F Marcel Hossa (Portland, 1999-2001) has signed a two-game contract with Dukla Trenčín (Slovakia, Extraliga). Hossa was released by Dinamo Riga (Latvia, KHL) on Dec. 20 in a cost-cutting move. In 38 games with Dinamo, he had seven goals and nine assists. Hossa also was the team’s captain.
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The players on the U of Lethbridge Pronghorns hockey team are pulling together for two of their own.
In recent weeks, two Pronghorns — G Dylan Tait and trainer Brennan Mahon — have been diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“Our team has decided to set up a website to raise awareness and collect donations,” former Kamloops Blazers F Mark Hall (2006-10) told Taking Note.
The team is taking things a step further than that, too, as it strives to show support.
“At our last home game,” Hall informs, “we will be shaving our heads to join the fight with our two teammates.”
That will take place on Jan. 30.
Tait and Hall both are in their fourth seasons with the Pronghorns. Tait, a 23-year-old native of Lethbridge, played one game with the WHL’s Kootenay Ice (2008-09) and 27 with the Lethbridge Hurricanes (2010-11). Mahon is in his first season with the Pronghorns.
If you would like to help, the website is right here.
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The Tri-City Americans have signed F Michael Rasmussen, who was a first-round selection, eighth overall, in the 2014 bantam draft. From Surrey, B.C., Rasmussen is playing at the Okanagan Hockey Academy where he has 38 points, including 19 goals, in 32 games. Last season, at OHA, he had 85 points, 38 of them goals, in 62 games. . . . Rasmussen is scheduled to play for the Americans when they meet the Blazers in Kamloops on Wednesday. As a 15-year-old, he can play up to five games before his club team’s season ends.
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The Everett Silvertips have added F Cole Chorney, 18, to their protected. Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald reports that Chorney, who has WHL experience with the Red Deer Rebels, is likely to play for the Silvertips on Tuesday and Wednesday when they visit the Prince George Cougars. . . . Chorney played 58 games with the Rebels last season, putting up six goals and five assists. He was released after getting one assist in six games this season. . . . Chorney, from Beaumont, Alta., has been with the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials. He has eight points, including four goals, in 16 games with Merritt.
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The Portland Winterhawks will meet the Cougars in Prince George tonight and Saturday, and the visitors will have some fans in the stands. The Winterhawks Booster Club chartered a bus and 38 fans will be in attendance after the 18-hour trek. While the Portland fans are in Prince George, Andy Beesley, the Cougars’ vice-president of business, will chat with them as he has plans to get a booster club started there. . . . The Prince George Citizen has more right here.
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What happens when you are a WHL player and you get traded twice in the same season? How does it feel when you get traded when you least expect it? Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has more right here.
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The SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings are in debt to the tune of about $180,000 and there are rumblings that they may not be able to operate after this season. . . . There’s more right here.
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F Jaimen Yakubowski of the Moose Jaw Warriors will sit out two games for the headshot major and game misconduct he incurred for a hit on F Sam Reinhart of the visiting Kootenay Ice on Wednesday. Yakubowski won’t play tonight in Swift Current against the Broncos or Saturday against the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . The WHL office also has handed out $1,000 in fines and two more games in suspensions. . . . F Devon McAndrews of the Spokane Chiefs will sit for one game after instigating a fight in the last five minutes of a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Tuesday. He won’t play tonight in Everett. . . . D Ayrton Nikkel of the Swift Current Broncos drew a one-game suspension “for actions during warm-up” on Sunday prior to a game with the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. He’ll sit tonight against visiting Moose Jaw. . . . McAndrews’ actions also resulted in Spokane being fined $500, while the Broncos and Oil Kings each drew a $250 fine for warm-up violations.
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The @SPCAswift named a cat after Dillon Heatherington. @DHM_2 had to meet him! He was well behaved until picture time.http://t.co/bCD3kKBIeV
— SC Broncos (@SCBroncos) January 16, 2015
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With two injured goaltenders healthy again, the Portland Winterhawks have returned G Michael Bullion to the NAHL's Wenatchee, Wash., Wild. In four appearances with Portland, Bullion is 2-2-0/3.22/.900. . . . He joined the Winterhawks with Brendan Burke and Adin Hill both injured. They are healthy again, so the Winterhawks moved out Bullion and Bolton Pouliot, 20. Pouliot, who went from the Kamloops Blazers to Portland, was released last week. . . .
