Broncos get new look; Morrissey shines for IceCaps

The Swift Current Broncos unveiled a new look for 2014-15 on
Tuesday. Colby Cave (left) and Justin Spagrud (right) of the Broncos
join Monty Reich of sponsor South West Terminal Ltd. to show off the new look.
(Photo: Swift Current Broncos)

G Ville Kolppanen (Lethbridge, 2009-10) has signed a two-year contract with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (Russia, KHL). Last season, with Ilves Tampere (Finland, Liiga), he was 2.18 and .927 in 48 games. That save percentage was the fourth-best in the league.
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1. On June 14, 1994, as the New York Rangers celebrated a Stanley Cup championship down below, two men stood up in the stands and held up a sign: NOW I CAN DIE IN PEACE. . . . With the Rangers back in the Stanley Cup final that opens Wednesday night, Steve Politi of the New Jersey Star-Ledger has the story of those two men and the past 20 years. . . . It’s right here and it’s great stuff.

2. Almost two years of planning came to fruition on Tuesday when the Swift Current Broncos unveiled a new look for the 2014-15 season. From a news release: “The Broncos have brought back the blue and green colours and updated the fan favourite horseshoe logo. A new shoulder crest was also created to represent the Southwest’s agriculture routes with wheat sheaves and incorporating the City of Swift Current logo. . . .
“Brandon Wiebe, a graphic designer and former Swift Current resident, gave the logo and jersey (their) refreshed feel.”

3. Two teams in the same WHL division, the East, have introduced blue-themed promotions for 2014-15. . . . On Monday, as they introduced Bob Woods as their new GM/head coach, the Saskatoon Blades launched A Whole New Blue. . . . On Tuesday, the Swift Current Broncos, in unveiling their new look, launched Branded Blue. . . . The Regina Pats also have blue in their colour scheme, so one supposes the next move is up to them.

4. It’s early June and the Stanley Cup has yet to be awarded. The AHL and ECHL playoffs also are in progress. . . . But if you care about the IIHF World Junior Championship, well, the schedule for the 2015 tournament with games in Toronto and Montreal has been released. There is more right here. . . . If you happen to win a lottery between now and then, and if you’re not married with children, you may be able to afford tickets. Jason Kay of The Hockey News (@JKTHN) tweeted: “A 19-game ticket pkg at ACC in Toronto, where medal round will be played, will run you between $636 and $2301.”

4. You can’t blame Kevin Muench, the WHL’s veteran director of officiating, if he’s sporting a bit of a smile these days. After all, three former WHL on-ice officials have been selected to work the Stanley Cup final. . . . Referee Brad Watson of Regina will be in his eighth final and his third in a row. Earlier, he worked five of six finals, a stretch that ended with the 2008 series. . . . Watson worked his 1,000th regular-season NHL game on Jan. 21 in Denver. . . . Steve Kozari of Penticton, who has been paired with Watson since the second round of these playoffs, is making is championship series debut. He and Watson are to officiate Game 1. . . . Shane Heyer, a linesman from Summerland, B.C., will be working his fourth final and second in a row. . . . All three came up through the WHL. . . . Also selected are referees Dan O’Halloran of Essex, Ont., and Wes McCauley of Toronto, who is the son of the late John McCauley, who also was an NHL referee, and linesmen Derek Amell of Port Colborne, Ont., Scott Driscoll of Montreal and Brad Kovachik of Woodstock, Ont.
“It is impressive how hard these guys have worked to reach the NHL’s biggest stage . . . they are doing the WHL proud,” Muench told me via email on Tuesday. “It was also great to see 2 more WHL alumni and current NHL referees, Brad Meier and Kelly Sutherland, in the gold medal game at the Sochi Olympics.”

5. The Everett Silvertips have signed F Addison Runey, 17, to a WHL contract. Runey, from McKinney, a suburb of Dallas, was listed by the Silvertips late last season. He joined the Silvertips in the spring and practised with them during the playoffs. . . . “We’ve made it a point of emphasis recently to have a stronger presence recruiting U.S.-born players,” Everett GM Garry Davidson said in a news released, “and Addison is the first of what we hope will be many American prospects to become part of our organization.” . . . Runey played last season with the Dallas Stars Elite U16 team, putting up 44 points, 21 of them goals, in 41 games.

