THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Dylan Stanley (Tri-City, 2000-05) signed a one-year contract with EV Bozen 84 Bolzano (Italy, Serie A2). He had 18 goals and 34 assists in 21 games with Bad Nauheim (Germany, Oberliga) last season. . . .
D Benn Olson (Kamloops, Seattle, 2004-08) signed a one-year contract with the Coventry Blaze (England, UK Elite). Olson played with four teams last season, getting one goal in 17 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL), one goal in nine games with the Ontario Reign (ECHL), and going pointless in one game with the Houston Aeros (AHL) and 11 games with the Alaska Aces (ECHL). . . .
F Wacey Rabbit (Saskatoon, Vancouver, 2001-07) signed a one-year contract with Lørenskog (Norway, GET-Ligaen). He had two goals and 12 assists in 71 games with the San Antonio Rampage (AHL) and four assists in three games with the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) last season. . . .
F Vitali Karamnov (Everett, 2007-08) signed a one-year contract with Lev Prague (Czech Republic, KHL). He had 17 goals and 10 assists in 53 games with VMF St. Petersburg (Russia, Vysshaya Liga) last season. . . .
F Igor Valeyev (Lethbridge, Saskatoon, Swift Current, 1998-2000) signed a one-year contract with Buran Voronezh (Russia, Vysshaya Liga). He had seven goals and seven assists in 30 games for Kazzinc-Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan, Russia Vysshaya Liga) and one assist in one game with Kazzinc-Torpedo-2 Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Vysshaya Liga) last season.
———
Cascadia Sports Systems of Port Moody, B.C., has finished installing new acrylic glass in Credit Union Centre, the home of the Saskatoon Blades and the host building for the 2013 Memorial Cup.
Mal Paterson, co-owner of Cascadia Sports Systems, tells Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that the key to his company's design is that each pane of glass is eight feet wide, doubling the conventional width. Paterson said the posts that divide the glass can bend up to five feet.
The buildings in Calgary, Edmonton, Portland and Vancouver also feature acrylic glass.
Nugent-Bowman’s story is right here.
———
F Scott MacDonald, who played one season with the Chilliwack Bruins (2008-09) and two with the Everett Silvertips (2009-11), will play next season with the UBC Thunderbirds under head coach Milan Dragicevic. MacDonald had 66 points in 192 regular-season WHL games before playing last season with the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks, who lost the championship final to the Green Bay Gamblers. He had 31 points in 49 regular-season games with Waterloo.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
The ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads are poised to introduce Brad Ralph as their new head coach on Saturday. He will replace Hardy Sauter who was let go after the season. Ralph has spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Southern Professional league’s Augusta RiverHawks. . . .
Fred Harbinson, the general manager and head coach of the BCHL’s Penticton Vees, has agreed to a five-year contract extension that takes him through 2018-19. Harbinson led the Vees to a BCHL-record 54 victories and the RBC Cup last season. . . . Harbinson has completed five seasons with the Vees. . . . Last season, the club set BCHL records for victories (54) and points (110). . . . Harbinson told Fraser Rodgers, the team’s radio voice, that assistant coaches Steve Cawley, Mike Hengen and Matt Sells will be back for 2012-13. . . .
Bill Bestwick, who was out of hockey last season and calls it the worst winter of his life, is back, this time as head coach of the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. The team also has a new majority owner, meaning that Len Barrie is out.
Mario Annicchiarico of the Victoria Times Colonist has more right here.
———
This is just too good to pass up. The crazy bunch at MAD magazine has prepared a plaque just in case Roger Clemens gets elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It is right here.
———
TWEET OF THE DAY:
From former Edmonton Oil Kings F Tyler Maxwell (@KingMaxymus23): “Goodbye California. I am leaving you for Austria. Maybe when I get back I will run for Governor.”
Maxwell, who played out his junior eligibility last season with the WHL-champion Oil Kings, has signed with Red Bull Salzburg, the Austrian league team that is coached by Pierre Pagé.

