THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Richard Mueller (Brandon, Saskatoon, Calgary, 1998-2003) signed a one-year contract with Lausitzer Fuchse Weisswasser (Germany, 2. Bundesliga). He had no points in seven games with the Straubing Tigers (Germany, DEL) and seven goals and 11 assists in 41 games with Tingsryd (Sweden, Allsvenskan) last season. . . .
D Keith Seabrook (Calgary, 2007-09) signed a one-year contract with Val Pusteria (Italy, Serie A). He had three goals and 10 assists in 45 games with the San Antonio Rampage (AHL) and two goals and one assist in nine games with the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) last season. . . .
F Kris Hogg (Kamloops, Lethbridge, 2002-07) signed a one-year contract with the Fife Flyers (England, UK Elite). He had 13 goals and 11 assists in 50 games with the Missouri Mavericks (CHL) last season. There is more on the Hogg signing right here.
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Teams throughout the WHL are on tenterhooks as they watch, like the rest of us, as the NHL and NHLPA continue to negotiate a CBA.
But it looks more and more as though that deal won’t be reached by the Sept. 15 deadline, at which time the NHL has said it will lockout its players.
But what happens to WHL teams and their drafted players if there is a lockout?
The Vancouver Giants, for example, have four drafted players — D David Musil, D Brett Kulak (Calgary), F Marek Tvrdon (Detroit) and F Jordan Martinook (Phoenix).
Of that bunch, only Martinook, who is 20, is able to play anywhere other than the NHL or the WHL.
Here’s Giants GM Scott Bonner, talking to Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun: “The scariest scenario for us could be if, let’s say, Jordan Martinook starts the season with us, then the NHL starts up Dec. 1 and some of Phoenix’s players in the American League go back up to the NHL. Then Phoenix has to fill their Springfield roster and we might lose Marty. That would be a tough blow. Here’s your first-line centre . . . see you later. So there is definitely some grey area there.”
Pap’s story is right here.
Or consider the case of the Kamloops Blazers. They have four 20-year-olds on their roster at the moment — D Austin Madaisky, F Jordan DePape, F Brendan Ranford and F Dylan Willick.
Of those four, only Madaisky is tied to an NHL team; in fact, he has signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
So what happens if there is a lockout and Madaisky ends up back with the Blazers? Obviously, they would keep him as he would be one of the WHL’s top defencemen. So let’s say they keep him and trade one of the three forwards.
And, as Bonner suggested in his example, let’s say the lockout ends on Dec. 1 and the Blue Jackets decide to assign Madaisky to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons.
All of a sudden, Kamloops is out its top defenceman and a top-six forward who was traded away to make room for Madaisky.
Scenarios like this are certain to be played out across the WHL over the next few weeks.
It almost makes you wonder why the WHL doesn’t allow teams to carry five 20-year-olds throughout the season.
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It really was no surprise Monday when Brent Sutter, who owns the Red Deer Rebels, announced that he was moving back into the general manager’s office. Hey, when Willie Nelson had his own golf course, par was whatever he wanted it to be. This is Sutter's team so he can be whatever he wants to be.
Seriously, you had to know that if he wasn’t coaching somewhere in the NHL, he would be back with the Rebels.
Jesse Wallin, who had been GM/head coach, will stay on as head coach, with Bryce Thoma as his assistant.
Sutter was the club’s GM/head coach from 1999-2007 before going on to the NHL and coaching stints with the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames. His contract wasn’t renewed by the Flames after last season.
Wallin, one of the game’s bright young coaches, is preparing for his fifth season as head coach.
Here, from a news release, is Sutter’s explanation:
“After an evaluation of our hockey operations department throughout the summer, it became evident to me that we needed a separate general manager and head coach. Jesse Wallin will continue to be our head coach. After going through this portion of the evaluation, there were two options: Bring in someone from outside the organization to be the general manager, or I do it myself. With the familiarity I have with the coaching staff, scouting staff, players, and all other personnel inside hockey operations, I made the decision that I was the right person to take over this position at this point in time.”       
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F Keegan Iverson of the Portland Winterhawks plans on sticking with the WHL team this season at the age of 16. And he also plans on wearing No. 13 to honour his friend Jack Jablonski. Interestingly, according to the Winterhawks’ media guide, no player in franchise history has ever worn No. 13.
Paul Buker of The Oregonian has more right here.
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The Swift Current Broncos have apparently signed F Tanner LeSann, 17, who played the last two seasons with the midget AAA Yorkton Harvest. Last season, he had 42 points and 100 penalty minutes in 40 games. . . . LeSann announced his signing via Twitter (@TLeSann12): “officially signed with the swift current broncos #greatfeeling”
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The community-owned Lethbridge Hurricanes held their annual general meeting on Monday night, with more than 120 people in attendance.
The team announced a loss of $602,284 for 2011-12. The biggest chunk of that came from a lack of ticket sales — they had budgeted for $1.5 million, but, in fact, the number ended up being $984,000. . . . For 2012-13, the Hurricanes’ board is budgeting for a loss of $179,000. . . . For more on the meeting, check out Pat Siedlecki’s blog over there on the right.
I would like to thank Dylan Purcell of the Lethbridge Herald for his tweets from the Hurricanes’ annual meeting. Reading those was better than being there.
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The OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads have hired veteran coach Jason Nobili, 38, as assistant GM and assistant coach. He’ll work with GM/head coach James Boyd. . . . Nobili has been coaching for 16 years.

