P.G. gang comes through for evacuees ... Slovak signs with Chiefs ... Warriors sign an AGM

Hey folks @gdrinnan Taking Note is working just loading really slowly thanks to a new script from @blogger be patient. #SameGreatWriting

— Terry Massey (@TerryMassey) July 6, 2017

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F Curt Gogol (Kelowna, Saskatoon, Chilliwack, 2007-11) signed a one-year contract with Rubin Tyumen (Russia, Vysshaya Liga). Last season, with the Florida Everblades (ECHL), he had six goals and 11 assists in 37 games.

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A tip of the cap to the Prince George Cougars Alumni Association, the Prince George Cougars Society and the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation for their generosity in support of wildfire evacuees from their area. . . . The announcement was made before the alumni association’s annual Hospital Charity Golf Tournament got started. . . . A lot of the province of B.C. is burning up and you can bet that kind of generosity is greatly appreciated. . . . Should you want to donate to the Red Cross you are able to do so right here.

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F Milos Fafrak, a Slovakian, has signed a WHL contract with the Spokane Chiefs. He was a first-round selection in the CHL’s 2017 import draft. Fafrak, 18, had 39 points, 11 of them goals, in 44 games with the Slovkian U-18 team that played in the Slovak U-20 Extraliga last season. . . . The Chiefs also selected Czech D Filip Kral in the 2017 import draft. Kral, who is to turn 18 on Oct. 20, played last season with HC Kometa Brno in the Czech U-20 league and also got into 23 games with Kometa Brno in the Czech Extraliga. He has yet to sign with the Chiefs.

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The Moose Jaw Warriors have hired Jason Ripplinger as assistant general manager after losing Doug Gasper, their director of scouting, to the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. . . . Ripplinger, who is from Regina, spent the previous 17 years with the Vancouver Giants, first as head scout and then as director of player personnel, a position he had filled since 2008. . . . Gasper joined the Warriors in 2007. He was named assistant head scout in 2012 and had been director of scouting since 2015. According to the Warriors, Gasper has “accepted a scouting position” in the NHL. . . . Shortly after the Warriors issued their news release, Rick Dhaliwal of News 1130 Sports in Vancouver reported that Gasper will be joining the Canucks’ scouting staff.

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Todd Gill is the new head coach of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. He replaces Ryan McGill, the OHL’s reigning coach of the year, who left after two seasons to join the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights as an assistant coach. . . . A former NHL defenceman, Gill spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Stockton Heat. Before joining the Heat, Gill spent three seasons as the head coach of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. . . . Alan Letang, an assistant coach under McGill, will stay on with the Attack and work alongside Gill.

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A couple of notes involving junior teams from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League . . . The Kimberley Dynamiters and the WHL’s Kootenay Ice have joined forces in a deal that will provide ticket discounts to fans. Season-ticket holders for Ice games will get 15 per cent off individual tickets to Dynamiters’ games, while Kimberley season-ticket holders will get the same discount on tickets to Ice home games. . . . On Thursday, NASCAR promoted Brent Dewar from vice-chairman to president. Hired as the chief operating officer in 2013, he had been moved to vice-chairman in 2015. Dewar is only the fourth president in the history of NASCAR, which began under Bill France Sr. in 1948. Dewar is the brother of Kamloops Storm owner/general manager Barry Dewar.

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Luke Strand is the new head coach of the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers. Strand, who spent last season as an amateur scout with the NHL’s Calgary Flames, takes over from Jay Varady, who was introduced Thursday as the head coach of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. . . . Strand is quite familiar with Sioux City, having worked as the Musketeers’ GM/head coach for two seasons (2009-11) and as GM in 2013-14. . . . He also has coached with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers and Madison Capitals, the AHL’s Houston Aeros, the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat and the U of Wisconsin Badgers.

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After the Calgary Hitmen filled out their coaching staff and front office earlier in the week, Hartley Miller had some fun with it all, especially the promotion of, as he calls him, The Dallas Thompson. . . . Yes, that Dallas Thompson! . . . Miller’s piece, from myprincegeorgenow.com, is right here.

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Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan who missed out on a $1-million prize won't leave empty-handed after all https://t.co/5UyMNUXXY8 pic.twitter.com/azoFYY0woi

— CBC News (@CBCNews) July 15, 2017

Karen Kuldys denied $1-million jackpot by a penalty call in last nights CFL game.  A few years ago her husband won about $700K in lottery.

— Earl J. Seitz (@EarlCFJCsports) July 14, 2017

The CFL could have turned the Kuldys mess into a bonanza for $111,111.11 per club but they'd rather nickel-and-dime her. Bullet to the foot.

— Jack Todd (@jacktodd46) July 14, 2017

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Silvertips have their coach ... Hitmen looking for new GM ... Giants need assistant coach

F Josh Holden (Regina, 1994-98) has signed a one-year extension with Zug (Switzerland, NL A). This season, Holden, the team captain, had 14 goals and 25 assists in 49 games. . . . Next season will be Holden’s 10th with Zub. According to Zug's website, Holden is eligible to apply for Swiss citizenship this year. . . .

F Josh Green (Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Portland, 1993-98) announced via his Twitter account that he has retired. “Walking away on my terms,” he wrote. . . . This season with KooKoo Kouvola (Finland, Liiga), he had 11 goals and six assists in 38 games. He was the team captain.

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With their arch-rivals, the Seattle Thunderbirds, flying high over Western Canada, bringing home the Ed Chynoweth Cup on Monday afternoon, the Everett Silvertips announced that they have a new head coach.

As expected, the Silvertips have brought in Dennis Williams, a 37-year-old native of Stratford, Ont., to replace Kevin Constantine, whose contract wasn’t renewed following this season.

Williams becomes the fifth head coach in the franchise’s history, which began with the 2003-04 season.

DENNIS WILLIAMS

Constantine has done two four-year stints as head coach, winning 326 regular-season and 45 playoff games in the process.

This season, Everett went 44-16-12 — for the second 100-point season in its history — and finished atop the Western Conference and the U.S. Division. The Silvertips also were the WHL’s best defensive club, allowing only 169 goals in 72 games. In the playoffs, they took a first-round series from the Victoria Royals in six games, then got swept by the Thunderbirds.

Everett management is hopeful that Williams can inject a little more run-and-gun into the Silvertips’ game.

From a Silvertips’ news release:

“Williams has 11 years of head-coaching experience across junior and college levels, carrying a lifetime winning percentage of .673 over the past seven seasons as head coach with Bloomington of the United States Hockey League and Amarillo of the North American Hockey League. After guiding Bloomington to a 29-24-7 record and fifth place in the Eastern Conference in their expansion season of 2014-15, he led the Thunder in 2015-16 to a 36-18-6 record, an appearance in the Eastern Conference final, and a victory shy of reaching the league’s Clark Cup final.”

Williams has been the USHL-Bloomington, Ill., Thunder’s general manager of hockey operations and head coach for three seasons. Before that, he was the director of hockey operations and head coach of the NAHL’s Amarillo, Texas, Bulls.

CSH International, Inc., the sports property division of The Monarch Corporation, owns the Silvertips, Thunder and Bulls. The Monarch Corporation is a private investment company that is headquartered in Medicine Hat and is headed up by Bill Yuill.

Taking Note was told last week that Williams had two years left on his contract with Bloomington.

The Silvertips’ news release didn’t mention either assistant coach Mitch Love or goaltender coach Shane Clifford. Brennan Sonne, the team’s other assistant coach this season, has left the club and signed on as head coach of Angers, a professional team in France.

The Silvertips’ news release on Williams is right here.

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The Calgary Hitmen are in the market for a general manager after they announced on Monday that their hockey operations are being restructured.

MIKE MOORE

The Hitmen are owned by the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, the parent of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

On Monday, Mike Moore, the WHL franchise’s vice-president of business operations and general manager since 2013, was named vice-president and alternate governor.

According to a news release, Moore’s “new role will see a continued focus on business operations while also acting as an advisor and providing support to the general manager.”

Moore has been involved in the WHL since 1997. He spent one season (1997-98) as Calgary’s assistant general manager, before moving to Kamloops as the Blazers’ GM (1998-2004). He was the Medicine Hat Tigers’ GM for one season (2004-05), before spending three seasons as director of athletics at the Calgary-based Edge School.

Moore returned to the Hitmen for 2008-09, as director of business operations, later adding assistant GM to his responsibilities, then being name GM and vice-president of business operations in 2013.

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Teams in the WHL each play 72 regular-season games as they strive to earn home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

Right?

But is home-ice advantage worth anything when the real season starts?

Well, the final figures are in and it seems that there isn’t much of an advantage, if any.

Hartley Miller is the sports director at 94.3 The Goat in Prince George and also provides analysis on broadcasts of the Cougars’ home games.

What follows is from numbers he compiled . . .

In the first round of the WHL playoffs, the home team was 22-22.

That figure was 13-10 in the second round, 6-6 in the third round, and 3-3 in the championship final.

Add it all up and the home team was 44-41 in the 2017 playoffs.

Four series went seven games. In Round 1, the home team was 1-1 in Game 7s and 1-1 in Round 2.

As Miller notes, “In the conference finals, the Regina Pats ended the series in Lethbridge and the Seattle Thunderbirds did the same in Kelowna.” As well, the Thunderbirds ended the championship final in Regina on Sunday night.

“In other words,” Miller notes, “the location of the game seems to mean less and less the bigger the series.”

Miller also took a look at the NHL playoffs, including Monday’s game.

In the opening round, the home team was 19-23. In the second round, it was 15-11.

Including Monday, the home team is 2-2 in the third round.

To this point, then, the home team is 36-36 in the NHL playoffs.

Advantage? Not really.

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F Matt Revel, who played out his junior eligibility this season, has decided to attend UBC and play for the Thunderbirds. A native of Abbotsford, B.C., Revel split his final season between the Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winterhawks, totalling nine goals and 12 assists in 42 games. He missed a chunk of the season after suffering a collarbone injury. While recovering from that, the Blazers placed him on 20-year-old waivers and he was claimed by Portland. In 314 career WHL games, he had 71 goals and 101 assists. He played the first 104 of those regular-season games with the Saskatoon Blades.

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The Tri-City Americans have signed D Tom Cadieux, who was a second-round selection in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft. This season, the Saskatoon native had eight goals and 13 assists in 29 games with the bantam AAA Notre Dame Hounds of Wilcox, Sask. Cadieux, who won’t turn 15 until Sept. 11, also had a goal and an assist in four games with the midget AAA Hounds.

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A lot of snow has gone into the Zamboni since Dave King was the head coach of the WHL’s Billings Bighorns. These days, the man who is one of the godfathers of Canadian hockey coaches is in Paris as an assistant coach with Team Canada at the IIHF World Championship. Lucas Aykroyd sat down with King and what resulted is a two-parter. Part 1 is right here. Enjoy!

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Tyler Kuntz won’t be returning to the Vancouver Giants for a third season as an assistant coach. The Giants revealed Monday that they have “parted ways” with Kuntz. He spent two seasons with them, working with head coaches Lorne Molleken (2015-16) and Jason McKee (2016-17). Before joining the Giants, McKee was the head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds.

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The SPHL’s Knoxville Ice Bears announced on Monday that head coach Mike Craigen’s contract won’t be renewed. Craigen was 206-151-35 in seven regular seasons with the Ice Bears. In the playoffs, he was 16-15. When the Ice Bears won the 2014-15 championship, Craigen became the first person in SPHL history to win championships as a player (2006, 2008) and coach.

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George Burnett, preparing for his first season as the general manager and head coach of the OHL’s Guelph Storm, said Monday that assistant coaches Todd Harvey and Luca Caputi will be back as assistant coaches, with Matt Smith returning as goaltending coach. . . . As well, Phil Golding has been named the Storm’s assistant general manager. He has been with the organization since 2007, working in the business operations department.

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Alex Evin has signed on with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings as their associate coach. Evin, 30, has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the BCHL’s Alberni Valley Bulldogs. Before that, he spent three seasons with Selkirk College of the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League, one as head coach and two as an assistant coach. With the Spruce Kings, Evin will be working alongside head coach Adam Maglio.

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1. So who is the 14-year-old — he’ll turn 15 on June 19 — who already has committed to the U of Minnesota-Duluth? F Joey Anderson, a ninth-round selection by the Brandon Wheat Kings in the 2013 bantam draft, says: “I was ready for this and now I can just go out and play.” . . . Kevin Pates of the Duluth News Tribune has more right here.

2. Team officials from the Medicine Hat Tigers have seen the plans for a new arena for that city and they like what they saw. A design for a new arena is scheduled to be made public on June 11. Collin Gallant of the Medicine Hat News has more right here.

3. That didn’t take long. Less than a week after negotiations fell apart with their radio home for 19 years, 99.3 The Drive, the Prince George Cougars have a five-year deal with 94X Radio. All games will be carried at 94.3 FM and online at 94xfm.com. Dan O’Connor returns for a third season as the play-by-play voice with Hartley Miller, 94X’s sports director, also in the booth. . . . 94X is owned by Vista Radio; 99.3 The Drive is owned by The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. . . . Peter James of the Prince George Citizen has more right here.

4. The Vancouver Giants have signed G Ryan Kubic, who was a second-round selection in the 2013 bantam draft. Kubic, from Winnipeg, played with the bantam AAA Winnipeg Hawks, putting up a 1.31 GAA and .941 save percentage in 24 games.

5. Darrell Romuld of CTV in Lethbridge tweeted Tuesday that “reliable sources tell me that Drake Berehowsky will be the next head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. We’ll find out next Thursday.” . . . Berehowsky just finished his first season as head coach of the ECHL’s Orlando SolarBears. Prior to that, he spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen. He also spent two seasons (2007-09) as an assistant with the OHL’s Barrie Colts. A defenceman, Berehowsky was the 10th overall selection by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL’s 1990 draft and went on to play 549 NHL games with Toronto, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks and Phoenix Coyotes.

6. ESPN broke the story yesterday that Major League Baseball may suspend a whack of players for up to 100 games for using whatever it was they were getting from the Biogenesis clinic in South Florida. Michael Rosenberg of SI.com has a good piece right here on the sample collector who got singed by Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers.

7. An assistant coach who also is the team president? Hey, why not? That’s what’s going on in Surrey where the BCHL’s Eagles have named Peter Schaefer (Brandon, 1994-97) as the team president. Schaefer just completed his first season as an assistant coach with the Eagles. "As an ownership group, we were excited to have Peter as a part of the coaching staff last season," said Eagles majority owner Chuck Westgard in a news release. "He showed an interest in having an increased role, and we're extremely pleased that Peter will be taking over the daily operations of the team.”

8. Of course Chicago Blackhawks D Duncan Keith should be suspended for at least one game for reckless use of his stick. Why is this even open for debate? . . . In fact, give him one game for that and another because the stick made contact with an opponent’s head.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Jason Becker will be back for another go-round as an assistant coach with the Prince George Cougars. Becker, who has been with the Cougars since December 2009, and the Cougars have agreed on a one-year contract extension, taking him through 2013-14. . . . Becker is a former WHL player (Saskatoon, Red Deer, Kamloops, Swift Current, 1990-95), who went on to spent three seasons with the U of Saskatchewan Huskies before playing nine seasons in Europe.

Steve Turcotte of lapresse.ca reports that Bernard Martin will be the next head coach of the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes. . . . He will replace Denis Chalifoux., who left at season’s end despite having two years left on his contract. Chalifoux cited a desire to spend more time with his family. . . . Martin was the head coach of the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres (2006-08).


The ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets have named Gary Graham as their new head coach. Graham spent this season guiding the Pensacola Ice Flyers to the Southern Professional Hockey League title. Before that, he worked as an assistant coach for four seasons under Al Sims, who retired following the end of the season. Graham is a native of Fort Wayne.


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