WHL trade deadline over for another year

The WHL trade deadline arrived on Saturday at noon MT. That’s 11 a.m. Pacific and 1 p.m. Central.
—-

THE NUMBERS:

(Since Dec. 10)
Trades: 38.
Players: 60.
Draft picks: 44.
Conditional draft picks: 8.
—-
Thankfully, the WHL trade deadline has gone by. It slithered past like a snake making its way through the grass in your backyard.
Maybe it’s the impact of social media, but it seems that this thing just gets sleazier and sleazier every year.
This time around, the WHL’s 22 teams were responsible for 60 players being traded since Dec. 10. If each team carries 23 players, there are 506 players in the WHL at any given time.
Granted, not every player traded over the last while was on a WHL roster at the time. But if every one of those players was on a roster, that would mean that 11.9 per cent of those players were moved since Dec. 10.
Yes, there are always going to be trades in the WHL, which is more business and entertainment than anything else. But if the WHL really, really, really cares about the relationship between its players and their education, as it says it does, isn’t it time to move the trade deadline a couple of weeks and have it fall during the Christmas break?
That would allow traded players to get relocated over the break and prepare to enter new schools when they start up again after the New Year holiday.
—
According to Paul Kingsmith of Global TV in Lethbridge, the Hurricanes have made 11 moves since Christmas. As he tweeted, “5 players, 4 picks come in. 8 players, 2 picks head out.”
Pat Siedlecki, the former radio voice of the Hurricanes, then tweeted: “How busy have the Canes been trading? Since start of 2013-14 season: 30 separate trades, involving 47 players and 30 draft picks.”
It’s worth pointing out that between the start of the 2013-14 season and the passing of this trade deadline, the Hurricanes won 22 games.
---
Les Lazaruk, the veteran radio voice of the Saskatoon Blades, pointed out that since the start of the 2013-14 season, and according to the WHL website, the Blades have made 31 trades involving 48 players and 44 draft picks. Lazaruk adds that “only five players remain from last season.” . . . The Blades have won 25 games since the start of the 2013-14 season.
—-
In an interesting exercise, Josh Schroeder at jdschroeder.ca has calculated the total distance travelled by WHL players who have been traded since the end of the Christmas trade moratorium. Give it a look right here.
—-
When one player is traded, the impact is felt in a lot of places and nowhere does it home harder than with his family. In a letter to the Regina Leader-Post, Jeff Hunt, the father of F Dryden Hunt, relates how things went after his son was traded by the Regina Pats to the Medicine Hat Tigers. That letter is right here.
—-

SATURDAY’S TRADES:

