Showing posts with label Shane Clifford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shane Clifford. Show all posts

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Balcers, Clifford, True get contracts ... Battah heads overseas . . . About that $1 million


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 F Bruno Mráz (Brandon, 2011-12) has signed a one-year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk (Russia, Vysshaya Liga). Last season, he had 17 goals and 19 assists in 44 games with Zvolen (Slovakia, Extraliga). . . . 
D Roman Pšurný (Medicine Hat, 2004-06) haa signed a one-year extension with Přerov (Czech Republic, 1. Liga). Last season, he had 12 goals and 19 assists in 29 games. Pšurný tied for the team lead in scoring despite missing 23 games.
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Jeff Battah, who has worked in the WHL, is off to Austria as the goaltending coach with the Graz 99ers (Erste Bank Liga). Battah, 36, has been coaching since 2001, both as an assistant coach and as a goaltending coach. He has worked in the WHL, with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Prince George Cougars, as well as in the AJHL and BCHL and in U Sports. With the 99ers, his first European assignment, he will work alongside head coach Doug Mason.
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The Everett Silvertips have signed goaltending coach Shane Clifford to a contract extension, the length of which wasn’t disclosed. Clifford, 46, is preparing for his 11th season with the Silvertips. In that position, he has tutored Carter Hart, the WHL’s goaltender of the year in each of the past two seasons. . . . According to a news release, Clifford, who is from Cincinnati, has coached professionally with the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL), Johnstown Chiefs (ECHL) and Les Ducs d’Angers (French Elite League), with goalies in the college ranks at Ohio State University (NCAA), and goaltenders across two separate tiers of junior levels for the Youngstown Phantoms (USHL) and Wenatchee Wild (NAHL).” . . . The Silvertips are heading into their 15th WHL season and earlier in the week they unveiled sweaters “the team will wear for home and road games designed to commemorate the anniversary campaign.” You are able to get a look at those sweaters by clicking right here.
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Jay Varady, the new head coach
of the Kingston Frontenacs.
(Photo: kingstonfrontenacs.com)
The OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs introduced former WHL coach Jay Varady as their new head coach on Thursday. Varady, 39, spent the past four seasons as the head coach of the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers. . . . Last season, the Musketeers finished with the USHL’s best regular-season record, and a franchise-record 87 points, and reached the championship final before bowing out to the Chicago Steel. Varady was named the USHL’s coach of the year. . . . In four seasons with Sioux City, Varady was 136-88-10. . . . Varady, a native of Cahokia, Ill., spent eight seasons (2003-11) with the Everett Silvertips, as assistant coach and then associate coach. . . . In Kingston, Varady replaces Paul McFarland, now an assistant coach with the NHL’s Florida Panthers.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes have signed G Bryan Thomson and D Jonah Regier, both of whom played last season for the bantam AAA Notre Dame Hounds. . . . Thomson was a second-round pick in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft. From Moose Jaw, he was 3-13-1, 3.72, .895 in the regular season, then went 2-1-0, 2.33, .935 in the playoffs. . . . The Hurricanes selected Regier one pick after having taken Thomson. Regier, from Weyburn, Sask., had two goals and three assists in 30 regular-season games, then was pointless in four playoff games.
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F Rudolfs Balcers, who played last season with the Kamloops Blazers, has signed a three-year entry-level contract with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. . . . Balcers, a 20-year-old Latvian, was a fifth-round selection in the NHL’s 2015 draft. He is expected to play in San Jose’s organization in 2017-18. . . . Last season, the 5-foot-11, 165-pounder had 77 points, 40 of them goals, in 66 games with Kamloops. . . . The Blazers are likely to open the 2017-18 season with veteran D Ondrej Vala, who will be playing his third season in Kamloops, and Swiss F Justin Sigrist, picked in the 2017 CHL import draft, as their two import players.
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F Alexander True, who scored the biggest goal in the Seattle Thunderbirds’ history, has signed a two-year contract with the San Jose Barracuda, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. . . . True, who will turn 20 on Monday, is from Denmark. He finished last season with 25 goals and 15 assists in 66 games, then added 12 goals and 10 assists in 20 playoff games. That included the winner at 12:36 of OT as the Thunderbirds beat the host Regina Pats, 4-3, in Game 6 of the WHL’s championship series. Seattle won the series and the Ed Chynoweth Cup, 4-2. . . . In 169 career regular-season games, True had 45 goals and 39 assists. . . . True spent last week in the Sharks’ developmental camp. . . . True’s father, Soren, was a 12th-round pick by the New York Rangers in the NHL’s 1986 draft.
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F Austin Glover, who played out his junior eligibility last season, will attend UBC and play for the Thunderbirds in 2017-18. Glover totalled 22 goals and 36 assists in 69 games split between the Prince Albert Raiders and Red Deer Rebels. . . . Glover, who also played with the Kelowna Rockets, totalled 146 points, including 51 goals, during a 224-game WHL career. . . . He was second-round pick by Kelowna in the WHL’s 2011 bantam draft.
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Before shutting things down for the remainder of the summer, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet filed one last 30 Thoughts. As he points out, when he returns for another the season, the NHL will have 31 teams and that means he’ll be writing 31 Thoughts. . . . His final 30 Thoughts, then, is right here.
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Do you stop off here on a regular basis? If you do, why not show your appreciation for the work that goes into producing this blog by making a donation? All you have to do is click on the DONATE button and follow along from there.
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You are almost out of time, but you still have time to register and attend the seventh annual TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference that runs in Vancouver today (Friday) and Saturday. If you click on The Coaches Site website right here to register, you are able to get a 20-per-cent discount by entering the coupon code TakingNote.
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If you would like to contact Taking Note with information, have a question or just feel like commenting on something, feel free to send an email to greggdrinnan@gmail.com. I’m also on Twitter (@gdrinnan).
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Concussion Report

