Two former Chiefs on the move . . . Bobylev plays for Spartak . . . Lowdown on Deflategate

F Chris Bruton (Spokane, 2004-08) signed a one-year contract with the Braehead Clan Glasgow (Scotland, UK Elite). Last season, he had two goals and two assists in 52 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL). . . . Braehead head coach Ryan Finnerty said Bruton is "going to take advantage of the MBA course at the University of the West of Scotland." . . .

F Brad Schell (Spokane, 1999-2004) signed a one-year contract with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, DEL2). Last season, with Herning (Denmark, Metal Ligaen), he had 11 goals and 54 assists in 36 games. He led the league in assists, was fourth in the points race and was second in plus-minus, at plus-34. . . .
F Pavel Brendl (Calgary, 1998-2001) signed a one-year extension with Skalica (Slovakia, Extraliga). Last season, he had 13 goals and seven assists in 19 games.
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F Vladimir Bobylev was in the lineup for Spartak Moscow in a 4-3 exhibition loss to SKA St. Petersburg on Wednesday afternoon in Espoo, Finland. Bobylev, wearing No. 47, was listed as the fourth-line centre. A game summary wasn’t available, other than goals, and Bobylev didn’t score. . . . Spartak’s schedule had it practising in Espoo on Thursday and flying to Moscow today, where they will skate on Saturday. Spartak’s next game is scheduled for Thursday against Amur Khabarovsk in Moscow.
Bobylev, 18, played last season with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, who released him earlier this summer. He then was selected by the Victoria Royals in the CHL’s import draft. They are expecting Bobylev to be at their training camp later in August.
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The ECHL’s Quad Cities Mallards have signed D Kevin Gibson, a 25-year-old out of the U of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is the son of former major league baseball player and manager Kirk Gibson. Marc Nesseler of Quad-Cities Online has more right here.
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Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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If you have been paying any attention at all to Tom Brady, the NFL and Deflategate, you should give this right here a read. It’s a column by Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post and it ties it all up rather nicely and puts a big bow on top. Good stuff!
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Hey Kids, this long weekend please stay out of the rink and off the ice. Go to a lake, see your family, have fun. It's a long season.

— Ben Cooper (@MrCoopification) July 30, 2015

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.

Petan, Morrissey on way back . . . How did Corsi get its name?