The Victoria Royals acquired D Bryton Sayers, 18, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a 2016 fifth-round bantam draft pick. . . . Sayers, from Prince Albert, has two goals and eight assists in 38 games with Lethbridge this season. He was a third-round pick by Lethbridge in the 2011 bantam draft. In 84 career games, he has 21 points, including six goals. . . . In 2012-13, while playing for the Prince Albert Mintos, he was honoured as the Saskatchewan Midget AAA League’s top defenceman. That season, he led all SMAAHL defencemen with 53 points in 44 games.
---
The Swift Current Broncos picked up F Miles Warkentine, 18, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft. . . . A native of Prince Albert, he also has played with the Moose Jaw Warriors, who selected him 16th overall in the 2011 bantam draft. . . . In 19 games this season, he has two goals and an assist. . . . In 125 career games, he has 19 points, including six goals.
---
The Spokane Chiefs acquired F Kolten Olynek, 18, from the Moose Jaw Warriors for a 2015 sixth-round bantam draft pick. . . . Olynek, from Saskatoon, had 10 points, including three goals, in 43 games with the Warriors. . . . He was a second-round pick by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2011 bantam draft. . . . In 104 career games, he has 24 points, eight of them goals. . . . The Warriors had acquired Olynek from Lethbridge for F Miles Warkentine in May. Warkentine was dealt by Lethbridge to Swift Current on Saturday, at about the same time that the Warriors were moving Olynek to Spokane. . . .
Having added Olynek, the Chiefs then dropped F Mitch Lipon from their roster. He is expected to join the SJHL’s Melville Millionaires. . . . Lipon, an 18-year-old Regina native, had two goals in 13 games with the Chiefs. In 71 career games, he has 15 points, eight of them goals. . . . He also has played with the Kamloops Blazers and Saskatoon Blades, and is a younger brother of former Blazers F JC Lipon.
---
The Lethbridge Hurricanes, wanting more size in their lineup, acquired D Scott Allan, 18, from the Seattle Thunderbirds for a fifth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Allan is from Thornton, Colo. . . . He was pointless in 34 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers last season. . . . This season, in Seattle, he had a goal and two assists in 25 games. . . . The Thunderbirds got him from Medicine Hat on Oct. 13, giving up a fifth-round pick in the 2016 draft in the process.
---
The Tri-City Americans acquired D Carter Cochrane, 18, from the Everett Silvertips for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . Cochrane, from Kamloops, has one assist in 31 games with Everett this season. . . . He played last season with the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs and was a second-team all-star and on the all-rookie team.
---
The Vancouver Giants acquired F Parker Smyth, 16, from the Saskatoon Blades for a sixth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . The Blades had selected Smyth, a native of Red Deer, with the 44th pick in the 2013 bantam draft. . . . Smyth, the son of former WHL/NHL F Kevin Smyth and nephew of former WHL/NHL F Ryan Smyth, has 12 points, six of them goals, in 22 games with the midget AAA Red Deer Optimist Chiefs. . . . Last season, Parker played on a line with Vancouver F Tyler Benson at the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy in Kelowna.
—-
The Portland Winterhawks have acquired F Mitch Walter, 18, from the Edmonton Oil Kings for a fourth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. Walter, from South Delta, B.C., was a second-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. . . . Last season, he had two assists in 29 games with the Memorial Cup-champion Oil Kings. This season, he has two goals and three assists in 38 games. . . . The Winterhawks were in need of some help up front after F Tyson Predinchuk and F Ethan Price both left the team. . . . Brian Swane of the Edmonton Sun pointed out that Walter is only the second player Oil Kings GM Randy Hansch has traded since taking over as GM in the summer of 2013. The other was D Stephen Shmoorkoff, 20, who was dealt to the Swift Current Broncos. He now is with the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders.
—-

TRADE DEADLINE DEALS:

(All draft picks in bantam draft)
Dec. 10 . . .
To Kelowna: D Josh Morrissey (95), F Gage Quinney (95).
To Prince Albert: D Jesse Lees (95), F Austin Glover (96), 2016 second-round pick, 2017 third-round pick.
---
Dec. 12 . . .
To Red Deer: D Nelson Nogier (96), F Austin Adamson (96).
To Saskatoon: F Mason McCarty (97), 2015 second-round pick, 2016 first-round pick.
---
Dec. 16 . . .
To Calgary: G Thatcher Demko, 19, who is at Boston College.
To Spokane: Conditional draft picks. Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show tweeted that he had it as a second-rounder in 2015 and a second- or third-rounder in 2016.
---
Dec. 27 . . .
To Swift Current: D Griffin Foulk, 19.
To Lethbridge: Conditional eighth-round pick in 2016.
---
Dec. 27 . . .
To Red Deer: D Colton Bobyk, 18, and a 2016 fourth-round pick.
To Spokane: D Nick Charif, 19, a second-round 2015 pick and a conditional sixth-round 2016 selection.
---
Jan. 2 . . .
To Brandon: F Morgan Klimchuk, 19.
To Regina: F Jesse Gabrielle, 17.
---
Jan. 5 . . .
To Medicine Hat: D Kyle Burroughs, 19, and F Dryden Hunt, 19.
To Regina: D Connor Hobbs, 17, and two draft picks -- second-rounder in 2016 and third-rounder in 2015.
---
Jan. 5 . . .
To Saskatoon: D Kolton Dixon, 19.
To Red Deer: G Trevor Martin, 18.
---
Jan. 5 . . .
To Red Deer: F Connor Gay, 19, and three bantam draft picks -- a first-rounder in 2016, a second in 2015 and a seventh in 2017.
To Regina: F Jake Leschyshyn, 15, and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
---
Jan. 5 . . .
To Brandon: D Reid Gow, 20.
To Spokane: A fifth-round pick, Spokane’s option for 2015 or 2016.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Kelowna: F Leon Draisaitl, 19.
To Prince Albert: F Tomas Schmidli, 18, D Dalton Yorke, 18, and three bantam draft picks -- a first-rounder in 2015, a fourth-rounder in 2016 and a conditional fourth-rounder in 2016 or 2017.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Prince George: D Tomas Andrlik, 19.
To Prince Albert: A 12th-round pick in 2015.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Moose Jaw: D Connor Clouston, 18.
To Kamloops: A fifth-round pick in 2017.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Calgary: G Brendan Burke, 19.
To Portland: G Evan Johnson, 18, and a fourth-round pick in 2016.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Lethbridge: D Brady Reagan, 17.
To Regina: F Taylor Cooper, 19.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Victoria: F Alex Forsberg, 19, a third-round pick in 2015 and a fourth-round pick in 2016.
To Saskatoon: F Brayden Dunn, 16, and a first-round pick in 2017.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Portland: D Adam Henry, 20.
To Saskatoon: A second-round pick 2017.
---
Jan. 6 . . .
To Moose Jaw: F Axel Blomqvist, 19, a third-round pick in 2015 and a fifth-round pick in 2017.
To Victoria: D Alexey Sleptsov, 18, G Justin Paulic, 19, and a sixth-round pick in 2015.
—-
Jan. 7 . . .
To Tri-City: F Tyler Sandhu, 18.
To Red Deer: Fourth-round picks in 2015 and 2016.
---
Jan. 7 . . .
To Kamloops: D Marc McNulty, 19, and a 2016 sixth-round draft pick.
To Prince George: D Josh Connolly, 19, and a 2015 sixth-round draft pick.
---
Jan. 7 . . .
To Saskatoon: D Brycen Martin, 18, and a conditional 2017 fifth-round draft pick.
To Swift Current: D Jordan Thomson, 18, and a 2016 first-round draft pick (originally belonged to Red Deer).
—-
Jan. 8 . . .
To Kootenay: D Lenny Hackman, 19.
To Lethbridge: A 12th-round pick in the 2015 draft.
—-
Jan. 8 . . .
To Saskatoon: F Mitch Skapski, 18, and 2015 fifth-round draft pick.
To Victoria: A 2016 fifth-round draft pick.
—-
Jan. 8 . . .
To Lethbridge: G Jayden Sittler, 18.
To Victoria: A 2016 seventh-round draft pick.
—-
Jan. 8 . . .
To Seattle: F Cory Millette, 19.
To Prince Albert: A sixth-round pick in the 2015 or 2016 bantam draft.
—-
Jan. 9 . . .
To Kelowna: F Chance Braid, 20.
To Prince George: F Brogan O’Brien, 17.
---
Jan. 9 . . .
To Edmonton: D Marshall Donald, 19.
To Calgary: A 2015 fourth-round draft pick.
—-
Jan. 9 . . .
To Kamloops: F Joel Hamilton, 20.
To Vancouver: A 2017 sixth-round draft pick.
—-
Jan. 9 . . .
To Lethbridge: F Mike Winther, 20.
To Kamloops: A 2017 eighth-round draft pick.
—-
Jan. 9 . . .
To Vancouver: F Zane Jones, 20.
To Lethbridge: F Johnny Wesley, 17.
—-
Jan. 10 . . .
To Victoria: D Bryton Sayers, 18.
To Lethbridge: A 2016 fifth-round bantam draft pick.
---
Jan. 10 . . .
To Swift Current: F Miles Warkentine, 18.
To Lethbridge: A conditional seventh-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft.
---
Jan. 10 . . .
To Spokane: D Kolten Olynek, 18.
To Moose Jaw: A 2015 sixth-round bantam draft pick.
---
Jan. 10 . . .
To Lethbridge: D Scott Allan, 18.
To Seattle: A fifth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft.
---
Jan. 10 . . .
To Vancouver: F Parker Smyth, 16.
To Saskatoon: A  sixth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft.
---
Jan. 10 . . .
To Tri-City: D Carter Cochrane, 18.
To Everett: A conditional seventh-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft.
—-
Jan. 10 . . .
To Portland: F Mitch Walter, 18.
To Edmonton: A fourth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft.

