Showing posts with label Luka Burzan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luka Burzan. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Forward returns to Silvertips . . . Update on Patrick . . . Warriors romp in Saskatoon

F Jens Meilleur (Brandon, 2010-14) has been released by the Nuremberg Ice Tigers (Germany, DEL) at his request. He was pointless in four games. This season, he had two assists in seven games while on loan to Bayreuth (Germany, DEL2) and was pointless in one game while on loan to Weiden (Germany, Oberliga).
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Jesse Geleynse of the Everett Herald tweeted Thursday that F Bradly Goethals has returned to the Everett Silvertips.
Goethals, 18, from Ile-des-Chenes, Man., was acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Oct. 11 for a conditional seventh-round selection in the 2018 WHL bantam draft. Goethals joined the Silvertips after the trade, but left shortly afterwards for what was said to be personal reasons.
Last season, he put up 74 points, 41 of them goals, for the midget AAA Eastman Selects. He led the
Manitoba Midget Hockey League in goals and points. He also had three goals in one game with the MJHL’s Selkirk Steelers and a goal and an assist in five games with the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings.
The Silvertips, of course, are the WHL’s top defensive team, but surely could use an injection of offensive talent. All Goethals has to do is buy into head coach Kevin Constantine’s structured defensive game to earn enough playing time to be able to exercise his offensive skills.
The Silvertips had their defensive game on display in Kamloops on Wednesday night and an Everett fan could make the argument that circumstances conspired against the visitors in this one.
A Kamloops fan would say that the Blazers’ goaltender was better than Everett’s in this one — not by much, but enough to win.
The Blazers, who had been terrible in a 7-0 loss to the visiting Prince George Cougars on Saturday night, were much better against Everett, but still needed superb goaltending from Connor Ingram before beating the Silvertips 2-1 in OT.
The Blazers were being outshot 22-7 when Everett scored its only goal, at 12:12 of the second period, and the edge was 27-12 going into the third period.
However, the Silvertips had played at home the night before — they beat the Calgary Hitmen, 6-1 — and got into Kamloops in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. And it started to show in the latter stages of the second period.
The Silvertips got caught running around in their zone for maybe the only time all night at 15:31 when Kamloops F Rudolfs Balcers was able to beat a stickless Carter Hart with a high shot.
The OT lasted 11 seconds and the flagging Silvertips were no match for the Blazers’ speed 3-on-3, with Balcers ending the game as he finished off a give-and-go-go with linemate Deven Sideroff.
By game’s end, the Blazers had closed the gap on the shot clock to 34-23.
Everett’s offence is averaging 3.25 goals per game, 10th-best in the WHL, while it is far and away No. 1 on defence at 1.95, with the Prince George Cougars next at 2.55.
The Silvertips (15-2-4) and Cougars (16-4-2) are tied atop the WHL’s overall standings, with the Regina Pats (15-0-3) just a point off the pace. The high-flying Pats are scoring 5.78 goals per game, almost a goal more than the Medicine Hat Tigers (4.80) and two up on the Tri-City Americans (3.81). If you’re wondering, Regina’s defence is ninth, allowing 3.17 goals per game.
If Goethals can stick around and add even a little bit to Everett’s offence, Constantine and general manager Garry Davidson will be thrilled. If not, well, the trade deadline is less than two months away.
