Mort of the Spokane Chiefs, who is from Post Falls, Idaho, and F Lukas Sutter of the Saskatoon Blades. Sutter is from Whitefish, Mont. He is the son of former NHLer Rich Sutter, who is the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ assistant to the GM/hockey operations.
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The Vancouver Giants have dealt the rights to F Rocco Grimaldi, 17, to the Portland Winterhawks for a conditional bantam draft pick. Grimaldi, out of the California Wave Program, had been on Vancouver’s protected list. Last season, he was captain of the USNTDP U-17 team, picking up 20 points in 32 USHL games. He also had 10 points in seven games with the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the IIHF World U-18 championship in Belarus in the spring. . . . On Tuesday, he committed to attend the U of North Dakota, starting in the fall of 2011. . . . “Our philosophy is to acquire the best players in our territory, and Rocco is not only an elite player, but we’ve heard nothing but good things about his character off the ice,” Portland Winterhawks GM/head coach Mike Johnston said in a statement. “We may or may not successfully recruit Rocco to join the Winterhawks, and in the end if he decides to go to college we will respect his decision, but we hope he keeps an open mind about our program and the opportunity here.”