THE END!

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.

Oil Kings crowned kings of the WHL

F Gilbert Brulé (Vancouver, 2002-06) has signed a one-year contract with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (Russia, KHL). This season, with the Phoenix Coyotes (NHL), he was pointless in three games. In 11 games with the Portland Pirates (AHL), he had 12 points, including 12 goals. . . .

F Roman Horák (Chilliwack, 2009-11) has signed a one-year contract with Vityaz Podolsk (Russia, KHL). This season with the Calgary Flames/Edmonton Oilers, Horák had one goal in three games. With the Abbotsford Heat/Oklahoma City Barons (AHL), he had 55 points, 23 of them goals, in 66 games.
---
G Justin Myles’ stint with the Kamloops Blazers is over, and he never did get into a game.
In January, the Blazers sent G Taran Kozun to the Seattle Thunderbirds in exchange for Myles, D Austin Douglas and a fourth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft.
However, Myles, who is from Calgary, was injured and never did play for the Blazers.
On Monday, the Blazers dealt Myles, 19, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft.
Kamloops also has received a 2016 fourth-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft from Seattle as compensation for Myles.
The Blazers are expected to open next season with Bolton Pouliot, 20, as their starter. Cole Kehler, 17, is No. 2 on the depth chart, after getting into 11 games this season. Connor Ingram, 17, of the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos, who won the Telus Cup, and Dylan Ferguson, 16, of the midget AAA Notre Dame Argos also are in the picture.
Myles joins Teagan Sacher, who turns 20 on Dec. 1, Jarrod Schamerhorn, 19, Jonny Hogue, 18, and Stuart Skinner, who will be 16 on Nov. 1, as goaltenders on the Lethbridge roster who have seen action in the WHL.
---
The Moose Jaw Warriors have acquired F Kolten Olynek, 18, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for F Miles Warkentine, 18.
Olynek, from Saskatoon, had 12 points, including four goals, in 57 games with the Hurricanes this season. He was a second-round pick, 26th overall, in the 2011 bantam draft.
After an injury-filled freshman season, Warkentine, from Prince Albert, had 12 points, three of them goals, in 65 games with the Warriors this season. Moose Jaw selected him 16th overall in the 2011 bantam draft.
---


1. Travis Green, the head coach of the AHL’s Utica Comets, was in the house in Portland on Tuesday night as the Winterhawks lost 4-2 to the Edmonton Oil Kings in Game 7 of the WHL final. Green spent most of last season as the Winterhawks’ head coach, with GM/head coach Mike Johnston suspended. Stu Walters of Shaw-TV reported that Green watched Game 6 of the WHL final in Anaheim, while communicating with Portland assistant GM Matt Bardsley. With the Oil Kings leading 5-2, Green apparently told Bardsley that if the Winterhawks came back and won, he would be in Portland for Game 7. They did and he was.


2. The Memorial Cup field will be rounded out tonight when Game 7 of the QMJHL final is played in Baie-Comeau between the Drakkar and the Val-d’Or Foreurs.