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F Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings, the consensus No. 1 pick in the NHL’s 2017 draft, has told NHL.com that he expects to miss another two to three weeks. Patrick, who underwent sports hernia surgery in July and missed most of training camp, has played only six games this season, putting up four goals and five assists. He last played on Oct. 11. . . . "I'm skating on my own right now," Patrick told Mike Morreale of nhl.com. "I’m just starting getting back on the ice (this week) and doing edge work and skill stuff like that, but nothing too intense yet. Every day it gets a little better, so I'm hopeful. This was out of my control, and it's killing me not to be out there with my teammates." . . . Patrick still hopes to get an invitation to the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp. He likely will be on the list that Hockey Canada says will come out on Nov. 29. The selection camp is scheduled to open Dec. 11 in Blainville, Que. If Patrick isn’t back with Brandon for another three weeks, the time line would seem to be a bit tight. . . . Morreale’s story is right here.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings posted the above tweet on Thursday afternoon. We have determined that No. 6 is D Dean Kennedy, who was the captain of the Wheat Kings at the time. If you have any idea who the other player might be, drop me an email at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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The Spokane Chiefs have signed Chris Moulton to a contract through 2017-18 and named him assistant general manager, hockey operations. Moulton has been with the Chiefs since 2005 when he signed on as director of player personnel. . . . Before joining the Chiefs, he scouted with the Calgary Hitmen. . . . The Chiefs also have signed Todd Daniels, their athletic trainer and conditioning coach, through 2017-18. He has been with them since 2008.
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John Tortorella, the head coach of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, suggested earlier this week that game-day skates are over-rated. . . . Mike Benton, the radio voice of the Everett Silvertips, asked head coach Kevin Constantine for his thoughts. Here’s Constantine’s answer:
“We do everything with trying to add a bit of science and study to make sure our facts are facts and not just an idea. We have found ourselves that we are much better by not skating. All the analytics and studies we’ve done we’re a better team when we don’t skate in the morning and we save the energy for the game at night.”
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Have you ever wondered how much money is to be made by playing hockey in Europe? Well, let us take a look at F Aaron Gagnon, a product of Armstrong, B.C. Gagnon, now 30, played five seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds before going on to a pro career that includes 38 NHL games — 21 with the Dallas Stars and 17 with the Winnipeg Jets. . . . Gagnon went to Europe for 2013-14 and now is into his fourth season with Lukko Rauma in the Finnish Liiga, that country’s top league.
Every October, the Finnish government publishes a list of individuals who earned at least 100,000 euros and their taxable income for the previous year as reported on their tax returns. The list that was published last month is for 2015 and Gagnon shows up as having the fourth-highest taxable income for a paid hockey player during that period.
According to the list, Gagnon earned 252,904 euros. At Thursday’s exchange rates, he made Cdn$363,300 (US$268,058).
That might be something for today’s junior/college players to ponder.
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Coaching
Mark McNaughton has stepped in as the interim general manager and head coach of the junior B Princeton Posse of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. . . . He replaces Geoff Goodman, who was fired on Wednesday. The Posse also fired associate coach Lance Vaillancourt. . . . Goodman was in his second season in Princeton. . . . McNaughton had been the Posse’s director of hockey operations.
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Concussion Report
These days, Bob McKeown is the co-host of the fifth estate, CBC-TV’s investigative show. In another life, he played for the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders. In fact, he played enough football during his athletic career that he writes “I happen to know something about concussions in football because . . . I’ve had a lot of them.” . . . This is scary and interesting stuff, and it’s all right here.
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THURSDAY’S GAME:


At Saskatoon, F Luka Burzan and F Noah Gregor each had two goals and an assist as the Moose Jaw Warriors skated to a 5-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades. . . . Burzan, who has seven goals, gave the
Blades a 2-0 lead with goals at 18:39 of the first period and 1:40 of the second. . . . Burzan drew an assist on Gregor’s eighth goal, at 7:00 of the second, that gave the visitors a 3-0 lead. . . . F Wyatt Sloboshan (3) got the Blades to within two goals at 7:23. . . . Warriors F Jayden Halbgewachs got that one back when he scored No. 13, on a PP, at 11:39. . . . Gregor closed out the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 4:03 of the third period. . . . F Nikita Popugaev had three assists for the Warriors, with D Matt Sozanski earning two. . . . G Zach Sawchenko stopped 32 shots for the Warriors, two more than Saskatoon’s Brock Hamm. . . . The Warriors were 1-2 on the PP; the Blades were 0-4. . . . Moose Jaw (12-4-4) had lost its previous three games. . . . The Blades slid to 9-12-1. . . . F Brayden Burke was pointless in his debut with the Warriors after being acquired last week from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . The Blades will complete a stretch of three games in as many nights by playing in Brandon on Friday and Saturday. . . . Announced attendance: 3,302.
