THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Daryl Boyle (Brandon, 2004-08) signed a one-year contract with the Augsburger Panther (Germany, DEL). He had one goal and four assists in five games with the Alaska Aces (ECHL) and one goal and four assists in 26 games with the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) last season. . . .
F Gasper Kopitar (Portland, 2009-11) signed a tryout contract with Södertälje J20 (Sweden, J20 SuperElit). He had one goal in two games with the Winterhawks and 12 goals and 12 assists in 55 games with Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) last season. . . .
F Casper Carning (Vancouver, 2010-11) signed a one-year contract with Kungälv (Sweden, Division 1). He had two assists in six games with the GIants, 14 goals and 29 assists in 31 games with Frölunda J20 Gothenburg (Sweden, J20 SuperElit), no points in eight games with Frölunda Gothenburg (Sweden, Elitserien), and one goal and one assist in two games on loan with Kungälv last season. . . .
D Brent Sopel (Saskatoon, Swift Current, 1993-97) signed a two-year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk (Russia, KHL). He had two goals and five assists in 71 games with the Atlanta Thrashers and Montreal Canadiens last season. . . .
D Harlan Pratt (Seattle, Red Deer, Prince Albert, Regina, Portland, 1994-99) signed a one-year contract with Szekesfehervar (Hungary, Austria Erste Bank Liga). He had five assists in 40 games for Tingsryd (Sweden, Allsvenskan) last season. . . .
G Todd Ford (Swift Current, Prince George, Vancouver, 2000-04) signed a one-year contract with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, 2.Bundesliga). He had a 2.94 GAA and a .886 save percentage in 13 games with the Hershey Bears (AHL) and a 2.74 GAA and a .901 save percentage in 22 games with the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) last season.
———
Former WHL scoring champion Brian Varga is the new GM of the Medicine Hat Minor Hockey Association. Varga, 50, played four WHL seasons (1978-82), the first three with the Regina Pats and the last one with the Medicine Hat Tigers. He won the 1981-82 scoring title, with 187 points. And, although his name is missing from the WHL Guide recap on 1981-82, he actually finished sixth that season, with 156 points. . . . Varga is a long-time Medicine Hat minor hockey coach and volunteer. "When they decided a long time ago to have a GM within minor hockey,” Varga told Darren Steinke of the Medicine Hat News, “I thought that maybe some day I could do that job. It has been on my mind for quite a while. . . . It is something where maybe I can give back to the community again too by being in that role."
---
Chris Peters over at the United States of Hockey has taken a good look at the beating that NCAA hockey has taken over the last little while. If you missed it, a number of high-profile players who had committed to one school or another have de-committed and now are headed to OHL teams. What does it all mean? Check out Peters’ piece right here.
---
THE COACHING GAME:
From the department of horrible timing comes news that the Mississippi RiverKings, who moved from the Central League to the Southern Professional league over the summer, fired head coach Paul Gardner on Thursday. He had taken over from Kevin Kaminski early in the 2010-11 season. "I was told that because of moving to the SPHL, they were going in a different direction," Gardner told Chris Van Tuyl of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "Very shocked. The hardest thing about it is having to tell the kids, and the kids haven't stopped crying. That's the difficult part of the whole thing." . . . As for finding work in the coaching game at this late date, Gardner said: "I think that would be difficult. The majority of the coaches are hired now. I emailed my agent and that's exactly what he said, 'Why did they wait until now?' " . . .
Steve Chapman, the president of the ECHL’s Gwinnett Gladiators, has revealed that his search for a head coach is down to a shortlist that contains three names -- Leigh Mendelson, Steve Weeks and John Wroblewski. . . . Mendelson is a former Spokane Chiefs assistant coach. Last season, he was on staff with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. . . . The Gladiators need a head coach to replace Jeff Pyle, now head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars.
———
Various reports — and I think TSN’s Farhan Lalji was first with it — have former NHLer Ryan Walter to be named president of the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat on Tuesday.
This is a rather interesting move.