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.

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Giffen Nyren (Moose Jaw, Kamloops, Calgary, 2006-10) was released by Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) at the end of his tryout contract. . . .
D Ross Lupaschuk (Lethbridge, Prince Albert, Red Deer, 1996-2001)
signed a tryout contract with the Vienna Capitals (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). He had two goals and one assist in 15 games with Cologne (Germany, DEL) last season. . . .
F Clarke Breitkruez (Regina, Prince George, 2008-10) signed a one-year contract with Duisburg (Germany, Oberliga). He had 31 goals and 37 assists in 51 games for the Yorkton Terriers (SJHL) last season.
———
The Everett Silvertips got down to three 20-year-olds on Saturday when F Scott MacDonald was one of the players released from training camp. MacDonald, from Surrey, B.C., has played three WHL seasons, one with the Chilliwack Bruins and two with the Silvertips. Last season, he had 22 points and 40 penalty minutes in 69 games with Everett. . . . His departure leaves Everett with F Josh Birkholz, F Tyler Maxwell and D Brennan Yadlowski as its 20-year-olds.
———
The Regina Pats have acquired F Campbell Elynuik, who will turn 19 on Dec. 25, from the Everett Silvertips in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. A seventh-round pick by Everett in the 2007 draft, Elynuik had five points and 54 penalty minutes in 28 games last season, which was shortened by injury. In 76 games with the Silvertips, he had eight points and 135 penalty minutes. Undrafted, he attended the Philadelphia Flyers’ development camp earlier this summer and will attend their training camp next month. His father, Pat, played in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders (1984-87) and also split 506 NHL games between the Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.
———
The Victoria Royals have signed F Logan Nelson, an 18-year-old product of Rogers, Minn. He’s a 6-foot-1, 187-pounder who had 15 points and 69 penalty minutes in 43 games with the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers last season.
———
If you haven’t yet heard about a concussion-related experiment in which the Saskatoon Blades are involved, check out this story by Kevin Mitchell of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
———
The Thunderbird Community Sports Foundation, which is supported by fans of the Seattle Thunderbirds, has made a lot of people happy by handing out almost US$65,000 in grants. Steve Hunter of the Kent Reporter has that story right here.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Brent Hughes is out as head coach of the NAHL’s Corpus Christi IceRays. The club announced Saturday that it “has decided not to retain” his services. Assistant coach Justin Quenneville has been named the interim head coach. . . . Hughes, a former NHL player, had been the IceRays’ head coach since February 2009. . . . Quenneville, who played four seasons in Corpus Christi, spent last season as director of hockey operations and assistant coach.
The Prince George Cougars have hired Phil Guenter as their goaltending coach. Guenter, 31, is based in Lethbridge and has been coaching goaltenders for 12 years. In 10 of those years, he has worked with Prince George G Drew Owsley, 20, who was acquired this summer from the Tri-City Americans. . . . “We want to make Drew's transition to Prince George as easy as possible and Phil has been his goalie coach for a long time, and this will help make things easier,” Cougars head coach Dean Clark said in a news release. "We look forward to also having Phil work with our younger guys." . . .
The WHL-champion Kootenay Ice has picked up the option years on the contracts for Garnet Kaziuk, the director of scouting, head coach Kris Knoblauch and assistant coaches Todd Johnson and Jerry Bancks. All four now are signed through 2012-13. . . . “The success we have maintained over the past 13 years both on and off the ice can partially be attributed to having good people in key positions,” Jeff Chynoweth, the franchise’s president and general manager, said in a news release. “Stability and continuity are the keys to any successful organization and these four gentlemen are a big part of what we are all trying to achieve.” . . . Kazuik has been with the Ice through four seasons. Knoblauch joined the Ice as an assistant coach four years ago and is coming of his first season as head coach, having led the team to its third titlein 11 WHL seasons. Johnson and Bancks both signed on to the coaching staff a year ago.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter