F Collin Valcourt (Spokane, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, 2010-14) has signed a tryout contract with Hradec Králové (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Last season, with Saskatoon and Prince Albert, he put up 72 points, 28 of them goals, in 71 games. He was pointless in one game with the Abbotsford Heat (AHL). The Hradec Králové head coach is Peter Draisaitl, the father of Valcourt's Prince Albert teammate Leon Draisaitl. . . .
Patrik Sylvegård, the general manager of Malmö (Sweden, Allsvenskan), has told the Malmö newspaper Sydsvenskan that F Kenndal McArdle (Moose Jaw, Vancouver, 2002-09) has retired from hockey. McArdle signed a new contract, one year plus an option year, in June with Malmö. Last season, with Vasteras (Sweden, Allsvenskan), he had 11 goals and 13 assists in 45 games.
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In less than a year, at least three young hockey players, two of them WHL bantam draft selections, have taken their own lives.
And one high-ranking team official says it’s time for the CHL to do more.
“Mental health needs to be a bigger deal,” he told Taking Note on Thursday evening.
Pointing out the work done by TSN’s Michael Landsberg, the host of Off the Record, and Canadian cyclist/speed skater Clara Hughes to “help de-stigmatize” mental illness, the team executive said he “believes the CHL needs to do more in light of these tragic cases popping up across the country.“
“I have seen first-hand how easy it is to hide away and not want to bother anyone with it,” he added, “and also how easy it is to get help if someone they trust and respect can see the signs.”
At the same time, he admitted: “Yes, it’s an easy problem to ignore.”
But, regardless of what happens at the CHL level, he doesn’t plan on ignoring it.
“In light of the recent string of tragedies,“ he said, “we plan on stepping up our mental health awareness options to our players at training camp, and showing them it is not a point of weakness but a point of bravery to seek counsel if it is needed."
With these most-recent deaths it would seem the time has come to do more than whatever already is being done.
It is doubtful we will ever know what drives a young person to take such a drastic step; obviously, this isn’t a simple issue that can be broken down to one thing.
But it seems to have become a much more frequent occurrence in hockey circles, and perhaps it’s time it was discussed more openly. Perhaps it’s time for a national dialogue on the subject.
One mother who is heavily involved in hockey and who has seen her family impacted by mental illness told me this week that she will write Tom Renney, the new president and CEO of Hockey Canada, in an attempt to get that organization more involved in educating its coaches.
A recent situation involving her son “was a debacle,” she said. “Not saying his coach wasn’t a nice person, just uneducated and inexperienced.”
Perhaps she should also write to David Branch, the president of the CHL, and Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, and Bruce Hamilton, the owner of the Kelowna Rockets who also is the chairman of the board of governors.
There was a time when the media shied away from reporting on suicides; in fact, the subject was all but taboo.
As Steve Ladurantaye, then with The Globe and Mail, reported in December 2011, that thinking began to change, at least in part, in 2009 when Gerry Nott, the editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen, assigned reporters to write stories on two teenagers who had killed themselves in a rural Ontario community.
Nott explained his decision this way:
“With such a significant number of deaths in terms of young people, if this were anything but suicide, we'd write about it incessantly. If there were a preponderance of deaths related to mountain bikes, we'd write stories about it daily, and I take the position that suicide is no different than that. Unless it's on the table respectfully, it's not going to be addressed by the mental-health system or any of the oversight agencies.”
Ladurantaye reported:
“The Canadian Mental Health Association estimates that suicide has accounted for 2 per cent of annual deaths in Canada since the late 1970s and the group most at risk is the 15-to-19-year-old population.
“Although rates of adolescent suicide in Canada have declined since the early 1980s, it remains the second-leading cause of death among teenagers, after car accidents. In 2007, the most recent year with available data, 218 people 10 to 19 years old committed suicide.”
There are professionals who are concerned with what they call contagion, which in effect is copying someone else.
While I am most aware of that situation, I am more inclined to agree with Nott. If we don’t have a dialogue about this problem, how will we ever come to grips with it. There has to be a way that we can get young people to understand that ending it all isn’t the answer, that even with the speed bumps we encounter, life still is the most precious thing we have.
Ladurantaye’s story from 2011 is right here.
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Dan Hamhuis, who owns a piece of the Prince George Cougars, was back home in Smithers, B.C., this week. In fact, he appeared at City Council on Thursday. It’s a day the Vancouver Canucks defenceman won’t forget as councillors voted to name a section of First Avenue after him. It’ll be known as Dan Hamhuis Way. Kendra Wong of the Smithers Interior News has more right here.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed F Ethan O’Rourke, a Penticton, B.C., native who was a third-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Last season, at the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton, he had 35 points, 18 of them goals, in 58 games. . . . O’Rourke’s father Steve is a former WHLer (Tri-City, Moose Jaw, 1991-94), who now is an assistant coach with the Red Deer Rebels. . . . The Cougars have signed three of their 2014 draft picks, with F Justin Almeida of Kitimat, B.C., and D Max Martin of Winnipeg having signed earlier. Almeida was the fifth overall selection; Martin was taken with the 27th pick.
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Joey Perricone, a goaltender who played five seasons (2003-08) with the Moose Jaw Warriors, has gotten into the coaching game. On Thursday, he was named the goaltending coach with the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. . . . Perricone, 27, played four seasons with the St. Francis Xavier U X-Men, who play out of Antigonish, N.S. . . . With the Huskies, he will work alongside GM/head coach Gilles Bouchard.
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F Jake Virtanen of the Calgary Hitmen, who had off-season shoulder surgery, is back on skates, but he has yet to be cleared for contact. He’s skating and shooting in Vancouver these days and tells Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province right here that he hopes to be back playing for the Hitmen in early October. Virtanen will attend the Canadian national junior team’s summer camp in Montreal and Sherbrooke next week. He’ll skate but won’t take part in contact drills.
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Former NHLer Jeff O’Neill started an interesting string of comments with this tweet:
Do hockey skates seriously cost 850.00 ?
— Jeff O'Neill (@odognine2) August 1, 2014
If you track down O’Neill’s timeline on Twitter, check out the comments.
The cost of playing minor hockey is becoming a hot-button issue.
On Tuesday, Sean Fitz-Gerald of the National Post did an interview with Montreal Canadiens star P.K. Subban that included this exchange:
Fitz-Gerald: How much of a threat do you think the cost of playing hockey is to the future of the game in Canada?
Subban: (jumps in quickly) Huge threat. Huge threat, because you’re missing a big part of the population, in terms of being able to afford to play the sport. So what does that mean? That means you’re missing out on talent for the game, you’re missing out on potential interest for the game, you’re missing out on growth for thew game. You’re missing out on a lot of things. When you look at soccer, it’s the most popular sport in the world. Why? Because everybody can play it . . . so everybody feels welcome.
(That complete interview is right here.)
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WaPo Letter to the Editor of the day pic.twitter.com/L3NnApPKc3
— Kevin Reiss (@kevin_reiss) July 31, 2014
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In Moose Jaw, D Darren Dietz and F Collin Valcourt each scored his 20th goal to help the Saskatoon Blades to a 7-1 victory over the Warriors. . . . The Blades have won a franchise-record 15 straight games, the longest winning streak in the WHL this season. . . . According to WHL Facts (@WHLFacts), this is the longest such streak in the league since the Medicine Hat Tigers won 17 in a row in January/February 2007. . . . Dietz is the first WHL defenceman to get to 20 goals this season. . . . Moose Jaw G Justin Paulic stopped 40 shots. He had to go the distance because the Warriors had an unlisted emergency backup (Brett Banda) on the bench. G Daniel Wapple, who has partnered with Paulic this season, is out with a concussion. . . . Banda, who turned 18 on Jan. 1, plays for the midget AAA Moose Jaw Generals. . . . The Blades were 3-for-5 on the PP, while the Warriors were 1-for-10. . . . Saskatoon leads the East Division by seven points over the Prince Albert Raiders. The Blades are five points in back of the Calgary Hitmen, with each team having 10 games remaining. . . .
In Cranbrook, the Kootenay Ice ran their home-ice winning streak to a franchise record-tying 12 games as they beat the Calgary Hitmen, 5-1. . . . The Ice scored two its first three goals via the PP as it took a 3-1 lead. . . . F Jaedon Deschenean had a goal his 19th, and an assist for the Ice. . . . Calgary F Pavlo Padakin scored his 19th goal and now has scored in three straight games. . . . The teams have met six times, each winning three times. . . . Calgary D Jaynen Rissling left in the second period after blocking a shot. . . . The Ice is eighth in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Swift Current Broncos and three ahead of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . .
In Kent, Wash., D Mirco Mueller scored at 2:07 of OT to give the Everett Silvertips a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds (of Kent). . . . Mueller has six goals this season. . . . The Silvertips had lost a franchise-record 11 in a row. . . . The Thunderbirds scored two third-period goals to force OT, with D Shea Theodore getting his 16th, via the PP, at 2:13 and D Griffin Fould equalizing with his second at 11:54. . . . Everett G Austin Lotz stopped 36 shots. . . . Everett D Landon Oslanski drew three assists. . . . F Tyler Sandhu scored Everett’s first two goals, giving him 14. . . . Seattle F Luke Lockhart played in his 334th regular-season game. He moved past F Tyler Metcalfe and into second on Seattle’s all-time list, behind only F Glen Goodall, who holds the WHL record (399). . . . Everett is eighth in the Western Conference, one point behind the Thunderbirds and five in front of the Prince George Cougars. . . .
In Medicine Hat, G Marek Langhamer stopped 38 shots as the Tigers beat the Swift Current Broncos, 2-0. . . . Langhamer has two shutouts this season. . . . One night earlier, he beat the host Broncos 2-1 in a shootout. . . . Broncos G Eetu Laurikainen stopped 22 shots. . . . F Curtis Valk scored his 38th goal at 4:24 of the first period and F Boston Leier added his 14th, into an empty net at 19:34 of the third. . . . The Tigers are sixth in the Eastern Conference, five points behind the Prince Albert Raiders and four in front of the Broncos. . . . 
In Red Deer, the Rebels scored the game’s last four goals and beat the Prince Albert Raiders, 4-2. . . . Red Deer F Matt Bellerive tied the game 2-2 at 7:29 of the third, with his 13th goal, and F Rhyse Dieno broke the tie with his 25th goal at 13:50. . . . Red Deer has won five in a row. . . . The Rebels used the game to honour the Red Deer Rustlers and wore replica uniforms from the junior A team that won the 1979-80 Centennial Cup as national champions. . . . The Rustlers played in the AJHL from 1967-89, with the exception of 1985-86 when the franchise took a year off. The Rustlers also won the Centennial Cup in 1971. . . . The Rebels are in fourth spot in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Prince Albert. . . . 
In Prince George, F Brendan Leipsic scored two first-period PP goals and the Portland Winterhawks went on to beat the Cougars, 6-1. . . . Leipsic also had an assist. He leads the WHL in goals (44) and points (110). . . . Portland F Nic Petan had two assists, giving him 106 points. . . . F Ty Rattie, the other member of that line, had two goals, giving him 39, and an assist. He’s got 94 points. . . . Prince George G Brett Zarowny (concussion) made his first appearance since Jan. 30 but he left at 7:43 of the first period, having given up three goals on 10 shots. . . . The Winterhawks now lead the overall standings by 13 points over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . 
In Kennewick, Wash., F Justin Feser had a goal and four assists as the Tri-City Americans dumped the Edmonton Oil Kings, 8-1. . . . The Americans have won five in a row for the first time this season. . . . Feser, who has a career-high 38 goals, has 18 points over his last five games. . . . On the season, Feser has 92 points in 61 games. . . . Is the 20-year-old from Red Deer the Western Conference’s MVP? . . . Feser played in his 310th consecutive game. He will tie the record held by former D Dwayne Newman (Brandon, Victoria, 1987-91) on Tuesday against visiting Portland. . . . Tri-City G Troy Trombley stopped 37 shots in his fifth straight start. He is 5-0 over that span. . . . The Oil Kings are 0-3 on their U.S. Division swing, the first time they have lost three straight in regulation time this season. . . . Evan Daum of the Edmonton Journal tweeted that it’s the Oil Kings’ worst loss since they were beaten 8-1 by the Red Deer Rebels on Sept. 25, 2010. . . . Tri-City F Fraser Bulbuc scored his first WHL goal in his third game. . . . Tri-City F Jesse Mychan had his second straight two-goal outing. He’s got 17 goals. . . . Tri-City F Connor Rankin added his 23rd goal and two helpers. . . . The Americans are fourth in the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Spokane Chiefs. . . . The Oil Kings have slipped to third in the overall standings, one point behind the Kelowna Rockets. . . . 
In Spokane, G Garret Hughson stopped 32 shots as the Chiefs beat the Kamloops Blazers, 2-0. . . . F Blake Gal scoerd his 11th goal at 10:18 of the second and F Todd Fiddler added his 39th just 24 seconds later. . . . The Blazers have played in three straight shutouts. They were beaten 3-0 by the visiting Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday, then beat the Giants 6-0 in Vancouver on Friday. . . . The Chiefs are fifth in the Western Conference, a point behind the Tri-City Americans. . . . The Blazers are third, five points in back of Kelowna. . . . 
In Victoria, the Kelowna Rockets scored three goals before the game was six minutes old and went on to a 7-2 victory over the Royals. . . . One night earlier, the Rockets dumped the host Royals, 8-3. . . . Kelowna F Cody Fowlie scored twice, giving him 17, and added an assist, while F Tyrell Goulbourne scored his ninth goal and had two assists. . . . F Colton Sissons scored his 25th goal on a PP at 3:37 of the first period and F Tyson Baillie got his 22nd, along on a PP, at 5:11. . . . The Rockets finished 3-for-7 on the PP. . . . The Rockets moved past Edmonton and into second spot in the overall standings. . . . The Royals are sixth in the Western Conference, five points behind Spokane.
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