Walter, you may recall, was dismissed as an assistant coach by the Vancouver Canucks after the 2009-10 season. He spent two seasons on the coaching staff. The Heat, which plays in Canucks’ territory in what is generically known as the Lower Mainland, is the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.
The Flames have signed F Ben Walter, Ryan’s son, to a two-year contract and chances are he will start the season with the Heat.
Cam Tucker of the Abbotsford Times has more right here on the Heat, including a bit of news on the deficit the team ran last season, which the city and taxpayers have to cover.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Showing posts with label Ryan Walter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan Walter. Show all posts
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday . . .
Carlos Sosa, a well-known lawyer and player agent who works out of the Seattle area, wasn’t on a recruiting trip when he was in Lethbridge watching the Hurricanes’ training camp a few weeks ago.
He was there because his son, Daniel, was in the camp. Daniel, a defenceman, had been selected by the Hurricanes in the 11th round of the WHL’s 2010 bantam draft.
“I wasn’t there looking for clients,” Sosa says. “I was watching their scrimmages and noticed this goalie was playing pretty well . . . but it was a scrimmage.”
He later learned that the goaltender he was watching was Brandon Anderson, an 18-year-old out of Langley, B.C., who was preparing for his second season in Lethbridge.
“I knew who he was; I might have seen him play once,” Sosa says.
Anderson, as it turned out, hadn’t been selected in the 2010 NHL draft but late in August had accepted a free-agent tryout deal with the NHL’s Washington Capitals.
“I was told he didn’t have representation and that he was going to Washington’s camp,” Sosa says. “I had a brief chat with him there; he had just gotten the tryout around Aug. 20.”
They spoke briefly in Lethbridge and Sosa gave a business card to Anderson. Sosa later wrote a letter “about what we do” to Anderson.
And so it was that Sosa ended up signing on to represent Anderson as he trundled off to Washington’s camp. Anderson came back earlier this week . . . with a contract in his hip pocket.
“He goes to the camp and three or four days into the camp they want to sign him,” Sosa says. “It’s a great story.”
He’s right. It is a great story.
Here’s an undrafted goaltender who, between Aug. 20 and Sept. 20, went from being the No. 1 goaltender with the Hurricanes to signing a three-year NHL contract.
“Especially for a goaltender . . . it’s so hard for guys to get spots,” Sosa said.
As for Sosa, well, as he says: “For me, it was awesome . . . but I just stumbled into it.”
Last season, Anderson went 12-19-1-1 with a 3.49 GAA and a .892 save percentage. He was a third-round pick in the WHL’s 2007 bantam draft.
Daniel Sosa, meanwhile, is at Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask., where he is expected to play for the midget AAA Hounds.
---
The Hurricanes are carrying 25 players. They had three players in NHL camps and all have returned, although F Brody Sutter (Florida) has a shoulder injury. Also back are G Brandon Anderson (Washington) and F Cam Braes (San Jose). . . . Lethbridge opens the season Friday in Calgary against the Hitmen.
---
Mark Miller, who won the WHL’s Marketing/Public Relations Award in 1993-94 while with the Portland Winterhawks, has died. His body was found Saturday morning in the bathroom of his home in Monte Rio, Calif. He apparently died of a heart attack. . . . “I have never worked with anyone who had a more profound economic impact on a business than him,” Dean (Scooter) Vrooman, the former radio voice and public relations guru with the Winterhawks, told me in an email. “In the early 1990s, he was incredible for the ’Hawks when the team was also very marketable. Those were quite the days for hockey in Portland, and Mark was instrumental in developing a ticketing system that was very convenient for the fans. It was in the years right before the Rose Garden opened in 1995 that the Hawks were often turning away as many as 3,000 on Saturday nights because the 10,000 plus Memorial Coliseum was full to the rafters. He also worked with me in maximizing selling sponsorships. He was rightfully recognized at the league level for marketing excellence in those days. Overall, we worked together from 1985 (he started with the Hawks to help organize the 1986 Memorial Cup in Portland) through about 2000, as I recall.”
