The worst baseball card ever?

F Rob Trzonkowski, whose 2012-13 season ended with an early January knee injury three games after Vancouver acquired him from the Kamloops Blazers, is in camp with the Giants. Vancouver GM Scott Bonner told Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province that Trzonkowski, 19, “came in unbelievable shape and he looks like a guy who is quite focussed on not just making the team but also being a contributor." Trzonkowski has 21 points in 155 regular-season games. . . .
Among the players released by the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday was F Brayden Cuthbert, 19, who missed all of the 2011-12 season with post-concussion syndrome after being injured while with the Moose Jaw Warriors the previous season. Last season, Cuthbert, a Brandon native, had 37 points in 51 games with the MJHL’s Neepawa Natives. . . .
The junior A rights to G Andy Desautels, 19, have been traded by the SJHL’s Flin Flon Bombers to the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors for future considerations. Desautels, from White City, Sask., got into 13 games with the Prince Albert Raiders last season. When the Raiders acquired G Cole Cheveldave, 20, from the Kamloops Blazers earlier this season, Desautels is believed to have asked Prince Albert to trade him. . . . He was 2-7-1, 4.01, .873 with the Raiders last season. . . . Brian Wiebe at briansbanter.com was the first to report this deal. . . .
A source in Portland indicates that Winterhawks F Taylor Leier is back on the ice and appears “to be healthy and 100 per cent.” You’ll recall that Leier’s Memorial Cup tournament ended when he took an elbow to the head and then had his head bounce twice on the ice when he went down. Although there wasn’t a penalty on the play, Saskatoon Blades D Dalton Thrower later was suspended for the remainder of the tournament — it turned out to be one game.
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The worst baseball card ever produced? Think hard. And then read this right here by Josh Levin of slate.com. Tough to argue with what he writes, that’s for sure.
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Janet Maslin of The New York Times writes that Elmore Leonard’s “prime never ended.” She is correct. Leonard, who died on Tuesday, was one of a kind. Maslin’s piece is right here.
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From Steve Ewen (@SteveEwen) of the Vancouver Province: “#WHL D Tyler Nanne has left Giants training camp and returned to Minnesota. Word is Lou Nanne's grandson wants to finish Grade 12 at home.”
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From Tyler Nanne (@Tyler23Nanne): “I've decided to stay my senior year of high school, can't wait to put the hornet jersey on for one more season! #hornets”

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Doug Lynch (Red Deer, Spokane, 1998-2003) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) after his release by Frölunda Gothenburg (Sweden, Elitserien). He had two goals and two assists in 33 games with Frölunda this season. Lynch has spent the past three seasons and four of the last five with Red Bull.
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The WHL trade deadline is due to arrive on Thursday.
There has been talk that the OHL may move its deadline until sometime next week.
The WHL, it seems, isn’t about to change anything. Asked on Sunday night if the WHL would move its trade deadline, an official with one WHL team quickly responded: “No.”
Some WHL teams, however, are going to lose players, perhaps for the remainder of this season.
Once NHL camps open next weekend, D Morgan Rielly of the Moose Jaw Warriors will report to the Toronto Maple Leafs, reports Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star right here.
As for other WHLers, D Griffin Reinhart of the Edmonton Oil Kings will check in with the New York Islanders, while D Mathew Dumba of the Red Deer Rebels could go to camp with the Minnesota Wild.
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SUNDAY’S GAMES:
In Calgary, F Brady Brassart scored twice to lead the Hitmen to a 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Giants. . . . Brassart’s second goal, his 13th of the season, broke a 4-4 tie on the PP at 10:39 of the third period. . . . Calgary has won three in a row. . . . D Brett Kulak had a goal and two assists for the Giants. . . . Calgary G Mack Shields stopped 22 shots. . . . Vancouver G Payton Lee, in his first start since playing for Team Pacific at the U17 World Hockey Challenge, stopped 29 shots. . . . Having added G Jared Rathjen, 18, in a trade with the Victoria Royals last week, the Giants have assigned G Tyler Fuhr, 17, to an unspecified AJHL team. He went 4-8-0, 4.74, .830 with the Giants. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reported after the game that Giants D Wes Vannieuwenhuizen, their captain, suffered a hand injury while blocking a shot in a 5-0 loss in Edmonton on Saturday and will be out for at least four weeks. . . . Ewen also reported that F Rob Trzonkowski suffered a knee injury in the loss in Calgary and will be out indefinitely. Trzonkowski, 18, was acquired from Kamloops on Wednesday night in a deal that had F Kale Kessy, 20, move to the Blazers. . . .