The biggest news of the WHL's Sunday came courtesy the NHL's Winnipeg Jets as they returned F Nic Petan to the Portland Winterhawks and D Josh Morrissey to the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Petan, 19, has 269 points, including 95 goals, in 198 career regular-season games. He is coming off back-to-back 100-point seasons, having put up 120 points in 2012-13 and 113 last season. . . . Morrissey heads into his fourth season with 158 points, 53 of them goals, in 202 games. Last season, he had 73 points, including 28 goals, in 59 games.
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The WHL’s pooh-bahs (aka the board of governors) is scheduled to gather in Calgary this week to decide on a host team/city for the 2016 Memorial Cup. They will hear bids from the Red Deer Rebels and Vancouver Giants and a vote is scheduled to be held on Wednesday. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province sets the stage right here.
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If you are a WHL fan, you should be paying attention to Cody Nickolet's blog WHL From Above. There's a link right here, or you can find it over there on the right. . . . Among the things he is doing is charting the lines and defence pairings of every one of the WHL's 22 teams. What has he learned from this exercise? In the early going, at least, it seems that consistency leads to success. . . . Going into Sunday’s games, he tweeted: “SC/REG/PG/MJ/MH/EVT/CGY/BRN are among the most consistent WHL teams lineup-wise recently. They’re a combined 24-0-3-2 in this last stretch.” . . . You also are able to follow him on Twitter (@DubFromAbove).
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Wally Hergesheimer, who was 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds when he began his NHL careers, has died. He was 87. In each of his first three NHL seasons, he led the New York Rangers in goals. . . . There’s more right here.
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If you are a reader and a hockey fan, one of the most anticipated dates of the early hockey season is Oct. 14. That’s the day that Bob McKenzie’s latest book -- Hockey Confidential: Inside Stories From Inside The Game -- is to hit the stores. . . . On Sunday night, McKenzie described the book this way: “The book is a collection of stories about hockey people – a well-known hockey executive reflecting on a near-death experience; an NHL fighter talking about what it’s really like to give and take punches; an NHL star talking about the essence of scoring goals; a teenage hockey phenom and his family explaining what it’s like to grow up ‘exceptional’ in Canada; plus, multiple other stories of ‘hockey people’ and their life journeys, much of it fused with some universal themes (life, death, family, giving) that transcend the game.” . . . McKenzie also shared the story of how Corsi got its name. That story is right here.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings, their roster overloaded with defencemen, have dealt Taylor Green, 19, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a fifth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft. . . . From Port Coquitlam, B.C., Green was a second-round pick by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the 2010 draft. . . . Brandon added D Macoy Erkamps in a deal with the Lethbridge Hurricanes last week and also had to make room for D Eric Roy, who is out with a shoulder injury. As well, Russian D Ivan Provorov, 17, has already proven that he can play in this league. . . . The Warriors are looking for Green to fill a void created when Austin Adam went down with a shoulder injury. . . . When the two of them are healthy, the Warriors’ lineup will include two of the league’s biggest defencemen. Green is 6-foot-7 and 220 pounds, while Adam is 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds. . . . Green had a goal and an assist in four games with Brandon this season. In 138 career games, he has 20 points, including four goals.
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D Ryan Coghlan is on his way back to the Saskatoon Blades. Coghlan, who turns 19 on Oct. 31, was dealt by the Prince Albert Raiders to the Blades on Sunday for a seventh-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. . . . Coghlan had been released by the Raiders on Sept. 25 and was expected to play in the BCHLwith the Cowichan Valley Capitals. . . . The Blades had dealt Coghlan and F Collin Valcourt to the Raiders on Dec. 28, getting back D Dylan Busenius and second- and fifth-round picks in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Coghlan, from Nanaimo, B.C., has 13 points, five of them goals, in 59 career games. He was pointless in two games with the Raiders this season.
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Are concussions really the NFL's black lung disease? . . . "Since the NFL insists on behaving like the coal industry circa 1969, the only solution to its problems is for Congress to step in and regulate the business of these 32 billionaire plunderers," writes columnist Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. "This week, the Department of Veterans Affairs brain bank announced that 76 out of 79 deceased NFL players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease. The price for owning a team just went up. Jerry Jones, Bob Kraft, Dan Snyder, Steve Bisciotti and all the rest, if you want to enrich yourselves at the expense of the ravaged health of others, be prepared to pay for it. Your future is endless litigation and government interference." . . . Jenkins' complete column is right here and it makes for compelling reading, especially with an apparent connection between CTE and some instances of domestic abuse.
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It seems that in some areas of the sporting world, athletes still are reluctant to report concussion symptoms to their teams’ medical or training staff. The New York Times has reported that three recent studies “concluded that for every diagnosed concussion, (college football) players sustained six substantial hits that they suspected might have caused a concussion but did not report. The players added that for every diagnosed concussion, they also received 21 dings — or smaller hits — that they also did not report.” . . . Ken Belson’s complete story is right here.
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In another New York Times story, Jeff Z. Klein reports on a school district near Toronto that has “started immersing its more than 4,000 ninth graders in a detailed course on concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. District schools are also teaching modified versions of the curriculum to some students in third and sixth grades. It is believed to be the first course of its kind to be taught across an entire school district in Canada or the United States.” . . . Klein’s complete story is right here.
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The Red Deer Rebels were without D Haydn Fleury as they beat the host Regina Pats 4-3 in OT on Sunday night. Fleury, who was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes with the seventh-overall pick in the NHL’s 2014 draft, was injured Saturday night in Brandon. Brent Sutter, the Rebels’ GM/head coach, told the Red Deer Advocate that “we’re hoping it’s not serious.” . . . F Preston Kopeck scored the OT winner for Red Deer, his second goal of the game. . . .
The Kamloops Blazers went into Edmonton and beat the Oil Kings 6-2 on Sunday, handing the defending Memorial Cup champions their third straight home-ice loss. Edmonton G Tristan Jarry has lost three straight games for only the second time in his four-year career. . . . Kamloops F Cole Ully continued his hot start with two goals and an assist. One of the WHL’s most exciting players, Ully, 19, has 14 points, including six goals, in eight games. . . .
In Vancouver, the Giants scored three times on the PP and once while shorthanded in stinging the Prince George Cougars, 6-1. F Jackson Houck had a goal and two assists for the Giants, with F Carter Popoff scoring twice.