---
F Nino Niederreiter of the Portland Winterhawks has signed a three-year contract with the NHL’s New York Islanders. He was the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft. It is anticipated that Niederretier, 18, will at least start the season with the Islanders. If he is able to stay among the club’s top six forwards, he will stay there all season. . . . F Ryan Johansen of the Winterhawks, who was taken fourth overall, signed earlier with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It is anticipated that Johansen, 18, will be returned to Portland, perhaps as early as next week. But, in the meantime, he is scheduled to make his NHL debut Wednesday night against the visiting Washington Capitals. Johansen is expected to start the night on a line with Rick Nash and R.J. Umberger, which is pretty good company for an 18-year-old rookie to be keeping. . . . D Austin Madaisky of the Kamloops Blazers is one of eight defencemen listed on the Columbus lineup for Wednesday’s game. He told me Tuesday night he expects to take the warmup but doesn’t expect to play in the game.
---
F Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who won the WHL’s scoring championship in 2008-09 while with the Vancouver Giants, will miss up to four weeks with a broken finger. That injury pretty much ends his training camp with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . Pierro-Zabotel had 41 points in 49 games with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers last season. He also got into nine games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
---
The Kelowna Rockets’ roster is at 27 after three moves were made Tuesday. . . . The Rockets assigned F Tyrell Goulbourne to the midget AAA CAC Canadians in Edmonton. He was a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . The Rockets also released two veteran forwards -- Codey Ito, who turns 19 on Nov. 11, and Sean Aschim, who turns 18 on Dec. 30. . . . If the Rockets aren’t able to move Ito and Aschim within the WHL, it’s expected both players will join SJHL teams. . . . Ito had seven points in 62 games last season, his first in the WHL. Aschim had six points in 26 games with the Prince Albert Raiders and zero points in 21 games with Kelowna.
---
G Brandon Glover, 18, left the Moose Jaw Warriors on Tuesday and asked for a trade. The Moose Jaw Times-Herald reports that Glover, who was preparing for his second season in Moose Jaw, has returned to his home in Victoria. . . . Last season, Glover, a sixth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft, had a 3.40 GAA and a .890 save percentage while backing up Jeff Bosch. . . . On Friday, the Warriors acquired G Thomas Heemskerk, 20, from the Everett Silvertips and then dealt Bosch to the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Warriors now are left with two goaltenders -- Heemskerk and freshman Brandon Stone, 17, who played last season with the major midget Fraser Valley Bruins in B.C.
---
The Everett Silvertips will open the season with two goaltenders -- veteran Kent Simpson and Luke Siemens, 18 -- after reassigning Andy Desautels, 16, to the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians. . . . The Silvertips have released D Jeff Regier, 19. Regier is expected to join the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles. . . . The moves left Everett with 25 players on its roster. . . . D Rasmus Rissanen, 19, is expected back from the camp of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes before the weekend.
---
F Jeff Nelson (Prince Albert, 1988-92) sat out last season but now has signed with the Central League’s Evansville IceMen. Nelson, 37, had 58 points with the Central league’s Mississippi RiverKings in 2008-09, but didn’t play last season. There’s more on Nelson’s signing right here. . . . Nelson still holds the WHL record for longest single-season point-scoring streak. In 1990-91, he put up 108 points in a 56-game streak.
---
Among the players returning to the WHL from NHL camps on Tuesday: G Calvin Pickard, to Seattle from Colorado; D Troy Rutkowski, to Portland from Colorado; D Sebastian Owuya, to Medicine Hat from Atlanta; F Byron Froese, to Red Deer from Chicago; G Kent Simpson, to Everett from Chicago; F Steele Boomer, to Kootenay from Chicago; F Mark Stone, to Brandon from Ottawa; F Garrett Mitchell, to Regina from Washington.
---
The OHL has decided to do away with its annual all-star game. That story is right here. . . . Now if the CHL would only dump the series with the touring Russian side that isn’t the national junior team.
