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F Bud Holloway (Seattle, 2003-08) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with Skellefteå (Sweden, SHL). He was released by CSKA Moscow (Russia, KHL) on Nov. 18 after recording three goals and six assists in 12 games. . . . Holloway has played three seasons (2011-14) for Skellefteå. He was the SHL’s leading scorer with 71 points, including 51 assists, in 55 games, and won the league’s MVP award in 2012-13.
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The Red Deer Rebels have added F Matt Campese and D Jacob Herauf to their roster.
Campese, who will turn 19 on Dec. 10, was released by the Kamloops Blazers early this season and has been with the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors. He has 17 points, including six goals, in 15 games with
Herauf, 16, has been with the midget AAA Sherwood Park, Alta., Kings. The Rebels selected him with the 16th overall pick of the 2015 bantam draft. He already has played nine games with the Rebels this season, recording one assist.
Why the additions? Perhaps because Red Deer GM/head coach Brent Sutter is looking for more out of his roster.
When Greg Meachem of reddeerrebels.com asked Sutter about his club’s play after a 4-3 OT victory over the visiting Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday, the response was: “Truthfully? I’m not a very happy camper right now. I wasn’t happy at all with the way we played the second period. We took some dumb penalties. We do self-inflicted things that hurt us and we don’t stick to what allows us to be a good team.
“We played well in the first period and did some good things in the third. When we keep the game simple, play straight lines, do things right and have a good transition where we’re getting pucks back up the ice, we play well and we’ve proven it at different times this (season).”
The Rebels’ inconsistent play has been bothering Sutter for some time now. It would seem he is going to try and fix it by bringing in competition for the players on his roster.
The addition of Campese also provides some depth should the Rebels lost F Michael Spacek and/or F Adam Musil to the Czech Republic’s national junior team.
The Rebels (13-11-4) got into the weekend in second place in the Central Division. They are 4-4-2 in their previous 10 games. They also are 13 points behind the Medicine Hat Tigers (21-5-1), but just three ahead of the Lethbridge Hurricanes (12-11-3), who have won five in a row.
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Hockey Canada and the CHL announced on Thursday afternoon that a bid from Vancouver and Victoria to play host to the 2019 World Junior Championship has been selected.
Included in the bid are the cities of Vancouver and Victoria, along with Sport Hosting Vancouver, Sport Host Victoria, Tourism Victoria, the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Giants and Victoria Royals, and BC Hockey.
The Vancouver/Victoria bid won out over others from Calgary/Edmonton, Saskatoon/Winnipeg and London/Windsor.
The tournament last was played in B.C. in 2006 when there were games in Kamloops, Kelowna and Vancouver. Attendance totalled 325,138 for that event. The 2019 tournament will be played in Vancouver and Victoria. Whichever pool includes Canada will play out of Rogers Place in Vancouver; the other pool will play in the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria.
The Vancouver/Victoria organizing committee will be co-chaired by Ron Toigo, the managing director of Shato Holdings and the majority owner of the Giants, and Barry Petrachenko, the CEO of BC Hockey.
The 2017 tournament opens on Boxing Day and will be played in Toronto and Montreal. Those cities also played host in 2015, while last year’s tournament was held in Helsinki, Finland. The 2018 tournament is to be played in Buffalo.
The awarding of the 2019 tournament to Vancouver/Victoria means that the tournament will have been played in North America four times in a five-year stretch.
This also will signal to smaller markets — once and for all — that they need not waste their time or money getting involved in the bidding process. It’s all about the guarantee and having a guarantor in place to cover losses if that guarantee isn’t met.
The decision to award the 2019 event to Vancouver/Victoria is “another rejection for London and Windsor — and all smaller junior hockey markets who still hold increasingly diminishing hopes they’ll ever get to stage a world junior hockey championship,” writes Morris Dalla Costa of the London Free Press. . . .That piece is right here.
The 2021 WJC also is to be played in Canada, and you can bet everything you own that it will go to Calgary and Edmonton.