 The CFL has a new commissioner in Randy Ambrosie but, writes Paul Wiecek of the Winnipeg Free Press, the new guy “sounds a whole lot like the old commissioner of the CFL” when it comes to talking about CTE. . . . Wiecek’s column, which is headlined ‘CFL should do the right thing and pull its concussed head out of the sand,’ is right here.
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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 9:57 PM
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Constantine's second run over in Everett . . . Silvertips won't renew head coach's contract

The Everett Silvertips will raise two banners into the rafters at XFINITY Arena when the 2017-18 regular-season opens.
However, Kevin Constantine, the head coach who was behind the bench as the team finished atop the Western Conference and U.S. Division, won’t be there.
Kevin Constantine no longer is the head coach
of the WHL's Everett Silvertips.
(Photo: Everett Silvertips)
The Silvertips announced Tuesday that they won’t be renewing his contract when it expires on May 31.
“They just told me they weren’t going to rehire me,” Constantine told Jesse Gelenyse of the Everett Herald. “There wasn’t any discussion of (why). It was just ‘You’re not being rehired.’ It was a very short conversation.”
The futures of assistant coaches Mitch Love and Brennan Sonne, and goaltending coach Shane Clifford, weren’t addressed yesterday. Their contracts also are up on May 31.
Garry Davidson, the Silvertips’ general manager, said in a news release that the organization now will focus on the May 4 WHL bantam draft, then will look at hiring a head coach.
The Silvertips are owned by The Monarch Corporation, a private investment company that is headquartered in Medicine Hat and is under the control of Bill Yuill, its chairman and CEO.
The Silvertips just completed their 14th season in the WHL. Constantine has been the head coach for eight of those (2003-07, 2013-17).
The Silvertips have never missed the WHL playoffs; they also have two 100-point regular seasons to their credit, both of them under Constantine.
This season, they finished 44-16-12, for 100 points. They took out the Victoria Royals in a six-game first-round series, then were swept by the Seattle Thunderbirds. A year ago, Seattle won a second-round series from Everett in five games. In the spring of 2014, Everett lost a first-round series to Seattle in five games.
Constantine’s Everett teams always have had strong defensive games — this season, the Silvertips allowed 169 goals, the best in the WHL by 29 goals. However, their offence — 229 goals — was 15th.
It is believed that Everett management would like to see its team play a more wide-open game in the hopes of improving attendance.
Davidson left the Portland Winterhawks — he was their director of player personnel — to take over as Everett’s general manager on Feb. 15, 2012. He hired Constantine in time for the 2013-14 season.
It is evident that there were philosophical differences between Constantine and Davidson.
“I think I said when I came here we were at the opposite end of the spectrum,” Davidson told Gelenyse, “so that hasn’t changed. I hoped we would grow more together (but) I don’t think we ever did very much.”
Despite finishing atop the Western Conference, the Silvertips experience the lowest regular-season average attendance (4,865) in their 14 seasons. They play out of the 8,149-seat XFINITY Arena.
Their average attendance peaked at 6,460 in 2006-07, but has been under 5,000 in three of the past four seasons.
In looking for a coach who likes an up-tempo game you wonder if the Silvertips might consider Kyle Gustafson, who has been on the coaching staff of the Portland Winterhawks for 12 seasons, 10 as an assistant coach and two as associate coach. He has spent the brunt of that time working alongside general manager/head coach Mike Johnston, who loves that kind of game.
Having worked with the Winterhawks and with being in the same division, Davidson will be quite familiar with Gustafson’s work.
As a WHL head coach, Constantine, a 58-year-old native of International Falls, Minn., has 326 regular-season victories, good for 21st spot on the all-time list.
Constantine also has bead-coaching experience in the NHL, with the San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils.
There now are two WHL teams without head coaches.
The Spokane Chiefs announced on March 30 that Don Nachbaur, the third-winningest head coach in WHL history, was being relieved of his duties. Nachbaur had one year left on his contract.
Gelenyse’s complete story is right here.


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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 9:29 PM
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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Wheat Kings lose veteran scout

The world of international athletics has been rocked by six positive drug tests in the last week. . . . So what’s going on? . . . Dick Patrick has a pretty good story on why it happened and how these things can be avoided. That story is right here. . . . This story should be read by junior hockey players, who have to abide by WADA’s rules.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings are in the market for a new head scout following the resignation of Al Macpherson, who had been with the team for 27 years, most recently as director of player personnel. . . . There is no scout in Western Canada who is more respected than Macpherson. . . . “Well, it’s like losing your right arm,” Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner and GM, told James Shewaga of the Brandon Sun. . . . Macpherson, who has a farm near Saskatoon, told Shewaga he is looking forward to spending more time with his family. “I don’t see my grandsons play hockey often enough, all of those things that happen in the winter that you don’t have time to do. . . .,” he said. “But I enjoyed every minute of it and I have no complaints. I just thought it was time to see how the other half of the world lives.”
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“A recent NHL rule change designed to cut down on the number of concussions in the league hasn’t made a difference, a new study suggests,” writes Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press. “The research suggests the NHLrule, which outlawed bodychecks aimed at the head and checking from a player’s blind side, has not led to lower concussion rates among pro hockey players since it came into force in the 2010-11 season.”
Her complete story is right here. . . . This is interesting stuff because it points out how important it is that rules be correctly worded, and that there isn’t much sense having rules if they aren’t going to be enforced.
This study was published in the journal Plos One on Wednesday. You are able to find it right here, in its entirety.
If you are so inclined, there are some interesting NHL-OHL comparisons in the study.
After reading Branswell’s story and looking at the study, it is rather obvious that hockey’s pooh-bahs, at least at an elite level, simply aren’t doing enough to get brain injuries out of the game.
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Chris Peters, over at The United States of Hockey, takes a look at why “more NHL teams are going heavy on college-bound players in the draft.” . . . He also looks at the week that Western Michigan had, along with a few other odds and ends. . . . That’s all right here. . . . There also is a link to the U.S. of Hockey over there on the right.
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Scott Cacciola of The New York Times writes right here about the rich baseball player who ended up visiting one of the poorest cities in the U.S. Yes, it involves A-Rod.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Everett Silvertips have filled out their coaching staff with the signings of Mark LeRose and Shane Clifford. . . . LeRose signed on as an assistant coach, while Clifford will be the goaltending coach. . . . Both previously held those same roles with the Silvertips before going on to other things. . . . They will work alongside head coach Kevin Constantine and assistant coach Mitch Love. . . . LeRose, 43, was an assistant in Everett under John Becanic (2007-09) before leaving to join Constantine with the AHL’s Houston Aeros. LeRose spent the past two seasons in Austria and Sweden. . . . Clifford, 42, spent five seasons as the Silvertips’ goaltending coach and also spent one season (2005-06) with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. He owns and operates the Shane Clifford Goalie School that has operated near Pittsburgh since 2000.
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OHLThe OHL’s Kitchener Rangers have promoted assistant coach Troy Smith to head coach and added Murray Hiebert as general manager. . . . Smith spent the past seven seasons as an assistant with the Rangers. . . . Hiebert, who began scouting for the Rangers in 2001, had been the team’s director of scouting. . . . Steve Spott, the previous GM/head coach, left earlier this month to become head coach of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.


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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 1:46 AM
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