3. The Memorial Cup is to be played in London, Ont., and will open Friday with the host Knights meeting the QMJHL champion. The Edmonton Oil Kings, who won the WHL title last night in Portland, open Saturday against the OHL-champion Guelph Storm. . . . The Oil Kings then meet London on Saturday.

4. Late night tweet from the Guelph Storm (@Storm_City): “Hey @EdmOilKings, we found some ice time in London on Saturday. Are you in?”

5. Response from the Edmonton Oil Kings (@EdmOilKings): “It's a date!”

6. G Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers drew a $5,000 fine for squirting Sir Sidney Crosby with water during a playoff game on Sunday night. . . . Earlier in these playoffs, F Milan Lucic was fined $5,000 for spearing Detroit Red Wings D Danny DeKeyser in the jewels. . . . Boston F Shawn Thornton was fined $2,820.52 for squirting water in the face of Montreal Canadiens D P.K. Subban. . . . All of these are the maximum allowed under the CBA, which makes one wonder if that part was negotiated near the end of an all-nighter.

7. Remember when the NHL said it was going to crack down on obstruction and that penalties would be called in the playoffs just like they are in the regular season? Did you believe the NHL at the time? If so, do you now feel shame?

8. If you were wondering, Brett Iverson will be the WHL referee to work Memorial Cup games in London.
---
THE COACHING GAME:
Jason Williamson, the general manager and head coach of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, got a new two-year contract last week. Williamson, 33, who is coaching the host team for the RBC Cup this week, was in the final year of a three-year contract. . . . Associate coach Kris Mallette also will return to the Vipers next season, as will assistant coach Dave Robinson.
---
Bob Prier has resigned after three seasons as head coach of the Princeton U Tigers, who were 6-26-0 this season. Prier, who resigned Monday, had a 25-58-12 record at Princeton.
---
The junior B Grand Forks Border Bruins of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League have signed Brad Snyder as their general manager and head coach. Snyder, from Flin Flon, Man., replaces Kevin Flather, who had been hired Nov. 7 to replace Nick Deschenes, who left early in the season to join the staff of the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters.
---

THE FOURTH ROUND (best-of-seven):
WHL final, for the Ed Chynoweth Cup
PORTLAND (2, West) vs. Edmonton (1, East)(Edmonton wins, 4-3)
Season series: Portland, 0-0-1; Edmonton, 1-0-0.
Saturday: Edmonton 2 at Portland 5 (10,947)
Sunday: Edmonton 1 at Portland 3 (10,645)
Tuesday: Portland 2 at Edmonton 3 (6,799)
Wednesday: Portland 0 at Edmonton 2 (7,859)
Friday: Edmonton 3 at Portland 2 (10,947)
Sunday: Portland 6 at Edmonton 5 (OT) (11,902)
Monday: Edmonton 4 at Portland 2 (10,095)
---