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The Kelowna Rockets will have two of their players in the 2017 World Junior Championship. F Calvin Thukauf is to join Team Switzerland in Oshawa as it prepares for the tournament that opens Boxing Day in Toronto and Montreal. F Tomas Soustal will join Czech Republic in Montreal. Both players are scheduled to leave Kelowna on Dec. 12. . . . Team Russia released its preliminary roster on Thursday and it included one WHLer — D Sergey Zborovskiy of the Regina Pats. He is one of 12 defencemen on the preliminary roster. The Russians will hold a pre-tournament camp in Kingston, Ont. Zborovskiy is to leave Regina on Dec. 18.
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12 hours after this goalie's 14th shutout, it's 15 minutes of new friends and recess.— Everett Silvertips (@WHLsilvertips) December 1, 2016
📍 Seattle Hill Elementary pic.twitter.com/esh6qDgU5W
G Carter Hart of the Everett Silvertips has posted three straight shutouts, meaning he is one shy of the WHL record that has been held by Chris Worthy of the Flin Flon Bombers for almost 50 years. Worthy put up four in a row from Dec. 29, 1967, through Jan. 13, 1968. . . . Hart has gone 187 minutes 1 second without allowing a goal. Worthy holds that record, too, at 265:13. . . . Hart’s next test comes tonight, assuming that he is Everett’s starter, when the Silvertips play host to the Medicine Hat Tigers. This game matches the WHL’s highest-scoring team, the Tigers, against the stingiest, the Silvertips. . . . The Tigers (21-5-1) have won 10 in a row and lead the overall standings by one point over the Silvertips (19-3-4), who have won four straight.
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As you no doubt are aware, the NHL will have a new franchise in play next season — the Vegas Golden Knights. Their front office is full of men with ties to the WHL, including Kelly McCrimmon, Bob Lowes, Vaughn Karpan, Erin Ginnell, Bruno Campese, Murray Craven and Jim McKenzie. . . . If you are interested in what goes into putting an NHL expansion team together and getting it on the ice, get a copy of Tom Lynn’s book How to Bake an NHL Franchise from Scratch: The First Era of the Minnesota Wild. . . . It’s an entertaining and informative look at one of the NHL’s most-recent expansion franchises. . . . Lynn was an executive with the Wild; he now is an agent with Veritas Hockey.
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If you’ve got a comment, some information you would like to pass along, or if you just want to say hello, feel free to contact me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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JUST NOTES:
D Cam Reagan, 19, who was released by the Prince Albert Raiders on Monday has signed to play with his hometown AJHL team, the Sherwood Park Crusaders. . . . He had two assists in 18 games with the Raiders. In 117 regular-season WHL games, 99 of those with the Kamloops Blazers, he put up 10 assists. . . .
The AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders have acquired the rights to F Jesse Zaharichuk, 19, from the Drumheller Dragons for future considerations. Zaharichuk, who is from Sherwood Park, had 17 points, including eight goals, in 17 games with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He was assigned to Drumheller early in November, but he hadn’t yet played there. . . .
The AJHL’s Brooks Bandits have signed D Kord Pankewicz, 20, who was placed on waivers by the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes earlier this week. He had a goal and eight assists in 24 games with Lethbridge this season. Pankewicz is from Drayton Valley, Alta. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks have dropped F Ty Kolle, 16, from their roster and he is returning to the Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League. Kolle had three assists in 13 games with Portland. From Kamloops, he was a fourth-round pick by Portland in the 2015 WHL bantam draft.
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Our @ianaterry may have captured the most Everett Silvertips photo of all time last night: pic.twitter.com/bVJNGhrbrQ— Jesse Geleynse (@JesseGeleynse) December 1, 2016
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THURSDAY’S GAMES:
No Games Scheduled.
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FRIDAY’S GAMES (all times local):
Saskatoon at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Medicine Hat at Everett, 7:35 p.m.
Red Deer at Lethbridge, 7 p.m. (TBG)
Moose Jaw at Prince Albert, 7 p.m.
Victoria at Prince George, 7 p.m.
Kootenay vs. Seattle, at Kent, Wash., 7:35 p.m.
Kelowna at Spokane, 7:05 p.m.
Calgary at Swift Current, 7 p.m. (TBG)
Portland vs. Tri-City, at Kennewick, Wash., 7:05 p.m.
Brandon vs. Vancouver, at Langley, B.C., 7:30 p.m.
TBG: Teddy Bear Game.
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