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FRIDAY’S GAMES (all times local):

Saskatoon at Brandon, 7:30 p.m.
Vancouver at Kelowna, 7:05 p.m.
Edmonton vs. Kootenay, at Cranbrook, B.C., 7 p.m.
Prince Albert at Prince George, 7 p.m.
Lethbridge vs. Seattle, at Kent, Wash., 7:35 p.m.
Calgary at Spokane, 7:05 p.m.
Medicine Hat at Red Deer, 7 p.m.
Moose Jaw at Swift Current, 7 p.m.
Kamloops vs. Tri-City, at Kennewick, Wash., 7:05 p.m.




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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 8:33 PM
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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Warriors start with victory . . . Giants d-man wants out . . . UBC looking for head coach



The Moose Jaw Warriors scored a 2-1 victory over the visiting Swift Current Broncos in their annual (almost all) rookie game, a contest that kicks off the WHL’s exhibition season. . . . F Luka Burzan scored the game’s first goal, putting the Warriors out front at 1:34 of the second period. . . . F Ryan Bowen upped the lead to 2-0 at 4:20. . . . D Colby Sissons got the Broncos on the board at 19:32 of the third. . . . G Evan Adamoff went the distance for the Warriors, making 27 saves. . . . Swift Current starter Bailey Brikin stopped 18 of 20 shots, with Joel Hofer finishing up with 10 stops. . . . The game marked the debut of Manny Viveiros, the Broncos’ director of player personnel and head coach.
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Glen Hanlon, the general manager of the Vancouver Giants, has told Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province that D Brennan Menell, 19, has asked to be traded. The Giants, according to Hanlon, will accommodate him. . . . Menell walked out on the Giants on Nov. 4, only to return six days later. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Menell, an offensively gifted defenceman from Woodbury, Minn., put up 53 points, including 46 assists, in 69 games. In 2014-15, as a freshman, he had 21 points, two of them goals, in 57 games. . . . Ewen also reports that F Ty Ronning and F Alec Baer sat out the Giants’ intrasquad game with undisclosed injuries.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed F Reid Perepeluk to a WHL contract. Perepeluk, from Yorkton, Sask., was a sixth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft. The 6-foot-0, 210-pounder played last season with the major midget Cariboo Cougars, who play out of Prince George. He put up six goals and 10 assists in 29 regular-season games. . . . In 2014-15, he had 28 goals and 12 assists in 26 games with the bantam AAA Yorkton Terriers.
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The Regina Pats have signed Swedish D Filip Ahl, who was a fourth-round pick by the Ottawa Senators in the NHL’s 2015 draft. Ahl, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, had 31 points, including 18 goals, in 18 games with HV71 Jonkoping of the Swedish SuperElit League last season. Internationally, he has played for Sweden in U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19 and U-20 competitions.
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F Austin Adamson’s junior A rights were acquired by the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers on Tuesday. In exchange for the 20-year-old, the Vipers sent future considerations to the Chilliwack Chiefs. . . . The 6-foot-0, 200-pounder from Richmond, B.C., was released by the Swift Current Broncos last week. He has 20 points, including eight goals, in 134 WHL regular-season games. He also has played with the Saskatoon Blades and Red Deer Rebels.
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NHLThe NHL’s Arizona Coyotes have signed Jim Hammett as an amateur scout covering the WHL. Hammett is a veteran scout who spent six seasons (2000-06) as the Colorado Avalanche’s director of scouting. He also has scouted for the Nashville Predators, New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. He was the Rangers’ director of amateur scouting (2007-08) and the Lightning’s director of player personnel (2008-09). For the past seven seasons, he has been the director of hockey operations for the Colorado Eagles of the ECHL. He also scouted for the Prince Albert Raiders last season. . . . In 2006-07, he was Hockey Canada’s head scout, helping select the Canadian team that won the 2007 World Junior Championship.