MONDAY’S GAME:
In Portland, the Edmonton Oil Kings erased a 1-0 deficit with four goals in the second period and went on to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup with a 4-2 victory over the defending-champion Winterhawks. . . . The Oil Kings, who won four of the last five games in the series, took the best-of-seven series 4-3. . . . The Memorial Cup opens Friday in London, Ont., with the host Knights playing the QMJHL champion, which will be decided tonight. . . . The Oil Kings open Saturday against the OHL-champion Guelph Storm. . . . In 10 previous WHL championship Game 7s, the home team was 10-0. . . . This was the third time in as many years that the same teams met in the WHL final. Edmonton won two years ago; the Winterhawks won last season. In the three finals, each team won 10 times. . . . Portland F Oliver Bjorkstrand opened the scoring at 4:42 of the first period, going coast-to-coast and beating G Tristan Jarry off the right wing, high to the long side, moments after G Brendan Burke had come up big on Edmonton F Mitch Moroz. . . . The Oil Kings came close to tying it a short time later while on the game’s first PP, but F Curtis Lazar was ruled to have kicked the puck into the net with his left foot. . . . Edmonton tied it when F Mitch Moroz waltzed from the right wing across the slot and beat Burke at 3:50 of the second. . . . With the Winterhawks on the PP but looking the more tired of the two teams, Lazar scored shorthanded at 9:02 for a 2-1 lead. . . . Just 40 seconds later, F Reid Petryk drove to the net and got the puck through Burke for a 3-1 lead. . . . Edmonton finished off the period with F Mads Eller scoring on a 3-on-1 break at 17:17. . . . Portland didn’t score again until F Brendan Leipsic beat Jarry on a PP at 16:38 of the third period. . . . Portland was 1-for-5 on the PP; Edmonton was 0-for-2. . . . Jarry finished with 32 saves, three more than Burke. . . . Edmonton D Griffin Reinhart was selected as the MVP of the playoffs. Reinhart was injured last season and didn’t play in the championship series. . . . Bjorkstrand and Leipsic tied for the playoff scoring lead, each with 33 points. Bjorkstrand led the playoffs in goals (16) and Portland D Derrick Pouliot was tops in assists (27).
---

From Edmonton Journal sports columnist John MacKinnon (@rjmackinnon), after the post-game trophy presentations: “#WHL pres. Ron Robison gets the boos in Portland. Fans don't forgive or forget, apparently. Yikes.”

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.

Let the party begin!

It was mostly a quiet Sunday, unless you happened to be in Regina.

Early Sunday evening, Cst. Black of the Regina Police Service (@cstblack) tweeted: "#yqrtraffic Albert St closed southbound at 12th Ave & northbound at 13th Ave for #greenmile celebration. @reginapolice."

Yes, Grey Cup week in Regina got off to an early start.

---

SUNDAY:

In Calgary, the Hitmen scored the game's last two goals and beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 3-2. . . . F Jake Virtanen, who sat out the previous game with an undisclosed injury, broke a 2-2 tie at 16:39 of the second. . . . Virtanen, who also had an assist, has 10 goals this season. . . . Calgary F Pavel Padakin tied the game at 15:45 of the second, via the PP. . . . F Miles Warkentine had two assists for the Warriors (7-16-4), who have lost five in a row and are six points out of the Eastern Conference's last playoff spot. . . . The Hitmen (12-6-4) have won two straight and are tied with the Prince Albert Raiders (13-8-2) for fourth in the Eastern Conference.


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.