6. The Spokane Chiefs have signed F Jaret Anderson-Dolan, the 14th overall pick in the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. From Calgary, Anderson-Dolan had 126 points, including 79 goals, in 59 games with the bantam AAA Calgary EDGE Mountaineers last season.

7. The U of Manitoba Bisons have added D Rene Hunter and F Chad Robinson, both of whom played last season with the Brandon Wheat Kings, to their roster. . . . Hunter, from Ebb and Flow, Man., spent four seasons with the Wheat Kings, recording 68 points, including 10 goals, in 247 regular-season games. . . . Robinson, from Minnedosa, Man., spent two seasons with the Red Deer Rebels before being acquired by Brandon. He earned 109 points, 29 of them goals, in 260 regular-season WHL games.

8. F Evan Richardson won’t be joining the Victoria Royals. Instead, he is transferring to the U of Connecticut. It was revealed earlier in the week that Richardson, the 15th overall selection in the 2009 WHL bantam draft, was leaving Boston College after getting into only four games during his freshman season. . . . Will Moran, the radio voice of the UConn Huskies, reports that Richardson will be playing for head coach Mike Cavanaugh, who was an associated coach at BC and recruited him to the Eagles. . . . In the WHL, Richardson was drafted by the Swift Current Broncos, who later dealt his rights to the Royals. From Nanaimo, B.C., Richardson is preparing for his 20-year-old season.

9. D Josh Morrissey, who played the last three seasons with the Prince Albert Raiders, was the game’s third star Tuesday night as the St. John’s IceCaps dumped the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-0, to win the AHL’s Eastern Conference final in six games. . . . Morrissey had one assist, giving him eight points, including two goals, in 15 playoff games. He had one assist in eight games as he finished up the AHL regular season with St. John’s. . . . Morrissey, from Calgary, was selected by the Winnipeg Jets with the 13th overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft. He turned 19 on March 28, meaning he will have to play with the Jets or the Raiders next season. . . . In Game 7, the IceCaps got two assists from D Brenden Kichton (Spokane, 2008-13), a goal and an assist from F Jason Jaffary (Kootenay, Swift Current, 1998-2002) and a goal from F Adam Lowry (Swift Current, 2009-13).

10. In the AHL’s Western Conference final, the host Texas Stars scored the game’s last six goals and beat the Toronto Marlies, 6-2, in Game 7. . . . F Justin Dowling (Swift Current, 2006-11) had a goal and two assists for the Stars, while F Matej Stransky (Saskatoon, 2010-13) added a goal and D Derek Meech (Red Deer, 2000-04) had one assist. . . . Toronto F Frazer McLaren (Portland, Moose Jaw, 2003-08) had opened the scoring. . . . The AHL final opens Sunday in Cedar Park, Texas.

11. Dan Marino, the ex-quarterback who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has withdrawn his name from the list of plaintiffs in a concussion-related lawsuit that was filed against the NFL last week. The MMQB has more right here.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies announced Tuesday that general manager Brad Knight also will handle the head coaching duties in 2014-15. The move came as head coach Craig Didmon revealed that he will be taking a year off for personal reasons. . . . Didmon replaced Bill Bestwick as head coach in December. Knight was hired as GM in April.
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Glenn Detulleo, the head coach of the SPHL’s Huntsville Havoc, has signed a five-year contract extension that runs through 2018-19. Detulleo was headed into the option season of his original contract.
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Kris MacDonald has been hired to work as an assistant coach with the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan. MacDonald, who played for the Titan in 2005-06, spent last season working with a midget AAA team at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask.
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TWEET OF THE DAY:

Wonder if people buying those Toronto WJC tickets know they can see many of the same kids for $20 a game in Mississauga?
— Sunaya Sapurji (@sunayas) June 3, 2014

Congrats to Kozari on 1st Cup Final. 1st WHL game was w/him & had to put his contact lenses in his eyes 5 mins b4 gametime. #nerves #shaky
— Kris Hartley (@stripes81) June 3, 2014

A friendly reminder as NHL & NBA get ready for championships, they're playing the Final. Not Finals. No matter what the leagues tell you.
— David Larkins (@LarkinsWSun) June 3, 2014

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Blades introduce their man; Royals haven't spoken with Richardson

D T.J. Fast (Tri-City, 2006-08) has signed a one-year contract with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, DEL2). Last season, with Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Germany, DEL2), he had 34 points, including nine goals, in 49 games. In the relegation round, he added 19 points, eight of them goals, in 17 games. . . .
F Robin Figren (Calgary, Edmonton, 2006-08) has signed a two-year extension with Frölunda Gothenburg (Sweden, SEL). Last season, he had 23 points, including nine goals, in 43 games.
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Bob Woods, the Saskatoon Blades' new
GM/head coach, addresses the media
at a Monday news conference.
(Photo: Saskatoon Blades)

The Saskatoon Blades, as expected, introduced Bob Woods as their new general manager and head coach on Monday.
Woods, who had spent the last two-plus seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, replaces Lorne Molleken and David Struch with the Blades. Molleken, the team’s long-time GM/head coach, was released by the team’s new owners, Mike and Colin Priestner, after last season. Struch, a former Blades player and long-time assistant coach under Molleken, got the heave-ho after one season as head coach.
Woods got a five-year contract from the Blades.
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix attended the news conference and, at one point, tweeted that under the terms of the contract Woods “is open to pursue NHL jobs. Terms not disclosed, but he'll one of the WHL's highest-paid people.”
Nugent-Bowman’s story is right here.
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With Bob Woods having signed on as the head coach of the Saskatoon Blades, only two of the WHL’s 22 teams are without head coaches.
The Calgary Hitmen, who fired Mike Williamson following the season, and the Vancouver Giants, who allowed Don Hay out of the final year of his contract so that he could take over the coaching duties with his hometown Kamloops Blazers, both are in the market.
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal has reported that the Hitmen are “very interested” in Edmonton Oil Kings assistant coach Steve Hamilton.
It’s unlikely that Hamilton will make a move until the immediate future of Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal is confirmed one way or the other. There have been hints that perhaps the parent Oilers might add him to their staff, perhaps as an associate coach under head coach Dallas Eakins. Should that happen, Hamilton would be in line to be the Oil Kings’ head coach.
However, should the Oilers leave Laxdal in place as the Oil Kings’ head coach, perhaps Hamilton would consider a move to another WHL team as its head coach.
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1. F Evan Richardson, a sophomore forward at Boston College, won’t be returning to the Eagles. Richardson, 20, had two goals in four games last season as freshman. From Nanaimo, B.C., Richardson was selected 15th overall by the Swift Current Broncos in the 2009 WHL bantam draft. . . . On Sept. 5, 2012, the Broncos dealt his rights to the Victoria Royals for 1995-born F Justin Spagrud and a conditional second-round bantam draft pick. . . . As of late Monday night, Royals general manager Cam Hope hadn’t spoken with Richardson, who is believed to be thinking about playing junior A or transferring to another school. . . . Of course, he would be welcome to join the Royals and, as Hope told me, “fight for an overage spot with us . . . he’s a skilled player.” . . . The Royals have five 20-year-olds on their roster in D Travis Brown, F Austin Carroll, F Steven Hodges, F Brandon Magee and G Patrik Polivka. However, Hodges has signed with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, while Magee and Polivka have signed with teams in Europe.

2. The Medicine Hat Tigers have signed F James Hamblin, the 17th overall selection in the 2014 WHL bantam draft. Hamblin, from Edmonton, spent the past two seasons with the bantam AAA Edmonton-South Side Athletic Club Lions. Last season, he had 62 points, including 32 goals, in 31 games. . . . Hamblin was one of 21 prospects who attended the Tigers’ weekend orientation camp.

3. The Prince Albert Raiders have traded F Chance Braid, who turns 20 in September, and F Lance Yaremchuk, 18, to the Prince George Cougars for F Jordan Tkatch, 19, and a sixth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . Braid, from Chauvin, Alta., has 57 points in 201 regular-season games, all with Prince Albert. . . . Yaremchuk had a goal and two assists in 15 games with the Raiders last season. He also had 31 points, 15 of them goals, in 20 games with the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos, who went on to win the Telus Cup. Yaremchuk was a sixth-round selection by the Raiders in the 2011 bantam draft. . . .  Tkatch, a second-round pick by the Cougars in the 2010 bantam draft, put up 82 points, 33 of them goals, in 196 regular-season games. He is from Prud’Homme, which is located 110 km south of Prince Albert, where he played for the midget AAA Mintos. Last season, he had 46 points, including 16 goals, in 72 games.

4. The deal between Prince Albert and Prince George leaves the Raiders with six potential 20-year-olds on their roster -- F Calder Brooks, F Dakota Conroy, F Shane Danyluk, F Jayden Hart, D Sawyer Lange and F Carson Perreaux. . . . In Prince George, Braid joins G Adam Beukeboom, F Troy Bourke, F Jari Erricson, F Zach Pochiro, F Brett Roulston, D Joshua Smith and D Wil Tomchuk as potential 20-year-olds on the Cougars’ roster. Bourke has signed an NHL deal with the Colorado Avalanche so isn’t likely to return.

5. When a team loses, it isn’t often that fans give the other team credit. When that happens in Game 7 of a championship series, it rarely happens. More often, the officials get the blame, it seems. So I must say I was quite pleased to get the following via email from a Portland Winterhawks’ fan:
“Has there ever been a more resilient and tough-minded WHL team than this year's Oil Kings - They took multiple ‘George Foreman in his prime haymakers’ from the Hawks . . . Storm . . . and Val-d'Or:
- Fall behind the Hawks 2-0 in games / getting shaky goaltending from (Tristan) Jarry;
- Fall behind the Hawks 2-0 three minutes into Game 3;
- Blow two three-goal leads at HOME ... lose Game 6 in epic failure fashion;
- Get beaten soundly by Guelph in the round-robin;
- Multiple OT's against Val-d’Or;
- Fall behind 1-0 . . . a minute into the championship game.
Unbelievable guts and courage shown by Edmonton.”

6. F Sam Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs is NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked North American skater going into this month’s draft. But at the combine last weekend in Mississauga, Ont., Bennett wasn’t able to do even one pull-up. . . . Yes, that raised some eyebrows. But, as Neate Sager of Yahoo! Canada Sports writes right here: Who cares? . . . It all reminds me of an anecdote involving F Bill Derlago, one of the great scorers in WHL history, who was selected by the Vancouver Canucks with the fourth overall pick of the NHL’s 1978 draft. When players showed up for training camp, the Canucks’ braintrust put them through some dryland stuff that included sprints. Jake Milford, who had a long history with the Wheat Kings, was the Canucks’ general manager at the time. He called Brandon head coach Dunc McCallum and admitted that he was concerned because Derlago didn’t run very well. McCallum asked Milford: “Are you putting together a track team or a hockey team?”

7. D Kyle Sheen (Kootenay, Kamloops, 1999-2004) will be bringing home at least one

souvenir from the 2014 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship that opened Sunday in Pardubice, Czech Republic. . . . Sheen’s first goal in an IIHF competition gave Canada a 1-0 lead less than a minute into Monday’s game against Finland. However, the Finns came back for a 5-3 victory. . . . Canada, bronze medalists a year ago, had opened with a 3-1 victory over Germany on Saturday. . . . Canada (1-1) will meet Sweden on Tuesday. . . . Interestingly, F Ales Hemsky of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators has joined the Czech team. His father, Petr, is the head coach of the Czech side.


8. Hockey Canada has revealed that registration for the 2013-14 season was down 5,600 from the previous season. The number of boys played hockey in Canada decreased for a third straight season. . . . Meanwhile, the number of new players involved in soccer went up by 20,000. . . . Alan Maki of The Globe and Mail delves into why that is happening right here.

9. D Andrew Alberts’ hockey career may be over, but he’s not even thinking about that. All he wants right now is to experience one day without a headache. Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun has the story right here on what he calls “the NHL’s shame.”

10. Retired NFL star Dan Marino is part of a lawsuit filed against the NFL on May 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Yes, it has to do with concussions. As Massachusetts-based attorney Michael McCann, who writes on legal matters for Sports Illustrated, notes right here, these lawsuits aren’t going away any time soon.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Brandon West has been promoted to head coach of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks. He had been the associate coach under GM/head coach Troy Mick. . . . Mick now is the franchise’s governor, president and general manager. According to the BCHL constitution, a team’s head coach isn’t allowed to serve as governor. . . . Mick and West, who has been with Salmon Arm for three seasons, have worked together through the past two seasons.
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Tom Keca won’t be back as the assistant GM/assistant coach with the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons. Curtis Hunt, the team’s new GM and head coach, made that revelation on Monday. Keca had been with the Oil Barons for nine seasons. . . . Hunt also said that Ryan Allen, the club’s other assistant coach, will be back. . . . Robert Murray of Fort McMurray Today has more right here.
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From the Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants): “Be a part of our 2014/15 Dance Team! Auditions will take place on June 14 at the Coliseum. http://fb.me/2V4lENzyY”
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From Giants F Joel Hamilton (@Jhamilton181): “@WHLGiants I'm out of town until about mid august... Can I audition then? #jk”
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The Giants response: “We’ll hold a spot for you!”

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Cam Lanigan, here in a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday in
Everett, is one of five goaltenders still in camp with the Portland Winterhawks.
Lanigan was claimed off waivers from the — you guessed it — Kamloops
Blazers over the summer.
(Christopher Mast / Mastimages.com)

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Craig Weller (Kootenay, 2000-02) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Ingolstadt (Germany, DEL) after a successful tryout. Weller was with Villach (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) last season, getting five goals and six assists in 45 games.
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Best wishes to Rob Morphy, a veteran hockey scout, who is in a Vancouver hospital after having received a visit from a scalpel-wielding surgeon or two. . . . Rumour has it the NHL season is on hold and won’t start until you’re up and around, big guy.
Morphy, who is from Kamloops, signed on in June to work as the director of scouting and head scout for the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
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The biggest hockey story of Wednesday had nothing to do with the NHL’s impending lockout. No, it had everything to do with a report out of Boston on the Boston University Terriers’ hockey team.
The report came out of an internal investigation and showed, according to an Associated Press report, that “a culture of ‘sexual entitlement’ exists among some BU men’s hockey players.
The university’s president commissioned a task force after two alleged sexual assaults occurred last season.
The AP report is right here, and there’s a bit more right here from boston.com.
Anyone involved in the management of any team at a level where players are idolized in their community needs to take a good look at this report for obvious reasons.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed F Aaron Boyd, a Winnipegger who was a second-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. He had 35 points in 30 games with the bantam AAA Winnipeg Hawks last season. Boyd played in two victories at the Edmonton Oil Kings’ tournament in St. Albert, Alta., last weekend. In other words, the Cougars are 2-0 with him in the lineup. . . . Boyd will play midget AAA this season, for either the Winnipeg Hawks or Winnipeg Thrashers.
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Jason Peters of the Prince George Citizen reports that the Cougars are down to two goaltenders — Devon Fordyce, 18, and Brett Zarowny, 17. . . . Ty Edmonds, 16, was released from camp after the Cougars finished play in St. Albert. . . . Fordyce backed up starter Drew Owsley last season, going 2-8-1, 4.30, .875. Owsley played out his eligibility last season. . . . Zarowny played for the midget AAA Leduc Oil Kings. . . . "It will be a good battle between the two of them to see who can earn the right to start most of the games," Cougars head coach Dean Clark told Peters. . . . Fordyce was a sixth-round pick in the 2009 draft; Zarowny was taken in 2010’s third round.
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The Victoria Royals have dealt F Justin Spagrud, 17, and a conditional second-round bantam draft pick to the Swift Current Broncos for F Evan Richardson, 18. . . . Spagrud, a third-round pick by the Tri-City Americans in the 2010 bantam draft, is from Gull Lake, Sask., which is just a stone’s throw from Swift Current. In fact, I can’t mention Gull Lake without pointing out that it is the hometown of Roger Aldag, the Hall of Fame offensive lineman who had such a great career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. . . . Last season, Spagrud had 36 points and 48 penalty minutes in 31 games with the midget AAA Swift Current Legionnaires. . . . A year ago, Victoria acquired Spagrud and a second-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft from Tri-City for D Mitch Topping. . . . The Broncos selected Richardson, who is from Nanaimo, with the 15th overall pick in the 2009 bantam draft, but he has yet to play in the WHL. Last season, he had 55 points in 48 games with the BCHL’s Powell River Kings. He also has played for the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies and Alberni Valley Bulldogs. . . . The 5-foot-8, 170-pound Richardson has committed to Boston College. The conditional draft pick the Broncos received pays off only if Richardson plays in Victoria.
“Evan is not expected to report to our camp, but if he has a change of heart, we’d welcome him,” Cam, Hope, the Royals’ GM, told Ron Rauch of the Victoria Times Colonist. “Everybody’s plans do change and he is just the type of player that is worth having on your list.”
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The Calgary Hitmen have dealt D Keaton Lubin, 18, to the Regina Pats for a conditional sixth round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. Lubin, from Okotoks, Alta., was a third-round selection in the 2009 bantam draft. He had one goal in 36 games with the Hitmen in 2010-11 and one assist in 14 games with Calgary last season.
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Former NHL F Jeremy Reich is into the coaching game. He has signed on as assistant GM/assistant coach with the AJHL’s Canmore Eagles. Reich, 33, is from Craik, Sask. He played in the WHL with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Swift Current Broncos (1995-2000). While in Swift Current, he was teammates with Andrew Milne, who is the Eagles’ GM/head coach. . . . “I’ve known Jeremy for the past 15 years and he will be a huge addition for the Canmore Eagles hockey club this year,” Milne said in a press release. “He’s played at the highest level possible and knows what it takes to be successful in hockey. His professional experience will be a great asset on the practice rink, in the dressing room and on the bench.” . . . Reich last played in the NHL in 2007-08 when he was in 58 games with the Boston Bruins. Last season, he played in Germany. . . . Kurtis Jones, a four-year assistant, remains with the Eagles. However, Jones also works as an electrician so hasn’t been able to give the Eagles as much as he would have liked.
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The Portland Winterhawks are down to four 20-year-olds after having released F Jason Trott. . . . Trott, from Anmore, B.C., had five points in 36 games with Portland last season, after getting three pints in 32 games in 2010-11. . . . His departure leaves the Winterhawks with G Mac Carruth, G Cam Lanigan, D Troy Rutkowski and F Taylor Peters as the four 20-year-olds in camp. . . . Carruth, however, has signed with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and may well start the season in their organization. . . . The Winterhawks still have three other goaltenders in camp, as Carruth and Lanigan are joined by holdover Brendan Burke, 17, Brendan Jensen, 19, and Jarrod Schamerhorn, 17. . . . G Adin Hill, 16, was the sixth netminder in camp but has returned home to Calgary where he is expected to play for a midget AAA team.
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F Jesse Mychan, 20, of the Tri-City Americans is expected to play his first game of the exhibition season on Friday against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds. Mychan, who joined Tri-City in a trade from the Everett Silvertips last season, suffered a severed Achilles tendon during the first round of last spring’s playoffs and subsequently underwent surgery.
“He is back and healed up,” Tri-City head coach Jim Hiller told Annie Fowler of the Tri-City Herald. “You can see the work he has put in in the meantime. He’s dropped 23 pounds and that ties into his frame of mind. He’s into it fully.”
Mychan is one of five 20-year-olds on the Americans’ roster, the others being D Drydn Dow, F Justin Feser, F Jordan Messier and D Derek Ryckman.
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Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reports that the Vancouver Giants will salute Joe Sakic on Feb. 1 when the Kelowna Rockets visit Pacific Coliseum. . . . Sakic, 43, is a native of Burnaby, B.C., who won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche. He will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 12. . . . Sakic played two seasons (1986-88) with the Swift Current Broncos. He survived the Dec. 30, 1986 bus crash that claimed the lives of four teammates.
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Here is the start of an Associated Press report that was filed on Wednesday:
“A study of former NFL players finds they were unusually prone to dying from degenerative brain disease, the latest indication that repeated blows to the head may cause serious trouble later on.
“The death rate from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease combined was about three times what one would predict from the general population, researchers reported.”
That story is right here, and it includes a comment from Dr. Robert Cantu, the co-director of the center at Boston University that studies CTE.