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Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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Coaching
The UBC Thunderbirds parted company with head coach Adam Shell on Tuesday. . . . “After a season behind the bench as head coach of the UBC men’s varsity hockey team, Adam Shell is moving on,” reads a one-paragraph news release on the UBC athletics department website. . . . Assistant coach Sven Butenschon (Brandon Wheat Kings, 1993-96) has been named the interim head coach “as the program begins the process of finding a replacement head coach.” . . . Shell was named head coach on Aug. 11, 2015. He signed on with UBC after spending eight years at the Royal Military College of Canada. . . . The Thunderbirds were 11-13-4 in one season under Shell. UBC then lost a best-of-three first-round playoff series in two games to Mount Royal.
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Laura Schuler is returning as head coach of Canada’s national women’s team. Schuler, who also is the head coach of the women’s team at Dartmouth College, an ECAC team, will go into her second season as Canada’s head coach. Last season, she guided the team into the final of the IIHF World Championship in Kamloops, where it lost in OT to Team USA. . . . Dwayne Gylywoychuk, a former Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman and coach, is returning to Team Canada as an assistant coach. . . . A complete Hockey Canada news release is right here.
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A pair of brothers, both of whom played in the WHL, are taking over as co-head coaches of the junior B Saskatoon Royals of the Prairie Junior Hockey League. . . . Brett and Derek Parker, who are from Melville, Sask., will open camp with the Royals on Sept. 9. . . . Brett, now 31, played three seasons (2002-05) with the Prince George Cougars and five games with the Vancouver Giants in 2005-06. . . . Derek, now 33, played with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Moose Jaw Warriors (1999-03).
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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 10:09 PM
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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Generals or Rockets? Who wins? . . . No news on Matthews . . . Dillon jumps to Oil Kings








F Hampus Gustafsson (Regina, Brandon, 2009-11) signed a one-year contract with Storhamar Hamar (Norway, GET-Ligaen). This season, he was pointless in three games with Pantern Malmö (Sweden, Division 1) and had seven goals and 10 assists in 19 games with Grenoble (France, Ligue Magnus).
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The Oshawa Generals haven’t won the Memorial Cup since 1990. The Kelowna Rockets have been in the tournament five times since 2002, but won it just once, as the host team in 2004. . . . One of them will be crowned major junior hockey’s champion today in what will be the historic final game to be played in the Pepsi Colisee. . . . The way Bill Beacon of The Canadian Press sees it, the Generals go into the game as the slight favourites. His story is right here.


At first glance, this game would seem to match Kelowna’s offence against the defence of the Generals,
who are easily the bigger of the two teams. However, the Generals averaged 38.67 shots on goal in their three games, while the Rockets were at 32.5 in four games. . . . Of course, the Generals went 3-0, with three one-goal victories, to earn a bye to the final. The Rockets are 2-2, including a 9-3 thrashing of the host Quebec Remparts in Friday’s semifinal game. . . . The Rockets scored 20 goals in four games; the Generals counted 11 in three outings. . . . From where I sit, the outcome of this game, from a Kelowna perspective, rests on the Rockets’ ability to play a run-and-gun with lots of pressure on the puck. If they are able to mount that kind of game, they will win, but they might need to score five goals to do it. . . . If Kelowna ends up trying to play a defence-first game, that will be to Oshawa’s benefit and the Generals could win a low-scoring affair. . . . The big question, however, is this: Will the fact that Rockets head coach Dan Lambert is bilingual and a former player with the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques be enough to put the crowd’s support behind his club?