Whether you care to admit it, fighting in major junior hockey is on its last legs.
Sooner, rather than later, junior hockey operators are going to realize that the evidence showing the destructiveness that can be caused by blows to the head continues to mount, and that they are going to have to act to get pugilism out of the game.
It has been noted many times that boxers aren’t allowed to punch each other in the groins, but punches to the head are acceptable.
In hockey, the powers-that-be are working to get checks to the head out of the game but, at the same time, if you are playing major junior or above in North America, you are allowed to punch an opponent in the head during a fight.
It just doesn’t make sense.
Perhaps Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports summed it up best on Monday when he wrote: “. . . one wonders how much longer fighting can exist in the Canadian Hockey League when the medical evidence and wider public awareness of a disease such as CTE each continue to mount. There is a chicken-and-egg element to it, wondering if it would take the NHL to act first before its longest-standing feeder system takes decisive action. But saying the NHL permits fighting is not enough of a reason to justify having it in the CHL.”
It is one thing for the NHL to allow fighting. After all, the combatants in that league are, for the most part, adults who are presumed capable of making their own informed decisions.
But it’s an entirely different story in the CHL where oftentimes there are physically immature and physically mature players on the ice at the same time, and where players often fight purely because of peer pressure.
At some point in time, someone is going to have to make a decision to protect these young people from themselves.
———
One also hopes that major junior owners and operators are paying attention to developments south of the 49th parallel where three lawsuits have been filed by former players against the National Football League, all of them dealing with concussions.
The most recent filing occurred Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court with 18 former players involved. According to an Associated Press report, “The suit claims the NFL, Riddell Sports Group and its parent company, Easton-Bell Sports, knew the long-term effects of brain injury from trauma suffered by the players and purposefully hid it from them.”
The AP story adds that “more than 75 current and former NFL players filed a similar suit in Los Angeles in July and another group did so earlier this month in Philadelphia.”
———
Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reports on goaltending, imports and 20-year-olds as they concern the Vancouver Giants. How close did the Giants come to landing G Eric Comrie and/or G Drew Owsley? Check it out right here.
———
As well, if you haven’t seen Ewen’s latest blog entry at Crush the Tumour with Humour, it’s right here.
———
The Moose Jaw Warriors have signed three of their 2011 bantam draft picks. F Brayden Point, the 12th overall selection, Miles Warkentine, who was taken 14th overall, and Josh Uhrich, the 33rd pick, signed WHL contracts on Monday. All three are expected to play tonight as the Warriors’ rookie take on the host Swift Current Broncos’ rookies. . . . Point put up 102 points for the Calgary Bisons to lead the Alberta Bantam Hockey League scoring race last season. Warkentine played for the bantam AA Prince Albert Pirates, picking up 70 points in 21 games. Uhrich, who had 48 points in 23 games with the bantam AA Notre Dame Hounds, expects to play this season with the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks are in camp without forwards Ryan Johansen and Nino Niederreiter, who are waiting for the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders, respectively, to open camps. All told, the Winterhawks will have 15 players off last season’s roster going to NHL training camps. Also headed that way will be D Taylor Aronson (Nashville), F Sven Bartschi (Calgary), F Riley Boychuk (Boychuk), G Mac Carruth (Chicago), G Oliver Gabriel (Columbus), D Joe Morrow (Pittsburgh), F Taylor Peters (Minnesota), D Brett Ponich (St. Louis), F Ty Rattie (St. Louis), F Brad Ross (Toronto), D Troy Rutkowski (Colorado), D Tyler Wotherspoon (Calgary) and D William Wrenn (San Jose). . . . You have to think some young Portland prospects are going to get a good look this exhibition season. . . .
The Calgary Hitmen opened camp with 81 players on hand. However, two goaltenders — Chris Driedger (ankle) and Michael Snider (wisdom teeth) — will watch for a few days and may not get on the ice until after the long weekend. . . . The Hitmen do have both their 2011 import draft picks on hand — Russian F Alex Gogolev and Swedish F Victor Rask. Rask was a second-round selection of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and could be an impact player in the WHL. However, because he was drafted out of Europe, he could sign with the Hurricanes and play in the NHL or elsewhere in their organization.
———
A couple of items that showed up Monday provide a bit of insight into the business of major junior hockey.
Drew Wilson, the radio voice of the Prince Albert Raiders, wrote on his blog about how the team’s board of directors “has determined they will need 2,100 season-ticket subscribers in the next few years to remain a financially viable franchise.”
Wilson pointed out that this “is not being laid out as a scare tactic.”
Bruce Vance, the Raiders’ business manager, told Wilson that the goal of 2,100 season tickets “isn’t just a goal; it’s a must.”
Wilson reported that the Raiders’ budget for this season is “a little more than $2 million.”
According to Wilson, the Raiders, who have lost $300,000 over the last four seasons, have sold about 1,450 season tickets, an increase of 200 over last season.
Wilson’s complete blog entry is right here.
Meanwhile, in the OHL, the Kitchener Rangers showed a profit of $341,871 for 2010-11 — the 16th straight year in which the team has made money.
Josh Brown of the Kitchener Record reported that the subscriber-rn Rangers’ profit was up from the profit of $324,152 from the previous season.
According to Brown, revenues were $5.38 million; in 2009-10, revenues were $4.9 million.
Brown’s complete story is right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter