F Alex Gogolev (Calgary, Victoria, 2011-13) signed a two-year contract with Severstal Cherepovets (Russia, KHL). He had 20 goals and 45 assists in 49 games with the Royals last season. The KHL opened its regular season on Wednesday. . . .
F Peter Mueller (Everett, 2005-07) and D Jim Vandermeer (Red Deer, 1997-2001) each signed a one-year contract with Kloten (Switzerland, NL A). Mueller had eight goals and nine assists in 43 games with the Florida Panthers (NHL) and Vandermeer had five goals and five assists in 34 games with the Chicago Wolves (AHL) last season. . . . The Swiss NL A opens its regular season on Thursday. . . .Yegor Mikhailov (Spokane, 1996-97) signed a two-year plus option contract with Red Ice Martigny (Switzerland, NL B). He had three goals and four assists in 32 games with Spartak Moscow (Russia, KHL) last season. The Swiss NL B opens its regular season on Sept. 13. . . . Mikhailov, the son of former Soviet Union star Boris Mikhailov, was injured when the Spokane Chiefs bus crashed 12 miles east of Cranbrook while returning home from a road trip in January 1997. The Spokane Spokesman-Review article on the crash can be found right here.
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Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has more on the new owners taking over the Saskatoon Blades, including this:
Speculation has swirled that former Prince George Cougars head coach Dean Clark will take over as GM and/or behind the bench after this season.While Mike Priestner wasn’t guaranteeing anyone’s job indefinitely, he said Clark would not be joining the Blades. Clark told The StarPhoenix the same thing in an interview last month.
They have spoken several times since Mike Priestner made an offer to buy the Blades, but the subject has never come up. Clark currently works in Kelowna as a power lineman.
“He’s out of the business. He has a great job. He’s where he wants to be and needs to be,” Mike Priestner said. “I would say there’s a zero per cent chance if we had to make a change that Dean would be coming in.
“We have a coach (Dave Struch) who’s been here for seven years to earn the chance to be a (head) coach.”
That complete story is right here.
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Yes, it’s only the silly season, but the second Kevin Constantine era in Everett has gotten off to something of a rousing start, hasn’t it? . . . The Silvertips, playing at the Tri-City Americans’ tournament in Kennewick, Wash., whipped the Portland Winterhawks 8-2 on Friday to run their exhibition record to 4-0. They have scored 19 goals, while allowing nine. . . . Everett F Josh Winquist, playing on his 20th birthday, had two goals and an assist. . . . The Silvertips were 3-4 in the exhibition season a year ago. They will close out this preseason by going home-and-home with the Seattle Thunderbirds next weekend.———
The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, welcomed back F Branden Troock to their lineup in a 3-2 victory over the Americans in the Tri-City tournament on Friday. Troock has only recently been cleared to play after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery. . . . Seattle also had F Justin Hickman back from a three-game suspension, something that carried over from last season. He also will miss the first three games of the regular season. Hickman scored the winner against Tri-City, the goal coming wiht 49 seconds left in the third period.———
In Prince George, the Cougars ran their record to 3-0 with a 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Edmonton took 68 of the game’s 132 penalty minutes. . . . F Jansen Harkins, 16, drew three assists and now leads the WHL exhibition scoring race with eight points in three games. From North Vancouver, he was the second overall selection in the 2012 bantam draft.———
F Michael Sofillas, 20, has joined the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings after being released earlier in the week by the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Sofillas, from Morden, Man., had nine points in 42 games with Lethbridge last season. He missed all of the 2011-12 season with a brain injury. . . . In 2010-11, he had 17 points in 64 games with the Hurricanes.———
In the QMJHL, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles were unable to entice F Nicolas Roy, the first overall selection in the league’s 2013 draft, into their organization. . . . Now he ha been traded to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens for — are you ready? — three first-round draft picks (Baie-Comeau's in 2014, Chicoutimi’s in 2015 and 2016)/ As well, the Screaming Eagles receive the fifth overall pick and the last pick of the second round in the 2014 draft from the league as compensation for Roy not reporting. . . . Roy, 16, is from Amos, Que. He had 33 points in 27 games with a midget AAA team last season.———
From Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports): “As part of #Blades sale, lease extended at CUC for two more years. Lease was to expire after 2013-14 #WHL season. #spnews”
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From Jerome Berube (@Jerome_Berube: “QMJHL teams have until September 30th to apply to host the 2015 Memorial cup. so far only Quebec has shown interest.”
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From Brad Curle (@BCurle_Hitmen), the radio voice of the Calgary Hitmen: “FYI Calgary Hitmen forward Pavlo Padakin has asked to be called Pavel this season. #namechange #FirstHitmenPavelsinceBrendl”
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F Chad Robinson, 20, had a goal and four assists Sunday as Team Black beat Team White 12-4 in the Brandon Wheat Kings’ annual intrasquad game. . . . The Wheat Kings trimmed their roster to 35 players after the game, with four of those leaving this week for NHL camps. D Ryan Pulock (New York Islanders), D Nick Walters (St. Louis Blues), D Eric Roy (Calgary Flames and F Richard Nejezchleb (Pittsburgh Penguins) all are expected to return to Brandon. . . . The Wheat Kings are down to two goaltenders — veteran Curtis Honey and freshman Jordan Papirny. From Edmonton, the 17-year-old Papirny was the 22nd overall selection in the 2011 bantam draft. 
The Kamloops Blazers got their roster down to 25 players, including two goaltenders and eight defencemen, following a 4-3 OT victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants on Sunday night. . . . The Blazers re-assigned F Quinn Benjafield and F Jake Kryski, both first-round selections in the 2013 bantam draft, and D Travis Verveda, 16, following the game. . . . Kryski (Okanagan Rockets) and Benjafield (Vancouver-Northwest Giants) are expected to play in the B.C. Major Midget League. Verveda will join the midget AAA Red Deer Optimist Chiefs. . . . Kryski and Verveda played on Sunday; Benjafield didn’t. . . . The Blazers’ 25-man roster includes F Tim Bozon, who leaves Wednesday for the Montreal Canadiens’ camp, and F Cole Ully, who will go to rookie camp with the Dallas Stars.
The Prince Albert Raiders are down to two goaltenders, with Nick McBride, 16, having earned the backup position to veteran Cole Cheveldave, 20. . . . McBride beat out a pair of 1996-born goaltenders — Tanner Balk and Rylan Parenteau, the latter having now joined the SJHL’s Kindersley Klippers. McBride, from Maple Ridge, B.C., played last season with the Vancouver-Northeast Chiefs of the B.C. Major Midget League. He was a second-round selection by the Raiders in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . The Raiders also signed D Tomas Andrlik, F Darcy Zahirchuk, D Cody Paivarinta and F Luke Coleman. . . . Andrlik, from Czech Republic, was selected in the CHL’s 2013 import draft. Last season, he played for HC Plzen’s U-18 and U-20 teams. . . . Zaharichuk, 17, from Sherwood Park, Alta., had 30 points in 31 games with the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Midget Hockey League. . . . The 6-foot-5 Paivarinta, who is from Abbotsford, B.C., was a third-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. He played for a bantam AAA team in Abbotsford last season. . . . Coleman was taken in the fifth round of the 2013 bantam draft. He had 41 points in 32 games with the bantam AAA Red Deer Rebels Black last season.
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