Blades, Warriors deal . . . A few veterans get releases

I realize that this blog is almost always about hockey. But allow me today to spend some space on the subject of domestic abuse.
I have been involved in the founding of two charities, one at the Regina Leader-Post and the other at the now-dead Kamloops Daily News, that worked to help shelters for abused women and their children.
That has at least something to do with why I didn’t understand when Roger Goodell, the boss of all things NFL, chose to whisper in the ear of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice seven months ago, rather than suspend him for a long, long time.
The NFL, as you will have heard by now, indefinitely suspended Rice on Monday. The Ravens then released him.
Seven months ago, a video surfaced of Rice dragging his unconscious soon-to-be wife out of an elevator in a New Jersey casino. That video was taken from outside the elevator. Eventually, Goodell suspended Rice for the first two games of this regular season.
On Monday, TMZ released video from inside the elevator. It shows, among other things, Rice dropping his soon-to-be wife with a hard left hand.
Why Goodell didn’t suspend Rice indefinitely immediately upon seeing the first video is the $64-billion question. After all, as Goodell was watching that first video, how did he think Rice’s soon-to-be wife came to be in that condition?
Anyway . . .
There is some good reading available on this issue today.
Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post wonders about the NFL’s claim that no one in its office had seen the video from inside the elevator until Monday morning.
“That is almost surely not the truth, unless the NFL wanted it that way,” she writes. “This is a league that works with Homeland Security, confers with the Drug Enforcement Agency, collaborates with law enforcement and has its own highly equipped and secretive private security arm. You’re telling me it couldn’t get a hold of a grainy tape from an Atlantic City casino elevator? But TMZ could?”
Her column is right here.
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In light of the indefinite suspension handed to Rice, Christine Brennan of USA TODAY wonders why players like Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers, Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers and Terrell Suggs of the Ravens, each of whom has been involved or is alleged to have been involved in a domestic abuse situation, haven’t been suspended in the same fashion. “(Suggs) played Sunday for the Ravens in their loss to the Cincinnati Bengals,” Brennan writes. “Why? Was it because there's no video? Of course it was. And he'll be playing this Thursday night on national television against the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though he shouldn't be, at least according to the NFL's new Rice standards, as of today.” . . . Brennan’s column is right here.
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Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun writes that “to understand what did happen, you have to understand the public relations power, and influence, and the almost unbelievable tone-deafness of one of the most intimidating sports leagues in the world. Until TMZ leaked the surveillance tape Monday morning, that is.” . . . His column is right here.
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Cathal Kelly of The Globe and Mail:
“The NFL will try to quickly move the focus back onto the field. That will probably work. A lot of people howl about the NFL’s wobbly moral compass, and most of them watch 12 hours of football every Sunday.
“What won’t survive is our presumption of the league’s basic goodness. We assume that most right-minded people would watch that video and be shocked into action.
“Apparently, the NFL was not.”
Kelly’s column is right here.
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THE DEAL: The Saskatoon Blades get F Josh Uhrich, 18, from the Moose Jaw Warriors for a fourth-round selection in the 2015 bantam draft.
THE SKINNY: Uhrich, from Rosetown, Sask., played for the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts, who finished third at the TELUS Cup national tournament in 2012. He had 10 goals and 14 assists in 126 regular-season games over two seasons with the Warriors. Uhrich was a second-round draft pick of the Warriors in 2011.
THE ANALYSIS: The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Uhrich hasn’t shown much offensive flair, but he brings sandpaper to the Blades’ lineup as they strive to become more difficult to play against. . . . The Warriors, who also dealt F Colton McCarthy, 18, to the Prince Albert Raiders on the weekend, have cleared room for some younger forwards. . . . A stick tap to the Warriors, too, for giving a couple of players who weren’t going to make their roster opportunities to stay in the WHL despite having to trade within their own division to do so.

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The Kamloops Blazers have their roster at 27, including three goaltenders and eight defencemen, after releasing two veterans -- D Austin Douglas, 18, and F Nathan Looysen, 18 -- on Monday. . . . The 6-foot-6, 195-pound Douglas, from Winnipeg, was acquired last season from the Seattle Thunderbirds, who had selected him in the second round of the 2011 bantam draft. Last season, he had one assist in 13 games with Seattle and one goal in 22 games with Kamloops. . . . Looysen, from Saanichton, B.C., had two goals and seven assists in 57 games as a freshman with the Blazers.
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The Kamloops Blazers don’t have a whole lot left from last season’s trade in which they sent G Taran Kozun, then 19, to the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Moving to Kamloops in that Jan. 10 deadline-day deal were G Justin Myles, 18, D Austin Douglas, 17, and a fourth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. . . . Douglas was released on Monday, while Myles, who reported to the Blazers with a brain injury, never did play in Kamloops. Instead, he was dealt to the Lethbridge Hurricanes over the summer for a fourth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. That pick reverted to Kamloops when Myles was forced to retire before reporting to the Hurricanes. . . . Kamloops also got a fourth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft in the exchange with Seattle, and later, with Myles unable to play, was given a fourth-round pick in 2016 as compensation. . . . Meanwhile, Kozun, now 20, is Seattle’s starting goaltender. In 24 regular-season games with Seattle last season, he was 14-9-1/2.40/.928 with four shutouts. In 29 games with the Blazers, he had been 5-19-3/3.95/.897.
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The Prince George Cougars got down to 29 players, including three goaltenders, by releasing six players on Monday. That included veteran G Adam Beukeboom, 20, who had been acquired from the Vancouver Giants on Jan. 9 for a seventh-round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . Beukeboom, who played in 19 games with the Regina Pats in 2011-12, was 5-8-0/4.25/,887 in 14 appearances with the Cougars last season. . . . As a 20-year-old this season, Beukeboom was up against it as Ty Edmonds, 18, is expected to be the Cougars’ starter. Beukeboom, who is from Sundre, Alta., played only 29 minutes in the exhibition season and stopped all 18 shots he faced. . . . The move leaves the Cougars with Edmonds, Matt Kustra, 17, and Tavin Grant, 16, as their goaltenders.
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The Vernon Vipers are looking for a general manager and head coach, having revealed that Jason Williamson has vacated both positions. Williamson, who cited personal reasons in leaving, had been GM and head coach for three seasons and had been with the Vipers for the past seven seasons. He also played three seasons with the Vipers. . . . “Jason has
decided he needs some time away from the game to get his affairs in order and I respect that,” owner Duncan Wray said in a news release. “He has been great for our hockey club and will be missed, however we must move forward.” . . . Assistant coach Kevin Kraus has been named interim head, while Eric Godard, the other assistant coach, will take a more active role. . . . The Vipers open their regular season on Sept. 27. . . . Williamson spent four seasons working alongside Mark Ferner, who was then the Vipers’ GM and head coach. When Ferner signed as head coach of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, prior to the 2011-12 season, Williamson was promoted. . . . Ferner now is preparing for his second season as an assistant coach with the Kamloops Blazers.
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Gordon Clark works in the newsroom at the Vancouver Province. He also is the president of a minor hockey association. In Monday’s Province, Clark offered up what the headline referred to as “some humble advice for hockey parents for the new season.” . . . “Complain loudly and often about all aspects of your kids' hockey program,” Clark writes. “Nothing motivates volunteer coaches, managers and others who give hundreds of hours of their lives each year so that your son or daughter can lace 'em up to improve like a constant stream of tips, critiques and observations. Keep them on their toes!” . . . That piece is right here.
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“It doesn't matter the sport, the area of concussion is now one of the burning issues globally yet many sporting bodies appear as confused and dazed as any player on the receiving end of a blow to the head,” writes Declan Whooley at independent.ie. . . . His complete story is right here.
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“Casey Cochran's college football career is over before it really got going. A series of concussions forced him to quit,” writes Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant. . . . Cochran had been the starting quarterback for the U of Connecticut Huskies. The school announced Monday that Cochran, who incurred his fourth concussion on Aug. 29, won’t play again. . . . Conner’s story is right here.
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D Austin Shmoorkoff of Edmonton has been assigned by the Red Deer Rebels to the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers. Shmoorkoff, 17, was pointless in six games with Red Deer last season. The move left the Rebels with 25 players on their roster. . . . Red Deer F Evan Polei suffered a cut hand during a fight in an exhibition game on Saturday and it will prevent him from attending training camp with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. “His injury is a day-to-day situation,” Red Deer GM/head coach Brent Sutter said in a news release, “and he should be ready for the start of our regular season.” . . .
D Reid Gow, who captained the Spokane Chiefs last season, has enrolled in business at the U of Manitoba and will play for the Bisons. Gow, who is from Killarney, Man., chose to go to school, rather than return for a fifth season with the Chiefs. Last season, he had 62 points, including 56 assists, in 65 games. . . . The Vancouver Giants are down to 26 players, including three goaltenders and 15 forwards. On Monday, they released three players, including F Matt Barberis, 16, of Surrey, B.C., who was the 20th overall selection in the 2013 bantam draft. The Giants also released D Kole Bryks, 17, who was a sixth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . 
The Tri-City Americans have the dubious distinction of being the first team to be fined by the WHL office this season. The Americans were docked $500 for “player instigating fight in last five minutes of game vs. Spokane” on Saturday. Tri-City D Riley Hillis, who was hit with a one-game suspension, picked up an instigating minor, along with a fighting major and game misconduct, at 19:06 of the third period in that game. Spokane F Riley Whittingham was given a checking-to-the-head minor and fighting major at the time. . . . F Aaron Macklin of the Prince George Cougars won’t play Friday against his old team, the Kamloops Blazers, as he will serve a one-game suspension. He took a kneeing major and game misconduct against the visiting Edmonon Oil Kings on Saturday. . . . F Taylor Sanheim of the Calgary Hitmen was given a one-game suspension after picking up a goaltender interference major and game misconduct in a Saturday game against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
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Yes! @SeattleTbirds @PARaidersHockey We will be the big brothers for a while, but one day we are gonna be king!
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) September 8, 2014

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.