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Smith answers whispers with hard work

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Colin Smith heard the whispers last season.
Even while enjoying the best of his three seasons with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, even while becoming one of the league’s elite players, he heard them.
“A lot of people were saying I wasn’t quick enough and things like that,” Smith said Monday following the final scrimmage of training camp at Interior Savings Centre. “I wanted to get better, quite simply, so I did a lot of work. I tried to revamp my skating a bit and to get stronger.”

COLIN SMITH

He worked on power skating at Quantum Speed in his hometown of Edmonton. The fact that he also was employed there allowed him to get extra ice time. And he hit the gym at Body by Bennett.
“I feel pretty good,” the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Smith said. “This probably was one of the most useful summers I’ve had.”
Smith, who last season had career highs in goals (35), assists (50) and points (85), looked good in that final scrimmage, scoring once and setting up another as Team Orange dumped Team White, 5-1. It is safe to say that he was the best player on the ice.
“It’s nice to get back,” he said. “You can only train for so long. Eventually you want to get on the ice.”
Smith, 19, got something of a boost when the Colorado Avalanche selected him in the seventh round of the NHL’s 2012 draft in June. However, the way he sees it, he learned more a year earlier when he didn’t get drafted.
“I learned not to get so sucked into it . . . and to focus on what I needed to do,” he explained. “I thought I did that last season and so did everyone. We took some strides forward.”
But, he added, getting drafted “was nice at the time. It was nice to share it with everyone who helped me along the way, and it’s obviously an honour to get picked.”
All of that is in the past, though, as the focus has shifted to the approaching season. Smith was here through two seasons of so-so hockey, which means he really enjoyed being part of last spring’s run to the top of the B.C. Division and into the second round of playoffs.
“The standards have been raised and everyone knows that coming in,” he said. “In the fitness testing, everyone did well. Everyone’s ready. Everyone learned a lot.”
The bar, he said, has been raised, especially after Game 6 of that second-round series with the Portland Winterhawks when the Blazers, down 5-2 in the third period at home, rallied for a 7-6 victory. That allowed the Blazers, who had lost the first three games of the series, to force a Game 7, which they lost, 2-0.
“Playing in that Game 6,” Smith said, “I think it was a turning point. Everyone realizes that’s where we want to be. Players, fans, everybody as an organization . . . that’s where you want to be, playing in those big games.”
JUST NOTES: The Blazers trimmed their roster to 46 after yesterday’s final scrimmage. . . . Two players left that last scrimmage with minor injuries. LW Brendan Ranford was sent to a dentist after chipping a tooth, while D Jordan Thomson needed a handful of stitches to close a cut just below his lower lip. . . . F Dylan Willick (lower body) didn’t scrimmage and won’t play in tonight’s Blue-White game. He hopes to return to practice on Wednesday and to be in the lineup Thursday against the visiting Victoria Royals. . . . D Tyler Hansen and D Austin Madaisky, both veterans, will sit out tonight to allow younger players into the lineup. . . . Game time tonight and Thursday, at ISC, is 7 o’clock. . . .
D Kevin Davis of Kamloops, the 11th overall pick in the WHL’s 2012 bantam draft, is in camp with the Everett Silvertips and will see game action during a weekend tournament in Everett. At 15, he isn’t old enough to make a WHL roster this season. . . . Troy Trombley, 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds, is one of four goaltenders left in Everett’s camp. Trombley, an 18-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., was selected by the Blazers in the third round of the 2009 draft. He later signed with the Blazers and got into one game with them in 2010-11. He was in camp with them a year ago but it didn’t work out. . . .
Former Blazers F Kris Hogg (2002-05), who is from Sicamous, has signed to play with the Fife Flyers of Great Britain’s Elite League. Hogg played last season with the Central league’s Missouri Mavericks, picking up 24 points, including 13 goals, in 50 games. He played the previous four seasons at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Main Training Camp Roster (46)
(x – veteran; y – injured; year of birth in parentheses)
Goal (4) — x-Cole Cheveldave (93), Calgary; Cole Kehler (97), Altona, Man.; Taran Kozun (94), Nipawin, Sask.; Braden Krogfoss (95), Cloverdale.