In Regina, D Colton Jobke broke a 1-1 tie at 3:47 of the third period and the Regina Pats went on to beat the Brandon Wheat Kings, 3-1. . . . The goal was Jobke’s second of the season. . . . Regina F Morgan Klimchuk iced it with an empty-netter at 19:08, his 21st goal of the season. . . . The Pats have won five in a row, while Brandon has lost four straight. . . . Brandon F Mike Ferland, 20, sat out his third straight game with an undisclosed injury. . . . This was the first time these teams have played each other since opening weekend. . . .

In Cranbrook, F Erik Benoit scored twice to lead the Kootenay Ice to a 3-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . The Ice has won five straight games. . . . Benoit broke a 1-1 tie at 10:44 of the third period and then upped the lead to 3-1 at 14:14. . . . Red Deer G Bolton Pouliot stopped 45 shots, 24 more than the Ice’s Mackenzie Skapski. . . . D Joey Leach had two assists for the Ice. . . .


In Lethbridge, F Reid Duke scored his first two goals this season to help the Hurricanes to a 4-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Duke, a 16-year-old from Calgary, had two goals in 12 games last season. He has two in 30 games this time around. . . . Duke was playing in his first game since returning from a stint with Team Pacific at the U17 World Hockey Challenge. . . . F Jaimen Yakubowski also scored twice for Lethbridge, giving him 23 goals in 44 games this season. He had 16 goals in 68 games last season. . . . Lethbridge G Christopher Tai stopped 40 shots as he improved to 3-1-0. . . . Moose Jaw F Jordan Messier, 20, played in his 300th regular-season game. It was his 30th game with the Warriors, after playing 270 with the Tri-City Americans.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT:
None
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From former WHL D Kevin Kraus (@KevinMKraus): “Thanks to whatever nice individual who cleared the foot of snow off my vehicle while we were on the road #nicepeople”
Kraus is the GM/head coach of the junior B Revelstoke Grizzlies of the Kootenay International Junior League.

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Here is the photographic evidence: It was a game in Regina in the mid-1980s
when Theo Fleury of the Moose Jaw Warriors tucked his stick between his legs
and scored on goaltender Stacey Nickel, who tried to stop him with a pad stack.