The Kamloops Blazers might be without two veteran defencemen when they play host to the Spokane Chiefs on Friday. The Blazers had neither Josh Connolly nor Brady Gaudet in their lineup on Saturday when they lost 4-3 in OT to the Winterhawks in Portland. . . . Both defenders sat out with undisclosed injuries. . . . Kamloops will have F Jake Kryski, 16, back in its lineup as he has returned from the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. He's got 11 points, including five goals, in 16 games. In Kryski's last game, the Blazers beat the host Tri-City Americans, 2-0. Since then, the Blazers are 0-3-2. . . .
D Evan Wardley of the Seattle Thunderbirds is awaiting word from the WHL office on what will be his second suspension in less than a month. Wardley was hit with a seven-game suspension for a headshot major during a game against the Winterhawks in Portland on Oct. 11. On Saturday, Wardley was ejected from a game in Saskatoon with the Blades for a checking-from-behind incident. . . . The Thunderbirds are 1-1-0 on an East Division swing that continues Wednesday in Moose Jaw. . . .
The Red Deer Rebels have released F Cole Chorney, 18, who is expected to play in the AJHL. Chorney, from Beaumont, Alta., had 11 points, including six goals, in 58 games with the Rebels last season. This season, he had one assist in six games as he had trouble getting into the lineup. . . .
G Zach Sawchenko has started each of the Moose Jaw Warriors' past six games. He won't make it seven. Sawchenko suffered an injury to his right leg late in the third period of a 4-2 loss to the Tigers in Medicine Hat on Saturday. . . . He is expected to be out for at least week. . . . G Justin Paulic is expected to start against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds on Wednesday. . . .
On Sept. 23, the Calgary Hitmen traded F Pavel Padakin, a 20-year-old Ukrainian, to the Regina Pats for a third-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft. Last season, Padakin had 54 points, including 27 goals, in 66 games. . . . On Nov. 4, the Brandon Wheat Kings traded F Richard Nejezchleb, a 20-year-old Czech, to the Tri-City Americans for two third-round bantam draft picks, one in 2015 and the other in 2017. Last season, Nejezchleb had 57 points, including 32 goals, in 66 games. . . . Perhaps all of that explains why Brandon's Kelly McCrimmon is the WHL's best general manager. As a former WHL general manager once told me: "I wouldn't buy a used car from him." . . .
On the weekend, Cody Nickolet tweeted: “Mathew Barzal roaming around on crutches. Have heard the diagnosis of ‘a couple of weeks’ is very optimistic. Tough news if that's true.” . . . Barzal was the No. 1 selection by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL’s 2012 bantam draft. . . . If what Nickolet heard is correct, you have to wonder if Barzal will be back before Christmas. The Thunderbirds have four games left on an East Division tour that continues Wednesday in Moose Jaw. All told, Seattle has 15 games remaining before the 10-day Christmas break, with eight of those at home and eight of them inside the U.S. Division. . . . Barzal has 18 points, including seven goals, in 16 games. Last season, his first in the WHL, he had 54 points, 14 of them goals, in 59 games. . . . Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds should have D Shea Theodore, 19, back in their lineup on Wednesday in Moose Jaw. He was returned to them by the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks over the weekend. Theodore played five games with the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, scoring three times and adding two assists. . . . He played for the WHL in the Super Series game last night in Saskatoon. . . .
Former WHL D Wil Tomchuk, 20, is back with the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons. Tomchuk was released last week when the Prince George Cougars acquired G Jared Rathjen, 20, from the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . The Oil Barons were at the maximum of six 20-year-olds and to make room for Tomchuk they dealt G Jesse Gordichuk to the Olds Grizzlys. Gordichuk had requested a trade -- see, it doesn’t only happen in the WHL! . . . Tomchuk played with the Oil Barons in 2011-12 before moving on to the Tri-City Americans and then to Prince George. . . .
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