---
Ryan Walter (Kamloops Chiefs, Seattle Breakers, 1974-78) has been named head coach of the women’s hockey team that will represent Canada at the 4 Nations Cup in St. John’s and Clarenville, Nfld., Nov. 9-13. Hockey Canada made the announcement on Tuesday. The tournament features Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland. Walter, 52, most recently was an assistant coach with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
He was there because his son, Daniel, was in the camp. Daniel, a defenceman, had been selected by the Hurricanes in the 11th round of the WHL’s 2010 bantam draft.
“I wasn’t there looking for clients,” Sosa says. “I was watching their scrimmages and noticed this goalie was playing pretty well . . . but it was a scrimmage.”
He later learned that the goaltender he was watching was Brandon Anderson, an 18-year-old out of Langley, B.C., who was preparing for his second season in Lethbridge.
“I knew who he was; I might have seen him play once,” Sosa says.
Anderson, as it turned out, hadn’t been selected in the 2010 NHL draft but late in August had accepted a free-agent tryout deal with the NHL’s Washington Capitals.
“I was told he didn’t have representation and that he was going to Washington’s camp,” Sosa says. “I had a brief chat with him there; he had just gotten the tryout around Aug. 20.”
They spoke briefly in Lethbridge and Sosa gave a business card to Anderson. Sosa later wrote a letter “about what we do” to Anderson.
And so it was that Sosa ended up signing on to represent Anderson as he trundled off to Washington’s camp. Anderson came back earlier this week . . . with a contract in his hip pocket.
“He goes to the camp and three or four days into the camp they want to sign him,” Sosa says. “It’s a great story.”
He’s right. It is a great story.
Here’s an undrafted goaltender who, between Aug. 20 and Sept. 20, went from being the No. 1 goaltender with the Hurricanes to signing a three-year NHL contract.
“Especially for a goaltender . . . it’s so hard for guys to get spots,” Sosa said.
As for Sosa, well, as he says: “For me, it was awesome . . . but I just stumbled into it.”
Last season, Anderson went 12-19-1-1 with a 3.49 GAA and a .892 save percentage. He was a third-round pick in the WHL’s 2007 bantam draft.
Daniel Sosa, meanwhile, is at Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask., where he is expected to play for the midget AAA Hounds.
---
The Hurricanes are carrying 25 players. They had three players in NHL camps and all have returned, although F Brody Sutter (Florida) has a shoulder injury. Also back are G Brandon Anderson (Washington) and F Cam Braes (San Jose). . . . Lethbridge opens the season Friday in Calgary against the Hitmen.
---
Mark Miller, who won the WHL’s Marketing/Public Relations Award in 1993-94 while with the Portland Winterhawks, has died. His body was found Saturday morning in the bathroom of his home in Monte Rio, Calif. He apparently died of a heart attack. . . . “I have never worked with anyone who had a more profound economic impact on a business than him,” Dean (Scooter) Vrooman, the former radio voice and public relations guru with the Winterhawks, told me in an email. “In the early 1990s, he was incredible for the ’Hawks when the team was also very marketable. Those were quite the days for hockey in Portland, and Mark was instrumental in developing a ticketing system that was very convenient for the fans. It was in the years right before the Rose Garden opened in 1995 that the Hawks were often turning away as many as 3,000 on Saturday nights because the 10,000 plus Memorial Coliseum was full to the rafters. He also worked with me in maximizing selling sponsorships. He was rightfully recognized at the league level for marketing excellence in those days. Overall, we worked together from 1985 (he started with the Hawks to help organize the 1986 Memorial Cup in Portland) through about 2000, as I recall.”
---
F Nino Niederreiter of the Portland Winterhawks has signed a three-year contract with the NHL’s New York Islanders. He was the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft. It is anticipated that Niederretier, 18, will at least start the season with the Islanders. If he is able to stay among the club’s top six forwards, he will stay there all season. . . . F Ryan Johansen of the Winterhawks, who was taken fourth overall, signed earlier with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It is anticipated that Johansen, 18, will be returned to Portland, perhaps as early as next week. But, in the meantime, he is scheduled to make his NHL debut Wednesday night against the visiting Washington Capitals. Johansen is expected to start the night on a line with Rick Nash and R.J. Umberger, which is pretty good company for an 18-year-old rookie to be keeping. . . . D Austin Madaisky of the Kamloops Blazers is one of eight defencemen listed on the Columbus lineup for Wednesday’s game. He told me Tuesday night he expects to take the warmup but doesn’t expect to play in the game.
---
F Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who won the WHL’s scoring championship in 2008-09 while with the Vancouver Giants, will miss up to four weeks with a broken finger. That injury pretty much ends his training camp with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . Pierro-Zabotel had 41 points in 49 games with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers last season. He also got into nine games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
---
The Kelowna Rockets’ roster is at 27 after three moves were made Tuesday. . . . The Rockets assigned F Tyrell Goulbourne to the midget AAA CAC Canadians in Edmonton. He was a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . The Rockets also released two veteran forwards -- Codey Ito, who turns 19 on Nov. 11, and Sean Aschim, who turns 18 on Dec. 30. . . . If the Rockets aren’t able to move Ito and Aschim within the WHL, it’s expected both players will join SJHL teams. . . . Ito had seven points in 62 games last season, his first in the WHL. Aschim had six points in 26 games with the Prince Albert Raiders and zero points in 21 games with Kelowna.
---
G Brandon Glover, 18, left the Moose Jaw Warriors on Tuesday and asked for a trade. The Moose Jaw Times-Herald reports that Glover, who was preparing for his second season in Moose Jaw, has returned to his home in Victoria. . . . Last season, Glover, a sixth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft, had a 3.40 GAA and a .890 save percentage while backing up Jeff Bosch. . . . On Friday, the Warriors acquired G Thomas Heemskerk, 20, from the Everett Silvertips and then dealt Bosch to the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Warriors now are left with two goaltenders -- Heemskerk and freshman Brandon Stone, 17, who played last season with the major midget Fraser Valley Bruins in B.C.
---
The Everett Silvertips will open the season with two goaltenders -- veteran Kent Simpson and Luke Siemens, 18 -- after reassigning Andy Desautels, 16, to the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians. . . . The Silvertips have released D Jeff Regier, 19. Regier is expected to join the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles. . . . The moves left Everett with 25 players on its roster. . . . D Rasmus Rissanen, 19, is expected back from the camp of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes before the weekend.
---
F Jeff Nelson (Prince Albert, 1988-92) sat out last season but now has signed with the Central League’s Evansville IceMen. Nelson, 37, had 58 points with the Central league’s Mississippi RiverKings in 2008-09, but didn’t play last season. There’s more on Nelson’s signing right here. . . . Nelson still holds the WHL record for longest single-season point-scoring streak. In 1990-91, he put up 108 points in a 56-game streak.
---
Among the players returning to the WHL from NHL camps on Tuesday: G Calvin Pickard, to Seattle from Colorado; D Troy Rutkowski, to Portland from Colorado; D Sebastian Owuya, to Medicine Hat from Atlanta; F Byron Froese, to Red Deer from Chicago; G Kent Simpson, to Everett from Chicago; F Steele Boomer, to Kootenay from Chicago; F Mark Stone, to Brandon from Ottawa; F Garrett Mitchell, to Regina from Washington.
---
The OHL has decided to do away with its annual all-star game. That story is right here. . . . Now if the CHL would only dump the series with the touring Russian side that isn’t the national junior team.
---
Ryan Walter (Kamloops Chiefs, Seattle Breakers, 1974-78) has been named head coach of the women’s hockey team that will represent Canada at the 4 Nations Cup in St. John’s and Clarenville, Nfld., Nov. 9-13. Hockey Canada made the announcement on Tuesday. The tournament features Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland. Walter, 52, most recently was an assistant coach with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Posts