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D James Bettauer (Chilliwack, Prince Albert, Medicine Hat, 2008-09, 2010-12) signed a one-year contract extension with the Hamburg Freezers (Germany, DEL). He has three goals and five assists in 31 games with the Freezers this season. Bettauer now is under contract through the end of the 2013-2014 season.
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Bob Tory, the general manager of the Tri-City Americans, has advised me that F Marcus Messier, who returned to the lineup this week after a nine-game absence, wasn’t out with a concussion.
Messier was injured on Nov. 30 during the second period of a game against the host Kamloops Blazers when he was checked by F Aspen Sterzer. There wasn’t a penalty on the play.
Messier was shown as being out with an upper-body injury. I was wrong in assuming it was a concussion.
Apologies to all involved.
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If you haven’t seen it yet, the documentary Head Games should be on your ‘must-see’ list.
It is 95 minutes in length and is a great look from all angles at the problem of concussions in sports.
Here’s the blurb from imdb.com: “A documentary that follows football player and wrestler Chris Nowinski's quest to uncover the truth about the consequences of sports related head injuries.”
Nowinski is a graduate of Harvard who played football while in university. He later worked as a professional wrestler.
His athletic career was ended by post-concussion syndrome. He went on to write the book Head Games and now is co-director of the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University.
One segment of the documentary deals with Owen Thomas, a 21-year-old linebacker at the U of Pennsylvania, who committed suicide. His brain was found to contain CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in its early stages.
As Nowinski puts it: “Twenty-one-year-olds shouldn’t have this from playing a game.”
Find this documentary and watch it. You owe it to yourself, to your children, to your players . . .
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The Kamloops Blazers scored a 4-2 victory over the Giants in Vancouver on Wednesday night.
Immediately following the game, the Giants dealt F Kale Kessy, 20, to the Blazers for F Rob Trzonkowski, 18, and a fifth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft.
Kessy was pointless and minus-2 without any penalty minutes in his final game with Vancouver.
The Giants had acquired Kessy from the Medicine Hat Tigers for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft.
At the time, it was reported that the pick would be paid to the Tigers if Kessy was on the Giants’ roster on Jan. 10. However, Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province tweeted early this morning: “Conditional status of Giants trade with MH for Kessy was for suspension or AHL call-up. They still owe pick, even with Blazer trade.”
At the time Kessy was dealt to Vancouver, he was serving a 12-game suspension that was levied for a headshot he delivered to D Ryan Pilon of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. That was the seventh suspension of Kessy’s WHL career.
A fourth-round selection by the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2011 NHL draft, Kessy has 18 points and 62 penalty minutes in 29 games this season. He had two goals in two games with the Tigers and seven goals and nine assists in 27 games with the Giants.
In 222 career regular-season games, the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder has 87 points, including 34 goals, and 467 penalty minutes.
The Blazers began the season with three 20-year-old forwards — Jordan DePape, Brendan Ranford and Dylan Willick. They lost DePape to shoulder problems in November and tried to fill the void by acquiring F Charles Inglis from the Red Deer Rebels.
That didn’t work out and Inglis was released following a game in Edmonton on Dec. 12. He now is with the AJHL’s Whitecourt Wolverines.
DePape has had shoulder surgery and said Tuesday that he should be ready to play again in mid-March. Because he’s 20, he would have to be on the Blazers’ roster on Jan. 10, the WHL trade and roster deadline, if he was to play for Kamloops again this season.
The Blazers obviously weren’t prepared to wait. They are believed to have placed DePape on 48-hour waivers. Should he clear, he will become a free agent. He also has expressed interest in returning to junior A, perhaps with a team primed for a run at the 2013 RBC Cup, which is to be played in Summerside, P.E.I.
The Blazers’ roster is at 23, including eight defencemen and 13 forwards.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Trzonkowski, who was acquired by Kamloops from the Calgary Hitmen during the summer, has five points and 45 penalty minutes in 41 games. The Blazers gave up a 2014 fourth-round bantam draft pick in that exchange.
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The NBA suspended Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat for one game without pay recently. I read somewhere that the suspension would cost Wade $154,764.
So I got to wondering: How much a one-game suspension would cost a 20-year-old WHL player?
Well, I understand a 20-year-old WHLer gets $600 per month, before taxes. So if we set the WHL regular-season on a six-month scale, that’s $3,600, again before taxes.
A team plays 72 games in a regular season, so a one-game suspension without pay would cost a 20-year-old WHL player $50, which would be $154,714 less than what it cost Wade.
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The AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats fired Ryan Parent, their director of hockey operations and head coach, on Wednesday. . . . Garry VanHereweghe, the director of player personnel, has taken over as general manager, with assistant coach Kyle Tapp now the interim head coach. . . . The Bobcats are 11-23-6 and in last place in the eight-team North Division. . . . Parent was in his first season.
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Another former NFL player has filed a concussion-related lawsuit against the NFL. Otis Taylor, now 70, was a two-time All-Pro receiver with the Kansas City Chiefs. According to the lawsuit obtained by NFLConcussionLitigation.com, Taylor requires “constant medical care and supervision. . . . He is currently bedridden, cannot verbally communicate, is unable to walk, and relies on a feeding tube for all his sustenance.”
There is more right here.
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WEDNESDAY’S GAMES:
In Prince Albert, F Hunter Shinkaruk had two goals and an assist to lead the Medicine Hat Tigers to a 5-2 victory over the Raiders. . . . Shinkaruk has 22 goals. . . . The game was played a day after the teams swapped five skaters and a couple of draft picks. F Logan McVeigh was pointless and plus-1 for the Tigers, while D Zach Hodder was pointless and minus-1. Raiders F Jayden Hart scored a goal and was minus-1, while D Dylan Busenius had an assist and was plus-1. . . . The Tigers held a 36-15 edge in shots. . . . F Curtis Valk scored his 22nd goal for the Tigers. . . .