Defence (16) — x-Tyler Bell (94), Regina; Connor Clouston (96), Medicine Hat; Josh Connolly (95), Prince George; x-Landon Cross (94), Brandon; Mackenzie Ferner (95), Vernon; Jaiden Focht (96), Saskatoon; x-Brady Gaudet (94), Redvers, Sask.; Connor Hamonic (96), Winnipeg; x-Tyler Hansen (93), Magrath, Alta; x-Marek Hrbas (93), Plzen, Czech Republic; Riley Hummitsch (96), Anaheim Hills, Calif.; x-Austin Madaisky (92), Surrey; Cole McCaskill (96), Kamloops; Cameron Reagan (97), Sherwood Park, Alta.; Ryan Rehill (95), Edmonton; Jordan Thomson (96), Wawanesa, Man.

Forwards (26) — x-Brock Balson (93), Kamloops; x-Tim Bozon (94), Lugano, Switzerland; Nick Chyzowski (97), Kamloops; x-Jordan DePape (92), Winnipeg; Rylan Freed (96), Melfort, Sask.; Mitch Friesen (96), Surrey; Charlie Gawlicki (97), Edmonton; Brayden Gelsinger (95), Regina; Jayden Halbgewachs (97), Emerald Park, Sask.; Eric Krienke (96), Calgary; x-J.C. Lipon (93), Regina; Mitchell Lipon (96), Regina; Aaron Macklin (95), High River, Alta.; Tyson McLellan (96), San Jose, Calif.; Kyler Nachtigall (96), Calgary; x-Matt Needham (95), Penticton; y-Devin Oakes (95), Prince Rupert; x-Brendan Ranford (92), Edmonton; Jesse Shynkaruk (96), Saskatoon; x-Colin Smith (93), Edmonton; x-Chase Souto (94), Yorba Linda, Calif.; x-Aspen Sterzer (94), Canal Flats; Evan Tordiff (96), Fort Smith, NWT; x-Rob Trzonkowski (94), Calgary; x-Cole Ully (95), Calgary; xy-Dylan Willick (92), Prince George.

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