Gaglardi, Northland Properties guilty on environmental charges

Tom Gaglardi, the majority owner of the Kamloops
Blazers, arrives at the Kamloops Law Courts on
Jan. 15, 2014, during his trial on environmental charges.
(Photo: Dave Eagles, Kamloops This Week)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . .”
That is how Charles Dickens began the novel A Tale of Two Cities. He might as well have been describing Tom Gaglardi’s Friday.
Early in the day, Northland Properties Corporation, the company of which Gaglardi is president, issued three news releases dealing with the impending purchase of an AHL franchise and three Texas arenas.
Northland Properties owns the NHL’s Dallas Stars; Gaglardi is majority owner of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
Later, in Kamloops, Provincial Court, Judge Stephen Harrison found Gaglardi and Northland Properties each guilty of two counts of harmful alteration of a fish habitat. Gaglardi’s father, Bob, was found not guilty.
The charges were filed after landscaping changes were made in 2010 to a property near Savona, B.C., which is just west of Kamloops on Kamloops Lake.
“There was an element of wilfulness and a desire to get the job done and if necessary, seek forgiveness later,” Judge Harrison said in his decision.
Neither Bob nor Tom Gaglardi appeared in court yesterday.
Tim Petruk of Kamloops This Week reports: “The maximum penalties for harmful alteration of a fish habitat are fines of up to $1 million and/or six months in jail. Gaglardi is due back in court on Aug. 21 to set a date for sentencing.”
Petruk’s story is right here.
Glynn Brothen of infotel.ca also filed a story, and that one is right here.
Meanwhile, Northland Properties announced that it is in the process of purchasing the Cedar Park Center, which is home to the AHL-champion Texas Stars, who would be part of this deal.
Northland Properties also is buying the Dr Pepper StarCenter Plano that is located in Frisco and is home to, among other things, Severyn Sports, a training center owned by former NHL/WHL player Brent Severyn (Brandon, Saskatoon, Seattle, 1983-87).
As well, Northland Properties is purchasing the Ice Training Center in Richardson.
News releases on the impending purchases are right here.
---



A move to raise the Kamloops-based Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack hockey team from the ashes may be gaining steam.
The team, which had operated as club team as opposed to a university varsity team, was about $50,000 in debut when TRU athletic director Ken Olynyk pulled the plug last week.
On Thursday, a Twitter account belonging to TRU Men’s Ice Hockey sent these three tweets:
“Ex players, family, friends and fans, or anyone with good reasoning as to why this program needs to continue are encouraged to contact . . .
. . . TRU head of Sports Finances, Matthew Milovick, via e-mail (mmilovick@tru.ca) and explain how the dissolving of the team has affected . . .
. . . them personally, the players, the university, or the community itself. Thank-you in advance, everyone. Let's see what we can do!”
Trevor Bast of Victoria, whose son Des was the last recruit signed by the WolfPack before the end came, followed that up with: “I am happy to start the rally but we need a lot of boots on the ground to see this through. Let’s leave it all out there.”
Later, Bast told Taking Note that “there is some social media momentum growing to save the program.”
In the early going, Bast said he is trying to get out the message that, yes, the TRU hockey program was of the pay-to-play variety, but that “when you compare it to going to the U.S. and playing NCAA Division III it is still a bargain and the hockey is better.
“TRU has to be up front about the fact players have to pay. I don't believe it puts the program at a disadvantage recruiting-wise. They still can approach a top end junior B player or a depth junior A player and tell them they can play collegiate hockey close to home in front of friends and family in a lot of cases all for $10,000 to $12,000 inclusive of tuition, lodging and hockey.
“Compare that to what families are paying to play NCAA Division III and it's a bargain, plus the hockey is better . . . as well, the education is better and more applicable.”
That is Bast’s message. Time will tell how it is received.
(If you would like to contact Bast, you are able to email him at trevorbast@gmail.com.)
---
Mike Chambers of the Denver Post reports that F Alex Overhardt has decided to join the Portland Winterhawks. Overhardt, 17, is from Denver and is the son of player agent Kurt Overhardt, who founded KO Sports. . . . Alex was the captain of the midget AAA U16 Colorado Thunderbirds last season. They lost a national championship game 2-1 in quadruple OT. In league play, Overhardt had 30 points, 15 of them goals, in 37 games. . . . Chambers reported the move right here on his blog. . . . Later in the day, the Winterhawks issued a news release announcing the signing of Alex Overhardt, crediting him with 83 points, including 41 goals, in 75 games.
---

A 19-year-old missing person case came to an end on July 31 when hikers discovered human remains on Athabasca Glacier near Jasper, Alta. . . . That got me to thinking, again, about the late Duncan MacPherson and the book -- Cold A Long Time: An Alpine Mystery. . . . If you haven’t yet read this book, written by John Leake, you really should. It details the trials and tribulations faced by MacPherson’s parents, Lynda and Bob, following the disappearance of their son, a former Saskatoon Blades defenceman, while on a European vacation before he was to take a coaching job in Scotland. . . . Cold A Long Time’s website is right here. . . . You are able to order the book right here.
---
F Matt Bellerive’s WHL career hasn’t unfolded quite the way he had hoped it would. But now he’s back with the Vancouver Giants and preparing for his 20-year-old season. He tells Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province: “I’m hoping to have my best season by far this year. We’ll see what happens.” . . . That story is right here.
---

LRT: that makes, by my count, 8 U.S. players on the Portland roster and 5 more signed. Maybe they should swap team names with Tri-City.
— Alan Caldwell (@smallatlarge) August 7, 2014

The Anaheim Ducks High School League is up to 41 teams for next season. Huge growth in just a few years.
— Ryan Kennedy (@THNRyanKennedy) August 7, 2014

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.

Notes from Victoria vs. Kamloops

By GREGG DRINNAN

Daily News Sports Editor

MAREK HRBAS

When the Kamloops Blazers acquired defenceman Marek Hrbas from the Edmonton Oil Kings on June 27, they said they were getting him for his puck-moving abilities.
It turns out they got a whole lot more than that.
Hrbas, who had a goal and 24 assists in 67 regular-season games, has been a physical force through two games of a first-round WHL playoff series with the Victoria Royals.
By today’s standards, Hrbas isn’t big — at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds — but he is proving to be the fire hydrant or the brick wall about which people sometimes talk.
“People told me to be more physical because I’m not a real tall guy,” Hrbas said after the Blazers had taken a 2-0 series lead with a 7-4 victory over the visiting Royals on Saturday night. “I have to show that i can be physical, too, and finish my checks. I love it . . . that’s my game.”
Hrbas, who is from Plzen, Czech Republic, turned 19 on March 4. After his freshman season with Edmonton, in which he had 17 points in 64 games, Hrbas said he had a hard offseason.
“I did a good job last summer,” he said. “I got bigger, put on some pounds, 10 pounds of muscle.”
Hrbas, who has a great sense of humour and a captivating smile,  laughed and added: “I hope it’s all muscle.”
It is. If you don’t believe that, just ask any number of the Royals who have felt his wrath.
“I have to be strong, win the battles on the boards . . . it’s good,” Hrbas said. “That’s my job.”
To this point, he has done it well.
———
The Blazers gave up their 2011 first-round import draft pick, 18th overall, and a fifth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft to get Hrbas and the 27th selection in the import draft.
The Oil Kings used that 18th pick on Slovakian Martin Gernat, who led all first-year defencemen with 55 points in 60 games.
With the 27th selection, the Blazers took left-winger Tim Bozon, who is the Western Conference’s rookie of the year.
———

ENIO SACILOTTO

Victoria assistant coach Enio Sacilotto is a veteran of the hockey wars, having made stops everywhere from the BCHL to Europe.
While in Europe, he coached a professional team in Lugano, Switzerland, whose roster included Philippe Bozon, who would go on to play in the NHL, and Sandro Bertaggia.
Bozon is the father of Tim Bozon, while Bertaggia’s son Alessio is in his first season with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Sacilotto remembers Tim, who turned 18 on Saturday, and Alessio, also 18, skating after practices in Lugano “when they were about this high,” he says, holding one hand about three feet above the floor.
Anyone who has watched Tim Bozon play this season with the Blazes has seen a  competitive streak. Sacilotto knows how Bozon got it.
“Phil was a real fierce competitor,” Sacilotto said.
———
There was a time when Logan Nelson was the quarterback of his high school football team. That would be a big deal in a place like Rogers, Minn., a city of 8,500 people located just northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

LOGAN NELSON

These days, however, Nelson is a hockey player.
“My dad was a little upset but I think he’ll live,” Nelson, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound winger with the Royals, said with a chuckle.
So . . . why hockey over football?
“Hockey gave me a place where I was myself and I didn’t have to play for somebody else,” Nelson explained. “It reminded me of myself growing up. It gave me a place to get away. If I was having a bad day, hockey was the only thing that could fix it.
“I knew it was hockey over football.”
The road to a serious hockey career began at a United States Hockey League camp. His appearance there resulted in his playing a season of midget hockey in Kansas City.
From there, he moved on to the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers. He had nine points, including six goals, in 41 games there.
“The USHL,” he said, is a more defensive league than (the WHL).”
While all of this was happening, Marc Habscheid had taken over as general manager and head coach of the then-Chilliwack Bruins and was trying to strengthen the club’s presence in areas of the U.S.
Habscheid contact a couple of people, one of them being Mark Scott, who played for the Habscheid-coached Kamloops Blazers in 1997-98 and who now runs hockey camps in various areas of Canada and the U.S.
One thing led to another and the Royals placed Nelson on their protected list. And they’re glad they did.
Nelson, 18, had a fine first season, putting up 62 points, including 23 goals, in 71 games. He also was only minus-2 on a team that allowed a WHL-leading 325 goals.
———
Tom Gaglardi, the Blazers’ majority owner, was in Dallas watching his Stars score a 4-1 NHL victory over the Flames on Saturday night. His father, Bob, was in the owners’ box at Interior Savings Centre. . . . Victoria F Taylor Crunk scored the Royals’ last goal; it was his first WHL goal. He had two assists in 39 regular-season games. Crunk, who turned 17 on Jan. 20, is from San Jacinto, Calif. . . . Blazers F Colin Smith had a tough night, taking four minor penalties, two for goaltender interference. His minors were responsible for four of Victoria’s five power plays. . . . It was nine years ago yesterday when the Kootenay Ice beat the visiting Blazers 3-2 with a goal in the fourth OT period. F Colin Sinclair ended the longest game in WHL history with a goal at 16:56 of the fourth extra period. Kamloops G Davis Parley stopped 77 shots, nine more than Jeff Glass of the Ice.

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.