In Cranbrook, F Luke Philp scored twice as the Kootenay Ice got past the Red Deer Rebels, 4-1. . . . Philp has 11 goals. . . . He gave the Ice a 2-0 lead at 11:48 of the first and a 3-1 edge at 14:13 of the third on a PP. . . . F Rhyse Dieno scored his 10th of the season for the Rebels. . . . Ice G Mackenzie Skapski made 29 saves. . . . Ice F Jeff Hubic scored his first WHL goal into an empty net at 19:47 of the third. Hubic, an 18-year-old from Regina, was playing in his 93rd regular-season game. . . . The Rebels have lost three in a row. . . .

In Calgary, F Brooks Macek scored three times and set up another and D Alex Roach had four assists to lead the Hitmen to a 10-2 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . That was Macek’s second career hat trick. . . . His first three-goal game came on Jan. 25 in a 7-2 victory over visiting Brandon. . . . The Hitmen were 5-for-9 on the PP. . . . Calgary F Chase Lang, a 16-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C., had two goals and an assist for his first WHL points. They came in his 21st game. . . . Calgary F Austin Calladine, a 17-year-old from Saskatoon, also got his first goal. It came in his 22nd game. . . . With F Mike Ferland out with an undisclosed injury, F Nick Buonassisi get back in after twice being scratched. They are two of Brandon’s four 20-year-olds, one of whom will have to be moved. . . . F Braylon Shmyr, a first-round selection, 12th overall, in the 2012 bantam draft, made his WHL debut with the Wheat Kings and scored his first goal. Shmyr, who turned 16 on New Year’s Day, is playing with the midget AAA Calgary Buffaloes. . . . According to the Brandon Sun: “It was the first time the Wheat Kings have surrendered double-digits in a game since a 10-1 loss to the Hitmen in a playoff game on April 8, 2005.” . . .

In Kelowna, F Jordon Cooke stopped 30 shots as the Rockets beat the Victoria Royals, 4-2. . . . Kelowna has won 15 in a row on home ice. . . . F Alex Gogolev and F Logan Nelson, the Royals’ top two scorers, didn’t make the trip to Kelowna. Both are out with undisclosed injuries. . . . Kelowna was 3-for-6 on the PP; the Royals were 0-for-9. . . . The Rockets remain two points behind the Kamloops Blazers, who lead the B.C. Division. . . . Victoria F Ben Walker, who scored his 13th goal to conclude the game’s scoring at 5:29, was taken off the ice on a stretcher following a neutral zone collision. Walker was taken to hospital and later released. . . . From Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier: “One minute after closing out the scoring at 5:29 of the third period, Victoria’s Ben Walker got caught up in a massive collision at the Royals’ blue-line. Victoria’s Tyler Stahl lined up, then exploded into Kelowna’s Tyrell Goulbourne, who was carrying the puck. Walker was closely trailing Goulbourne and got caught in the hit. Walker fell to the ice and play was immediately stopped. Emergency personnel attended to Walker, slowly moving him onto a spine board, and then a stretcher before taking him to hospital” for precautionary measures.” . . .

In Vancouver, F Tim Bozon broke a 2-2 tie at 11:17 of the third period and the Kamloops Blazers beat the Giants, 4-2. . . . The Giants held a 2-1 lead before Kamloops F Dylan Willick scored a shorthanded goal with 51.7 seconds left in the second period. . . . Willick, 20, returned from a 21-game absence. He suffered a broken ankle on Nov. 2. He also was named teamp captain while he was injured, meaning last night was the first time this season that the Blazers had a player wearing the ‘C’ and in the lineup. . . . Bozon also had two assists. . . . Kamloops F Colin Smith, the WHL scoring leader, had two assists. He leads the league in assists (41) and points (68). . . . The Giants were without F Taylor Vickerman, who drew a five-game suspension for a kneeing major in a game against the visiting Prince George Cougars on Dec. 30. . . . Prince George D Joe Carvalho was injured on that play. Carvalho is out indefinitely and will be re-evaluated once the swelling in the knee goes down.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT:
None
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An interesting exchange between Portland F Chase De Leo (@Dels) and Winterhawks D Seth Jones (@seth_jones04), who is with the U.S. team at the World Junior Championship:

De Leo: “What's a good TV series to start on Netflix? #Ideas #Help”
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Jones: “@Dels9 it's a really good one.. US vs. CAN”
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De Leo: “@seth_jones04 Fine ill just watch it to see your face. #MissYou”

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The WHL’s trade deadline arrives on Jan. 10. Here is a look at trades since the end of the WHL’s Christmas trade moratorium:

Jan. 1: Medicine Hat trades D Dylan Busenius, 19, F Jayden Hart, 18, and a 2014 sixth-round pick to Prince Albert for F Logan McVeigh, 18, D Zach Hodder, 19, F Connor Hobbs, 15, and a 2013 second-round pick.
Jan. 2: Vancouver trades F Kale Kessy, 20, to Kamloops for F Rob Trzonkowski, 18, and a 2015 fifth-round pick.

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Blazers, Rockets notes

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers will play their 21st home-opener in Riverside Coliseum/Sport Mart Place/Interior Savings Centre tonight.
The Blazers are 13-5-0 with two ties in the first 20 of those, none of which was against the Kelowna Rockets, who supply the opposition tonight.
The teams will do it again Saturday night, this time in the Little Apple. And, despite the Kamloops-Kelowna rivalry, the Blazers have never been the other team for a Rockets’ home-opener.
Here are a few more tidbits related to opening weekend . . .
 Last season, the Blazers opened their season by dropping a 1-0 decision to the visiting Prince George Cougars. . . . The Blazers finished 5-1-2 against the Rockets last season,including 3-1-0 at home. . . . The Rockets won the last two games in the season series. . . . Kamloops next plays at home on Oct. 5 against the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Next weekend, the Blazers will play a Friday night-Sunday afternoon double-dip in Victoria. . . .
A few Blazers will be sporting different numbers tonight than what they wore during the exhibition season. D Marek Hrbas has switched from No. 3 to 13. F Aaron Macklin dropped 13 and put on 32. F Rob Trzonkowski has gone from 32 to 37. He is believed to be the first player in franchise history to wear No. 37. . . . At the start of the preseason, F Chase Souto switched from 39 to 12. . . .
As expected, the Blazers will start sophomore Cole Cheveldave in goal. . . . The Blazers are expected to scratch D Ryan Rehill and D Jordan Thomson, along with F Mitch Friesen and F Brayden Gelsinger. All four are freshmen. . . . Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said that based on what he saw in practice this week, Macklin “has earned the right to play the opener.” Macklin will line up on the left wing with C Aspen Sterzer and Trzonkowski. . . . G Taran Kozun, who will back up Cheveldave, Macklin and D Josh Connolly will be the only freshmen in the Kamloops’ lineup. . . .
The Rockets are expected to open with Jordon Cooke in goal. He’s a 19-year-old from Leduc, Alta., who backed up Adam Brown last season. Brown has used up his major junior eligibility. . . . Last week, the Rockets claimed former Blazers F J.T. Barnett, 20, off waivers from the Everett Silvertips. Barnett has played one game with the Rockets, scoring three times in an 8-1 victory over the visiting Tri-City Americans on Saturday. . . . Kelowna also acquired F Dylen McKinlay, 20, from the Kootenay Ice for a bantam draft pick. . . . The Rockets’ other 20-year-old is D Mitchell Chapman. . . .
Game time tonight is 7 o’clock.

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It is hard to take hockey seriously on a day when the NHL’s Florida Panthers laid off their mascot, Stanley C. Panther.
It is hard to take hockey seriously on a day when one player, having just showered after a morning workout, was denied a towel by those same Panthers.
It is hard to take hockey seriously when, in some NHL cities, players are paying to rent ice from the very people who have locked them out.
But, hey, here we are just three days before the kids in the WHL start to play for real.
And optimism reigns supreme.
The Kamloops Blazers, fresh off their first B.C. Division pennant since 2002 and their first playoff series victory since the spring of 1999, open at home Friday to the always-despised Kelowna Rockets. Game time at Interior Savings Centre will be 7 p.m. Actually, the hoisting of the pennant will start sometime around then; the dropping of the puck will be delayed by the good times.
And once this season gets rolling it could be that the only thing capable of stopping the Blazers from soaring with the eagles for a second straight winter will be — wait for it! — the Kamloops Blazers.
Assuming everyone stays healthy, this edition of the Blazers isn’t going to have any trouble scoring goals. As a group, the top six forwards may be the best in all of the WHL.
Tim Bozon, Colin Smith and J.C. Lipon provide the Blazers with perhaps the league’s top forward line.
Going into the season, head coach Guy Charron has been playing his three 20-year-olds — Brendan Ranford, Dylan Willick and Jordan DePape — on the same line. Only time will tell how long that lasts but, at least in the short term, that threesome also will provide opposing teams with some nightmares.
When you add to the mix the likes of Aspen Sterzer, who will be one of the WHL’s speediest skaters, Cole Ully, whose play is so solid, the much-improved Chase Souto, the always-improving Matt Needham and Rob Trzonkowski, who brings some much-needed size, this is an imposing group of forwards.
At the same time, the back end is a bit of a work in progress in that associate coach Dave Hunchak is working to figure out how he will spread around Austin Madaisky’s minutes.
A 35-minute man, Madaisky won’t be available until sometime in October, if at all. Under contract to the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, he will join the AHL’s Springfield, Mass., Falcons next week. He could still end up back with the Blazers, but it’s a mug’s game to count on that before it happens.
The Blazers will hope, then, that Brady Gaudet, already in his third season, is able to shake off what was a disappointing sophomore season and turn into the puck-mover he can be. Freshman Josh Connolly also is going to get a chance to fill that role and to play on the power play, but has yet to learn how to pick his spots, when to jump into the offensive zone and when to stay at home.
A year ago, the Blazers had much bigger problems than any of these, though, because they didn’t know who would be their starting goaltender. Cole Cheveldave more than solved that problem and he’s back for more.
So . . . what might keep the Blazers from returning to the top of the heap?
Well . . . they need to learn to do a better job of starting and finishing, to get ahead of an opponent and to put a foot on the throat and keep it there.
“When we play the way we can,” Charron said after a 7-4 exhibition victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants, “we’re probably going to have success because we have some guys who can put the puck in the net as we showed tonight.
“Whenever they took momentum, we had the ability to come back and score goals and that’s the strength of our team.”
A few nights later, the Blazers had to overcome a 3-0 deficit en route to a 4-3 shootout victory over the Prince George Cougars.
“I thought there were times when we were too lackadaisical,” Charron said, “and we didn’t really match their effort. And consequently they dominated part of that game.”
The Blazers finished the exhibition season at 5-0, but twice had to erase three-goal deficits, something that didn’t sit well with the coaching staff.
You should know that Charron understands full well that he and Hunchak hold the hammer.
“The message tonight,” Charron said after the victory over the Cougars, “was that if you want the ice time that you think you deserve, you are going to have to earn it. If you do that, you will. If not, we have the ability to put other people on the ice.”

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca)

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Former WHLer David Rutherford with the Kelly Cup that he
and his Florida Everblades teammates won on Wednesday night.

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Filip Novak (Regina, 1999-2002) signed a one-year contract extension with Dynamo Moscow (Russia, KHL). He had two goals and nine assists in 39 games for the KHL champions this season. . . .
D Tomas Slovak (Kelowna, 2001-03) signed a one-year contract with Plzen (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had one goal and one assist in 31 games for Dinamo Minsk (Belarus, KHL) and was pointless in one game on assignment to Gomel (Belarus, Open League) this season. . . .
F Milan Kytnar (Kelowna, Saskatoon, Vancouver, 2007-10) signed a three-year contract with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, KHL). He had one goal and two assists in 13 games with the Oklahoma City Barons (AHL), seven goals and five assists in 17 games with the Stockton Thunder (ECHL), was pointless in one game with the Edmonton Oilers (NHL), and had no goals and three assists in 16 games with HPK Hämeenlinna (Finland, SM-Liiga). . . .
F Robin Soudek (Edmonton, Chilliwack/Victoria, 2009-12) signed a one-year plus option contract with Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had 27 goals and 30 assists in 65 games with Victoria this season.
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ROB TRZONKOWSKI

On a day when the NFL’s Denver Broncos acquired FB Chris Gronkowski from the Indianapolis Colts, it was only fitting that the Calgary Hitmen should trade away F Rob Trzonkowski.
Trzonkowski, an 18-year-old from Calgary, was sent to the Kamloops Blazers for a fourth-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Trzonkowski has 16 points and 200 penalty minutes in 111 regular-season games. He was an eighth-round selection in the 2009 bantam draft.
As for Gronkowski, he was acquired for CB Cassius Vaughn. Gronkowski is one of three brothers in the NFL at the moment. Trzonkowski is the only member of his family in the WHL.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Bliss Littler is the new director of hockey operations and head coach of the NAHL’s Wenatchee Wild. Littler is a veteran coach who has 577 career victories at the junior A Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels in the U.S. He has been coaching for more than 19 years. Most recently, he has been the GM and head coach of the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. In Wenatchee, Littler replaces John Becanic, who resigned last month. . . .
The owners of the NAHL’s Johnstown Tomahawks have signed Jason Spence as the team’s head coach. He is an assistant coach with the ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors. . . . Spence

played and worked for the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs from 2005-10. . . . The owners, according to a news release, named the “new team the Johnstown Tomahawks and unveiled a new team logo and name design that honors the storied history of the Johnstown Chiefs and its home arena made famous in the classic hockey film Slapshot.” . . . The Tomahawks will play out of the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown. . . . From the news release: “The team logo and name's color scheme of red, white and blue was created as a tribute to the American war veterans honored and commemorated throughout the War Memorial Arena for their sacrifices and service to our country. The "Tomahawks" nickname was chosen to symbolize the new team's fighting spirit, exciting style of play and good sportsmanship the team and its fans expect from their young players.” . . . Sportsmanship? That means this team won’t include a  future Denis Lemieux. . . . “You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.” . . . Presumably there will be any bounties placed on the opposing Tim McCrackens of the world, either. . . . Hmmm! Wonder how many games the Hanson brothers will attend. . . .
Luke Richardson has been named head coach of the Binghamton Senators, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. Richardson, a former NHL defenceman, has been an assistant coach with Ottawa for the last three seasons. With Binghamton, he replaces Kurt Kleinendorst, who announced May 8 that he was leaving the organization with expiration of his two-year contract next month. Under Kleinendorst, the B-Sens won the AHL’s 2011 championship. . . .
The BCHL’s Vernon Vipers have signed Jason Read and David Robinson as assistant coaches to work alongside GM/head coach Jason Williamson. . . . Read worked this season with the midget AAA Calgary Royals. . . . Robinson is a former WHL player (Chilliwack, 2007-10) who returned to Vernon to play for the Vipers in 2010-11. He was the team captain as it reached the RBC Cup final. Robinson played this season at the U of Calgary with the Dinos. . . .
The AHL’s Hershey Bears announced Wednesday that head coach Mark French and assistant coach Troy Mann will return for another season. The Bears are affiliated with the NHL’s Washington Capitals. . . .
The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have signed head coach Spencer Carberry, 30, to a two-year extension. . . . Carberry is from Victoria and just completed his first season as head coach, after spending a season as assistant coach. He took over from Cail MacLean, who moved to the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat as an assistant coach.
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The price of rent goes up . . . the price of tickets go up. Such is life in Brandon.
The Wheat Kings and the Keystone Centre announced the signing of a five-year lease agreement that will have the team continue to play in Westman Communications Group Place. The parties had been working on the five-year extension to a 10-year lease, with the extension due to expire on May 31.
"We are pleased to come to this agreement with the Wheat Kings," Neil Thomson, the Keystone Centre’s general manager, said in a news release. "It does mean a significant increase in the revenue for the facility since the last agreement in 1997."
Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner and GM, added: "It is true that we are paying much higher rent in our new agreement. However, in our minds we traded that with various factors. One of our goals in these negotiations was to protect our customers from additional fees. The Keystone Centre was looking for more revenue in the deal and spoke at length about increasing agency fees, implementing a new facility fee and even paid parking.
"In our minds, we felt that this would not work out for our fan base. So as a result, those costs were absorbed by us in the framework of this new agreement."
It is expected that the increased rent will help pay for improvements in lighting, seating and sound in the arena.
The Wheat Kings also announced their season-ticket prices, with adult tickets having risen $75 to $425. (Purchase by June 15 and save $25.)
That “equates to a single-game ticket price of just over $12 . . . which represents a saving of close to $8 (based on box office regular admission prices),” reads a news release. “To help illustrate the savings, if one was to purchase tickets for 36 individual games, the price (including agency fees) would be $720. That means, fans will have paid for their season tickets by the 22nd game of the year.”
The Wheat Kings also have gone back to offering Senior season tickets, at $375. Youth tickets (18-and-under) are going for $200.
"Our season ticket base is very important to us," McCrimmon said. "Under terms of our new lease, we will be paying in excess of four times the cost of the previous one and, while this is a positive development for the Keystone, it does significantly increase our cost of doing business."
This season, the Wheat Kings averaged about 4,100 fans per game, with about 3,000 of those being season-ticket holders.
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F Brandon MacLean scored at 4:54 of OT to give the host Florida Everblades a 3-2 victory over the Las Vegas Wranglers and the ECHL’s Kelly Cup title. . . . Florida won the series, 4-1, to earn its first championship in its 14-season history. . . . The Everblades’ roster included former WHLer David Rutherford, who lost five teeth to a high-stick in Game 1,
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The Red Deer Rebels and Westerner Park are adding 100 feet of digital LED ribbon signage to the fascia of the newly created lower suite level. According to a news release, “This signage is identical to that found ringing the lower bowl of both the Scotiabank Saddledome and Rexall Place.” . . . Gotta wonder if Cam Moon, the longtime radio voice of the Rebels, will have Major League Baseball scores on the ribbon in season?
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G Mark Segal, who played in 36 games with the Vancouver Giants in 2009-10 and 55 the next season, has decided to end his competitive hockey career. Segal spent this season with the McGill Redmen, who won the school’s first CIS championship since its hockey program began in 1877. . . . Segal got into 11 games with McGill, going 9-2, .924, 2.27. . . . Segal, who is from Vancouver, has chosen to move to the U of Victoria but doesn’t plan on playing hockey, unless it’s of the intramural variety.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed F Brett Roulston, a native of Whitehorse, Yukon, who turns 18 on Oct. 15. . . . Roulston played this season with the major midget Cariboo Cougars, who play out of Prince George. He had 36 points, including 16 goals, in 35 games. . . . He has been on the Cougars’ list since March. At one time he was on the Kamloops Blazers’ list, but a recurring back problem caused him to miss the 2010-11 season.

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