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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Kenton Smith (Calgary, 1995-2000) signed a one-year contract extension with the Cardiff Devils (Wales, UK Elite). He had 10 goals and 30 assists in 53 games for the Devils this season.
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Tyler Olsen of the Chilliwack Times has the latest on the BCHL’s return to Chilliwack right here. . . . Among other things, Olsen asked Moray Keith, a former minority owner of the WHL’s Chilliwack Bruins and one of the BCHL franchise’s owners, about a possible return by the WHL should the opportunity arise. . . . "Judging by the way we were treated by the WHL,” Keith said, “we're not very anxious to be involved with those folks again.”
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THE COACHING GAME: The SJHL’s Kindersley Klippers have signed Rockie Zinger to a one-year deal as head coach. He hired on as an assistant coach prior to this season, then was named interim head coach when Larry Wintoneak was fired on Dec. 13. . . . The NAHL’s Kenai River Brown Bears have signed head coach Oliver David to a two-year extension. David, from L.A., just completed his first full season as head coach, after moving up from assistant to interim head coach in October 2009. . . . The QMJHL’s P.E.I. Rocket announced that Corrado Micalef and Jamie Blanchard will return as assistant coaches under new head coach Gordie Dwyer.
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JUST NOTES: D Mike Reddington, a veteran of five-plus WHL seasons, has decided to attend the U of Lethbridge and play for the Pronghorns of head coach Greg Gatto. Reddington, from Port Coquitlam, B.C., was the Lethbridge Hurricane’s captain last season. He played 196 regular-season games with the Spokane Chiefs before being dealt to the Hurricanes early in the 2009-10 season. He played 133 games with the Hurricanes, completing his major junior eligibility this season. Reddington had 23 points in 68 games this season, along with 99 penalty minutes. After the WHL season, he played four games with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. . . . F Evan Richardson, a first-round pick in the 2009 WHL bantam draft, has committed to Boston College. Richardson, from Nanaimo, B.C., had 42 points in 55 games with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies this season. The Swift Current Broncos selected him with the 15th pick of the 2009 draft.
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According to capgeek.com, F Linden Vey of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who has signed a three-year deal with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, will get an AHL salary of US$67,500 in each of the three seasons, with an NHL salary of $790,000 each season. He got a $270,000 signing bonus over three years. Vey, who won the WHL scoring title this season, was a fourth-round selection in the 2009 NHL draft.
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The Kootenay Ice finally scored some goals — and took advantage of a break — to stay alive at the Memorial Cup. The Ice beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 5-4 in OT — F Matt Fraser got the winner — and now will play in a tiebreaker on Thursday in Mississauga. . . . Tonight, it’s the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors and the Owen Sound Attack, in a rematch of the OHL final which the Attack won in seven games. The winner goes on to Friday’s semifinal; the loser gets the Ice on Thursday. . . . The winning goal came after the Ice gained the offensive zone on a play that was offside. . . . It was the second time in the tournament that an offside play preceded a game-winning goal. On Friday, the Sea Dogs got past Mississauga 4-3 with the winning goal coming off an offside entry into the offensive zone.
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In Houston, Aeros team captain Jon DiSalvatore scored with 1:13 left in the third period to give his side a 4-3 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs. It was Game 7 of the AHL’s Western Conference final. . . . The Aeros, who are affiliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, will meet the Binghamton Senators in the AHL final. . . . The final, which will follow a 2-3-2 format, opens with games Friday and Saturday in Houston.

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