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Here is the Memorial Cup schedule (all games on Sportsnet; all times Eastern):
Friday, May 22: Kelowna 3 vs. Quebec 4 (9,497)
Saturday, May 23: Rimouski 3 vs. Oshawa 4 (8,409)
Sunday, May 24: Quebec 4 vs. Oshawa 5 (OT) (10,970)
Monday, May 25: Rimouski 3 vs. Kelowna 7 (6,981)
Tuesday, May 26: Oshawa 2 vs. Kelowna 1 (7,002)
Wednesday, May 27: Quebec 0 vs. Rimouski 4 (10,277)
Thursday, May 28 (tiebreaker): Quebec 5 vs. Rimouski 2 (6,533)
Friday, May 29 (semifinal): Kelowna 9 vs. Quebec 3 (9,870)
Sunday (championship): Oshawa vs. Kelowna, 7 p.m.
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The camp of USNTDP star F Auston Matthews has yet to reveal where he will play next season. Perhaps Matthews, who already is being projected as the No. 1 selection in the NHL’s 2016 draft, hasn’t yet decided. Or perhaps he and his advisors (wink! wink!) simply are enjoying the speculation. . . . His options were believed to be the NCAA — he has numerous schools interested and at one point was said to have whittled his list to five — or the WHL, where the Everett Silvertips hold his rights. . . . But then came word that Matthews was listening most intently to an offer from Switzerland, perhaps from the Zurich-based ZSC Lions, who are coached by Marc Crawford. . . . And then, just to thicken the stew, Sportsnet’s Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) tweeted earlier in the week: “Almost 100% Auston Matthews is headed to Europe, not WHL or NCAA. News is teams from Sweden, Finland may have joined Zurich in the bidding.” . . . At this point, however, it would seem that if it is to be a team in Finland or Sweden, there hasn’t been much light shed on it over there. I heard from a source who is most familiar with hockey in the Scandinavian countries. “I have looked into all the sites and papers I know of in Sweden and Finland and if there is any mention of it, it is quoting Cox's tweets,” the source told Taking Note. “However, (the Finnish newspaper) Ilta-Sanomat reports that Zurich's offer to Matthews is 450,000 Euros, about US$500,000, for next season.” . . . Aside from the money, the prime advantage to Matthews of playing in Europe is that the NHL team that drafts him would, according to the NHL-NHLPA agreement, be able to send him to its AHL affiliate for the 2016-17 season should it choose to do so. . . . While all of this is going on, a voice deep inside keeps asking me if Avenir Sports and Entertainment might yet surface in all of this. ASE has majority ownership in the Kloten Flyers, who play in Switzerland’s National League A, as do the ZSC Lions. Bill Gallacher, who owns ASE, also owns the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors have signed their first two selections from the 2015 WHL bantam draft. . . . D Jeff Woo was the fourth overall selection and they took Luka Burzan two picks later. . . . Woo played for the bantam AAA Winnipeg Warriors, while Burzan was with the North Shore Winter Club. . . . Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald has more right here.
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G Alec Dillon, who had committed to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and play hockey there, has changed his mind and will sign with the Edmonton Oil Kings. The 19-year-old is expected to be introduced at a Monday news conference. . . . Dillon, from Nanaimo, was a second-team all-star this season with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. The previous season, he was with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. . . . The 6-foot-5, 175-pounder was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the fifth round of the NHL’s 2014 draft. . . . At the moment, Dillon would seem to slot in alongside sophomore Patrick Dea, an 18-year-old from St. Albert, Alta., on Edmonton’s depth chart. Playing behind Tristan Jarry, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Dea got into 21 games this season, going 11-5-1, 2.57, .904. . . . Jarry, 20, is expected to play in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization this season. The Penguins selected him in the second round of the NHL’s 2013 draft. . . . Dillon, who is good friends with Oil Kings D Dysin Mayo, was a fifth-round selection by the Swift Current Broncos in the 2011 bantam draft. On Nov. 28, 2013, they dealt his rights and what will be a fourth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft to Edmonton for D Stephen Shmoorkoff.
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F Jordan Kawaguchi, a fourth-round selection by the Spokane Chiefs in the 2012 bantam draft, has said he will attend Providence College. The 5-foot-8, 165-pound Kawaguchi, from Abbotsford, B.C., played this season with the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs, putting up 56 points, including 28 goals, in 53 games.
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There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.
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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 11:52 PM
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