THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Carsen Germyn (Kelowna, Red Deer, 1998-2003) signed a two-year contract extension with the Straubing Tigers (Germany, DEL). He had 14 goals and 25 assists in 49 games for the Tigers last season. This contract extension is in addition to the one-year extension Germyn signed in April. He now is under contract with Straubing through the 2014-15 season. . . .
F Jakub Sindel (Brandon, 2004-05) signed a one-year contract with Fassa (Italy, Serie A). Sindel played 46 games with four clubs in three leagues last season. He started with Kloten (Switzerland, NL A) (five games, two assists, one broken jaw), moved to Dinamo Riga (Latvia, KHL) (21 games, one goal), then made his way to Finland, playing 11 games with Kärpät Oulu (SM-Liiga) (three assists) and nine games with Ässät Pori (SM-Liiga) (no points). . . .
D Jakub Cutta (Swift Current, 1998-2000) signed a contract through Nov. 4 with Liberec (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had two goals and five assists in 33 games with Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic, Extraliga) last season. . . .
F Bandon Campos (Everett, Chilliwack, 2006-08) signed a one-year contract with The Hague (Netherlands, Eredivisie). Campos had 14 goals and 34 assists in 60 games with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (CHL) last season. . . .
F Jordan Knackstedt (Red Deer, Moose Jaw, 2004-08) signed a one-year contract with Tingsryd (Sweden, Allsvenskan). He had 18 goals and 35 assists in 42 games with Bolzano (Italy, Serie A) last season, leading the team in scoring and to the Italian championship. . . .
F Jaroslav Kristek (Tri-City, 1998-2000) signed a one-year contract with Neman Grodno (Belarus, Ekstraliga). He had 10 goals and six assists in 39 games with Lev Poprad (Slovakia, KHL) and one goal and one assist in 11 games while on loan to Kosice (Slovakia, Extraliga).
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You wonder if it’s the canary in the WHL’s coal mine.
James Shewaga, the sports editor of the Brandon Sun, has a column in today’s newspaper that looks at the Wheat Kings’ season-ticket numbers to this point.
As he wrote the piece on Thursday, the Wheat Kings had sold 2,284 season tickets. Last season, they had 2,973 season-ticket holders. Do the math and you realize that they are down 689.
Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner and general manager, told Shewaga that “at this point, I’m not concerned.”
McCrimmon also said that if they don’t get to 3,000 season tickets, “I would be very disappointed.”
And he should be disappointed because the Wheat Kings have iced a competitive product for a number of years now, and this season promises to be no different.
Later in the column, a quote from McCrimmon practically jumped off the computer screen.
“The reality in the Western Hockey League,” McCrimmon told Shewaga, “is expenses are growing at a much higher rate than our revenues, and that’s a fact.”
Think about that for a moment.
If you’re in business and your expenses are out-pacing your revenues, you are in a spot of trouble. And if you aren’t able to turn the tide, you soon are out of business.
While there are WHL teams out there that are believed to be making a goodly pile of money, there are others that aren’t.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes have lost more than $1 million over the last two seasons, including $602,000 in 2011-12.
The Swift Current Broncos have lost in the neighbourhood of $800,000 on their hockey operation in each of the last two seasons. For 2010-11, that number was $882,587. However, off-ice fund-raising, along with corporate sponsorship and suites, left the deficit at $197,226.
For 2009-10, the loss suffered by the hockey operation was $820,688. However, again, money from such things as corporate sponsorships, suites and the World Junior Championship cut the overall deficit to $58,927.
How long will those teams be able to continue to work as hard as they do just to survive?
Or will the WHL have to implement some form of revenue sharing just to enable some of its franchises to survive?
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There was some movement on the WHL’s 20-year-old front on Thursday.
The Kelowna Rockets added two 20s to their lineup, acquiring F Dylen McKinlay from the Kootenay Ice and claiming J.T. Burnett off waivers from the Everett Silvertips.
The Rockets gave up a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft for McKinlay.
McKinlay had 39 points, including 15 goals, and 37 penalty minutes in 66 games with the Ice last season. Before that, he played three seasons with Chilliwack Bruins.
Barnett was dealt by the Kamloops Blazers to Everett early last season, but got into only 20 regular-season games with the Silvertips thanks to a knee injury. He had 12 points in those 20 games and later returned in the playoffs.
The Rockets went into the day with one 20-year-old on their roster — D Mitchell Chapman — and finished with three.
When all was said and done, the Ice was left with four 20-year-olds — F Drew Czerwonka, D Joey Leach, F Brock Montgomery and F Elgin Pearce.
Everett’s roster features three 20s — F Cody Fowlie, F Ryan Harrison and D Landon Oslanski, the latter having been claimed off waivers from the Lethbridge Hurricanes last month. Harrison is back skating after being out with mononucleosis. He will miss the first four games of the regular season with a supension left over from last season.
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The Victoria Royals have dealt D Kade Pilton, 18, to the Regina Pats for F Demico Hannoun, 17, and a conditional third-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Pilton had 13 points and 52 penalty minutes in 43 games with the Royals last season. The 6-foot-5, 186-pounder was a second-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . Pilton was selected by the Chilliwack Bruins in the second round of the 2009 bantam draft. Regina head coach Pat Conacher was an assistant coach with the Bruins in 2010-11 so has some familiarity with Pilton. . . . Hannoun played last season with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles, putting up 26 points in 49 games. Regina selected him in the ninth round of the 2010 bantam draft.
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JUST NOTES: The Medicine Hat Tigers have assigned F Rhyse Dieno, 19, to the SJHL’s La Ronge IceWolves. He had 11 points in 50 games with the Tigers last season. . . . F Kohl Baum of the Everett Silvertips, who had off-season shoulder surgery, is expected to see some game action this weekend. . . . D Mathew Dumba of the Red Deer Rebels has a walking boot on one foot after suffering a sprained ankle in practice this week. The Rebels expect him to be ready to start the season next weekend. . . . The Saskatoon Blades will hold out as many as six players from games this weekend. F Ryan Graham (back), F Shane McGolgan (knee), G Alex Moodie (hamstring) and D Dalton Thrower (groin) won’t play, while F Matej Stransky (foot) and F Lukas Sutter (shoulder) also are hurting. . . .
D Christos Zinis, an eighth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft, has signed with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Zinis, from Broomfield, Colo., played last season with the major bantam Colorado Thunderbirds. News of his signing was tweeted by Turning Point Sports Management. . . . It turns out that the Red Deer Rebels surrendered a fifth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft for F Wyatt Johnson, 17, who had been in camp with the Vancouver Giants. . . . F Colton Sissons of the Kelowna Rockets has signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the NHL’s Nashville Predators. Sissons, 19, was a second-round pick by the Predators in the NHL’s 2012 draft. He had 41 points, including 26 goals, in 58 games with the Rockets last season. . . . F Connor Rankin of the Tri-City Americans is expected to sit out this weekend after taking a stick to the mouth last weekend. He lost one tooth and ended up needing caps on three others.
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F Tyler Redenbach, who won the WHL’s 2003-04 scoring title while with the Swift Current Broncos, got his SM-liiga season off to quite a start Thursday as he helped HIFK to a 7-3 victory over Jokerit. Redenbach drew four assists in the victory, with linemate Ville Peltonen scoring three times and adding an assist.
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Ken Dryden has worked in the NHL as a player and a front-office guy. In the latter role, as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dryden was involved in high-level meetings during which he would have watched NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in action. Today’s Globe and Mail contains this piece, written by Dryden, that pretty much sums up the state of the NHL today.


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Jamie Crooks (15) of the Victoria Royals looks to clear the puck from
in front of goaltender Jared Rathjen, with Cole Ully (right) of the Kamloops
Blazers on the prowl. Also in photo, at back, are Victoria's Emerson Hrynyk (4)
and Tim Traber, and Logan McVeigh (12) of the Blazers.(Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

It was one game in a season that is a marathon.
The Kamloops Blazers hope it was one step towards building a new identity.
The Blazers opened their six-game WHL exhibition season with a a 4-2 victory over the Victoria Royals on Friday night in front of about 800 fans at McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre.
The Blazers will travel to Ladner today where they will face the Vancouver Giants tonight, while the Royals, who were playing their first game since relocating from Chilliwack over the summer, will meet the Rockets in Kelowna. Last night, the Rockets beat the Giants 4-3 in overtime.
“We’d like to create an identity . . . work ethic and being on loose pucks,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said. “I don’t want to dwell on the past but we need to be a team that is always on the puck and tenacious.”
The Blazers, of course, missed the playoffs last season, when their identity, if anything, was one of undisciplined play. If last night’s game is to be a point of reference, they are off to a good start.
The Blazers came out hard and used their speed to get in on the forecheck and create problems deep in Victoria’s zone.
“We wanted to be first on the puck and I thought we did that,” Charron said. “Puck possession . . . I thought we did a pretty good job.
“Overall, I was pleased with the effort.”
The Blazers got some help from a Royals team that wasn’t able to stay out of the penalty box. The visitors presented Kamloops with 11 power-play opportunities and the home side, despite not having worked on the PP, cashed in three of them.
“We said, ‘Be on the puck, move it to the points and get shots on net,’ ” Charron stated. “We weren’t going to try any plays.”
Right-winger J.T. Barnett, again looking comfortable on his off wing, snapped a shot past goaltender Jared Rathjen at 9:30 of the first period. Centre Colin Smith made it 2-0 just 1:05 later when he squeezed a shot from the left dot through Rathjen, a 16-year-old list player who signed with the Royals earlier in the day.
Both goals came with the man advantage and the Blazers were full marks for the 2-0 lead.
“I thought our forwards in the first period didn’t finish as many checks as we would have liked,” Charron said. Other than that, it was a good 20 minutes for the home boys.
But just 37 seconds into the second period, Czech veteran Robin Soudek whipped a shorthanded shot from the high slot past Kamloops starter Cam Lanigan.
Kamloops had four power-play opportunities in the second period but couldn’t beat Rathjen or Braden Gamble, who came on at 9:48. Still, the Blazers outshot the Royals 13-7.
Centre Chase Schaber  beat Gamble with a shot just under the cross-bar at 11:29 of the third, for the Blazers’ only even-strength goal.
Victoria got a power-play score of its own two minutes later when defenceman Kade Pilton’s point shot appeared to hit a foot and change direction on Cole Cheveldave, who had taken over from Lanigan.
The Blazers closed out the scoring at 15:43 when winger Chase Souto, on yet another power play, accepted a nifty pass to the back door from defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer and tucked it home.
Charron felt his guys “didn’t check well” in the neutral zone in the third period, but even at that the Blazers held a 13-9 edge in shots. They finished with a 36-29 lead for the game.
One player Charron was particularly pleased with was Swiss forward Tim Bozon, 17, who followed up a strong intrasquad game with a fine performance against the Royals.
Bozon, who picked up one assist, set the tone for Kamloops on his first shift with a big hit on Victoria forward Steven Hodges. About three minutes later, Bozon, on the penalty kill, went down and blocked a shot. A few minutes later, he scored another big hit, this one on forward Lukas Kralik.
“Yes,” Charron said, “I was pleased with Bozon.”
As for the goaltending, it’s too early to put Cheveldave, Lanigan or Taran Kozun in the lead, simply because Kozun has yet to play. He’ll get his first chance tonight in Kelowna, likely splitting time with Cheveldave.
JUST NOTES: Among the Blazers scratches were F Matt Needham (elbow) and F Jordan DePape (hip flexor). Needham has been skating and has medical clearance to resume full contact on Monday. He hopes to play Friday when the Rockets are at Interior Savings Centre. . . . The Royals also signed two 2010 draft picks yesterday — F Reid Halabi of Edmonton and F Taylor Crunk of San Jacinto, Calif. . . . Victoria D Joe Hicketts of Kamloops, who signed Thursday, was in the starting lineup and had more than a handful of vocal fans in attendance. . . . The Red Deer Rebels have released F Tad Kozun, 18, the older brother of Blazers G Taran Kozun. Tad, who had a goal and two assists in the Rebels’ intrasquad game, will play at home for the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks. . . . F Liam Stewart, the son of actress Rachel Hunter and rocker Rod Stewart, is in camp with the Spokane Chiefs.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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