Another player done, at least for now . . . Warriors cycle for Ethan

F Lukáš Vartovník (Everett, 2006-08) has signed a one-year contract with Spišská Nová Ves (Slovakia, 1. Liga). Last season, with Liptovský Mikuláš (Slovakia, 1. Liga), he had five goals and 11 assists in 36 games. . . .
F Martin Cibák (Medicine Hat, 1998-2000) has signed a one-year contract with Olomouc (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Last season, he was the captain of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (Russia, KHL), and had 12 points, including six goals, in 38 games. He was traded to Vityaz Podolsk (Russia, KHL), and had two goals and an assist in 16 games.
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CONCUSSION REPORT:

The WHL may have lost another player to post-concussion syndrome.
F Brandon Del Grosso, 18, isn’t with the Moose Jaw Warriors.
“As of right now,” he told Taking Note, “I’m just going to school and taking things day by day. I was not ready to return to Moose Jaw this year as I haven’t played in a hockey game in quite a while.”
Del Grosso played one game last season. On Oct. 9, he took a hit from behind that, he said, left him with whiplash and a concussion. Almost a year later, Del Grosso is still feeling it.
“I still have symptoms (from) time to time,” he said.
A ninth-round pick by Moose Jaw in the 2011 bantam draft, he had 43 points, 13 of them goals, in 43 games with the major midget Vancouver-Northwest Giants in 2012-13. He also got into three games with the Warriors that season.
So, to date, his WHL resume shows four games, with no points.
From New Westminster, he is now attending Douglas College, which is located in his hometown.
“As far as hockey goes,” he said, “I’m not currently playing but that could change in the future.”
Making the decision to leave the game, especially when it wasn’t on his terms, “wasn’t easy, that’s for sure,” he said.
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If you missed it, Sean Rooney and Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News reported Wednesday that F Gavin Broadhead of the Medicine Hat Tigers has had to retire due to post-concussion syndrome.
That story is right here.
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Meanwhile, the U of Minnesota Gophers announced Wednesday that Amanda Kessel, the sister of Toronto Maple Leafs star Phil Kessel, won’t play this season because of post-concussion syndrome.
Amanda Kessel didn’t play for the Gophers last season as she was with the U.S. women’s national team. She incurred a concussion while with the national team.
"It’s obviously a difficult decision and one that I’ve taken time to come to terms with,” Kessel said in a news release. “As someone who has played through a lot of injuries, it wasn’t until suffering a concussion that I fully understood the importance of being 100 per cent healthy when I’m on the ice. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case right now.
"My No. 1 priority is my health, and I hope that I’ll be able to return to the ice in the future."
She has been working with doctors and specialists at the Carrick Brain Center in Atlanta.
Kessel, who has one year of eligibility remaining, won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award in 2012 as the NCAA’s top Divison I women’s player.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors lost a member of their organization in July when F Ethan Williams of Winnipeg committed suicide.  Williams, who would have turned 17 on Aug. 22, was to have attended his third Warriors training camp. . . . On Wednesday, Katie Brickman of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald reports right here, 11 veteran players “participated in the Cycle Around the Globe for World Suicide Prevention Day . . . with a certain person in mind.” . . . Warriors GM Alan Millar told Brickman: ““I think it is very important to be in the community and give back to the Moose Jaw community that supports us so well but, as part of that, there are a number of causes that are so important. This day is close to our hearts with what happened to a young man, Ethan Williams, recently. He was part of our family.”
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It could be that Russian F Nikita Scherbak has played his last game with the Saskatoon Blades. Scherback led the Blades last season in goals (28), assists (50) and points (78). He was selected in the first round of the NHL’s 2014 draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He turns 19 on Dec. 30, so has to play in the NHL or be returned to the Blades. . . . Because he was a first-round NHL pick, the Blades were allowed to pick twice in the CHL’s 2014 import draft, which they did. On top of that, there is a one-year moratorium on trading import draft selections. . . . So, as Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reports right here, the Blades already are contemplating finding Scherback another WHL team with which to play.
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“Government officials in Washington state, home to four Western Hockey League teams, have been investigating the working conditions of the teams' mostly-teenaged players over the past year, TSN has learned.
“Matthew Erlich, a spokesman for Washington's Department of Labor and Industry, told TSN that officials recently referred the case to the state attorney general's office and added that the labor department is waiting for a legal opinion from the attorney general before pursuing its investigation further.”
Those are the first two paragraphs of a story by Rick Westhead, TSN’s senior correspondent. The complete story is right here.
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TSN posted its first Craig’s List of the 2014-15 season on Wednesday. The list, compiled by TSN’s Craig Button, features his ranking of the top 40 players who are eligible for the 2015 NHL draft. This list, which is right here, includes one WHLer, Seattle F Mathew Barzal, in the top 20, but there are five in the top 30 and 10 in the top 40.
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The Prince George Cougars have hired Craig Hyslop as an athletic therapist. Hyslop, 28, is from Prince George. He spent the last two years with CBI, a health services centre in Prince George. According to general manager Todd Harkins, Hyslop will “take care of (the players’) health and well-being,” while Chico Dhanjal “takes care of their equipment.” . . . Taylor Rocca of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman tweeted Wednesday that D Landon Cross, 20, has received his release and will join the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons. Cross, who is from Brandon, was acquired by the Kootenay Ice from the Kamloops Blazers last season. He didn’t report to the Ice this season, saying he wanted to finish his junior career with the Pistons. . . .
The Saskatoon Blades will open the season with Troy Trombley, 20, and Trevor Martin, 18, as their goaltenders. The 6-foot-7 Trombley, from Sherwood Park, Alta., was 9-30-3/4.08/.899 last season. He also has played with the Kamloops Blazers and Tri-City Americans. Martin, from Ardossan, Alta., split last season between the midget AAA Leduc Oil Kings and the AJHL’s Whitecourt Wolverines. . . . Saskatoon’s roster sits at 29, including two goaltenders and 10 defencemen.

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The new third jersey is here! pic.twitter.com/SifZ5ktKBX
— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) September 11, 2014

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WHL feeling secure with Lacasse . . . Brain injury ends another career

D Jim Vandermeer (Red Deer, 1997-2001) has signed two-year extension with Kloten (Switzerland, NL A). Last season, he had two goals and 10 assists in 49 games. . . .
F Milan Kytnár (Kelowna, Saskatoon, Vancouver, 2007-10) has signed a contract through Nov. 2 with Banská Bystrica (Slovakia, Extraliga). Last season, with Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic, Extraliga), he had four goals and six assists in 41 games. . . .
F Petr Kalus (Regina, 2005-06) has signed a one-year contract with Herning (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). Last season, with Dukla Trenčín (Slovakia, Extraliga), he had one assist in three games; with Djurgården Stockholm (Sweden, Allsvenskan), he was pointless in two games; and in 42 games with the Nottingham Panthers, he had 38 points, including 18 goals. . . .
F Masi Marjamäki (Red Deer, Moose Jaw, 2002-05) has signed a one-year-plus-option contract with Tappara Tampere (Finland, Liiga). Marjamäki missed all of last season and most of 2012-13 due to injury. In 2012-13, with Ilves Tampere (Finland, Liiga), he had three goals and three assists in nine games.
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Yves Lacasse has joined the WHL as its volunteer
security officer.
(Photo: Kamloops Daily News files)

The WHL announced Tuesday that Yves Lacasse, a former RCMP superintendent in Kamloops, has signed on as its volunteer security officer.
Lacasse, who had been with the Kamloops detachment for eight years, left the RCMP after 27 years early in 2013 to become the manager of external affairs for KGHM International, which is wanting to start a copper and gold mine near Kamloops.
The proposed mine, which would border the Aberdeen section of Kamloops, has caused a deep divide in the community because those who are opposed to it for environmental reasons and those who are for it because of the economic benefits for the community.
Lacasse, who was raised in Thetford Mines, Que., is friends with Kamloops Blazers majority owner Tom Gaglardi and general manager Craig Bonner. Lacasse also has worked with the Blazers for 10 seasons.
According to a WHL news release: “Acting in a volunteer capacity in his new role with the WHL, Lacasse will conduct internal reviews and investigations on behalf of the WHL office to ensure WHL clubs are operating in accordance with league standards and regulations.”
The news release adds that Lacasse “will also be responsible to facilitate the implementation of a new league-wide security program with all WHL clubs.”
The news release also made mention of the success of the WHL's seven-point plan that was enacted in time for 2011-12.“In the first three seasons since being implemented by the WHL, the (plan) has been effective in reducing concussions and other injuries,” according to the news release.
Unfortunately, the WHL, once again, didn’t release any numbers to back up its claims.
At the same time as the WHL was issuing this release, Sean Rooney and Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News were preparing a story that marks the end of F Gavin Broadhead’s career with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Broadhead, a 19-year-old from Hay River, NWT, last played on Jan. 22.
According to The News’ story, Broadhead took a shoulder to the face during a Jan. 18 game against the Calgary Hitmen. Then, despite not feeling well, he went on a road trip to the West Coast. On Jan. 21, in Victoria, he took another hit. Broadhead said that a Royals’ team doctor checked him over and, according to The News, “concluded it wasn’t a concussion.”
On Jan. 22, Broadhead said he was hit from behind in Vancouver. “Then I knew,” he said. “I was dizzy, I wasn’t feeling well, I was nauseous.”
What followed was eight months of headaches, and now Broadhead, whose father, Curt, also played for the Tigers (1977-81), is moving on.
“My head just wasn’t going to hold up,” Gavin said. “I want to be able to think . . . I don’t want to be smashing up my head anymore.”
Broadhead was selected by the Tigers in the fourth round of the 2010 bantam draft. In 97 regular-season games over parts of three seasons, he had four goals and eight assists. Last season, in 44 games, he had a goal and eight assists.
At some point this morning, The News’ story should appear right here.
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The Everett Silvertips have their roster down to 27 players after releasing F Chris Stockl, 19, on Tuesday. Stockl, from Winnipeg, played with the Saskatoon Blades and Red Deer Rebels over the last two seasons. Last season, he had one goal in 16 games with Red Deer. In 78 regular-season games, he has four goals and seven assists. . . . The Silvertips are carrying four goaltenders, eight defencemen and 15 forwards.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes have signed F Brett Davis, who was a fourth-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. From Oakbank, Man., he had 49 points, 26 of them goals, in 36 games with the bantam Notre Dame Hounds, who play in the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League.
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Two men have been indicted on drug-related charges in the death of former WHL and NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard. One of the men is Jordan Hart, the son of former Flin Flon Bombers/New York Islanders D Gerry Hart. . . . John Branch and Benjamin Weiser of The New York Times have more right here.
Branch has been on top of the Boogaard story right from the start. Right here, there’s a piece he wrote almost three years ago that is headlined Derek Boogaard: A boy learns to brawl.
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Kevin Kwasny was a football player at Bishop’s U in Montreal when he suffered a concussion during a game. Now he is suing the school, asking for $9.3 million in damages. Karen Seidman of the Montreal Gazette has more right here.
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Today, while the Ray Rice thing is fresh in our minds, is a good time to take a look at some sporting sleazebags. Thanks to Drew Magary and GQ Magazine we can do just that and we can do it right here. Enjoy . . . then take a shower!
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The Everett Silvertips have signed Wayne Duncan as their new trainer. He had been working with high schools in the Seattle area. Duncan takes over from Marc Paquet, who has moved on to the AHL’s Adirondack Flames. . . . The 2016 IIHF world women’s hockey championship will be played in Kamloops. Dates for the 22-game championship have yet to be released, but it will be played in April in the Interior Savings Centre and McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre.

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