Blazers, Pats swing deal . . . Thunderbirds making changes . . . Cougars add coach

F Aki Kangasmäki (Chilliwack, 2006-07) has been loaned by KeuPa HT Keuruu (Finland, Mestis) to Lukko Rauma (Finland, Liiga). He started the season with Hokki Kajaani (Finland, Mestis), scoring three goals and adding three assists in nine games, before signing with KeuPa on Nov. 24. He had eight goals and seven assists in 12 games there. . . .

D Shaone Morrisonn (Kamloops, 1999-2002) has been traded by Medveščak Zagreb (Croatia, KHL) to Admiral Vladivostok (Russia, KHL) for cash compensation. Morrisonn had two goals and four assists in 33 games with Medveščak. The deal was completed on Christmas Day, which was the trade deadline in the KHL this season.

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#WHL KAM/REG Trade:  Blazers were 65-49-6-4 (.565) when D. Davidson was in lineup in career;  .712 when he had point, .458 when not.

— Geoffrey Brandow (@GeoffreyBrandow) December 27, 2016

The Kamloops Blazers had an extra defenceman and badly needed to add a veteran centre. The Regina Pats had extra forwards and wanted another defenceman. So the Blazers dealt D Dawson Davidson, 18, to the Pats for F Luc Smith, 18.

The trade was announced on Tuesday morning, although Davidson was told about it on Christmas night.

The Blazers will be without F Matt Revel, 20, for perhaps two months after he suffered an undisclosed injury during a game against the host Edmonton Oil Kings on Dec. 10. Revel, a veteran centre, was a key part of the Blazers, who are hoping that Smith is able to at least help make up for the absence.

The 6-foot-5, 205-pound Smith has six goals and five assists in 29 games with the Pats this season. In 154 career games, all with Regina, the native of Stony Plain, Alta., has 12 goals and 14 assists.

DAWSON DAVIDSON

Davidson, from Moosomin, Sask., is a puck-moving defenceman who should fit in well with the Pats’ high-powered offence. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder has three goals and 12 assists in 32 games this season. In 124 regular-season games, he had 12 goals and 51 assists. Last season, he finished with six goals and 33 assists in 59 games.

LUC SMITH

Davidson told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post that he is excited about joining a contender — the Pats went into last night at 22-3-6 — and a team that is in the running to be the host team for the 2018 Memorial Cup tournament.

“That’s why coming here is so special,” Davidson told Harder. “The Pats are very dangerous this year and, next year, if we can get the Memorial Cup that would be awesome. It’s an unbelievable opportunity.”

Interestingly, Davidson and Smith were both third-round selections in the 2013 bantam draft; in fact, they were taken two picks apart.

The Pats added Davidson almost a month after getting D Jonathan Smart, 17, from the Kelowna Rockets. Smart went into last night’s game with seven assists in eight games with Regina.

Kamloops also has brought in F Brodi Stuart from the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League. He has nine goals and 11 assists in 19 games with the Thunderbirds. He was pointless in two earlier games with the Blazers this season.

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The Spokane Chiefs have add F Alex Mowbray, 20, to their rsoter. Mowbray, who is from Calgary, had been playing with the AJHL’s Camrose Kodiaks, In 32 games, he had 10 goals and 10 assists. . . . Mowbray had played the previous three season with the Medicine Hat Tigers, putting up 22 goals and 20 assists in 177 games. Medicine Hat selected him in the fourth round of the 2011 bantam draft. . . . He joins G Jayden Sittler and F Keanu Yamamoto as Spokane’s three 20-year-olds.

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The Seattle Thunderbirds have acquired D Aaron Hyman, 18, from the Calgary Hitmen for a third-round selection in the 2018 bantam draft. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Hyman has a goal and seven assists in 28

AARON HYMAN

games this season. In 74 career regular-season games, he has two goals and 10 assists. The Thunderbirds, who lost a lot of size from their back end after last season with the departures of Jared Hauf and Jerret Smith, wanted to add some size and they have done that. . . . Calgary had been carrying nine defencemen, so something had to give. . . . The Hitmen selected Hyman in the third-round of the 2013 WHL bantam draft, using a pick acquired from Seattle for G Brandon Glover in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds have dropped D Bryan Allbee, 19, and F Layne Bensmiller, 19, from their roster, and are looking to trade D Brandon Schuldaus, who has asked out.

Allbee, from Prince George, was being used both on defence and as a fourth-line forward. This season, he had three assists in 33 games. In 146 career games, the first 88 with the Kootenay Ice, he had 11 goals and 28 assists. Seattle acquired Allbee from Kootenay on Jan. 4 for a fifth-round selection in the 2017 bantam draft.

“Allbee wants to play more and knows he won’t in our league so he is going to play in (junior A),” Seattle general manager Russ Farwell told Andy Eide of 710 ESPN Seattle.

Bensmiller, from Red Deer, was limited to seven games by an undisclosed injury. In 119 career games, he has 18 goals and 24 assists. He also has played with the Hitmen and Prince Albert Raiders. Seattle acquired Bensmiller and a conditional seventh-round 2017 draft pick from Prince Albert on Sept. 15, with F Nic Holowko going the other way.

Schuldaus, a fifth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft, has two goals and three assists in 33 games this season. Last season, as a freshman, the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Calgary native had two goals and four assists in 57 games.

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The Victoria Royals have signed G Riley Mathieson, 19, to a WHL contract. Mathieson is playing for the junior B Saanich Braves of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and will remain there. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Mathieson, who is from Port Hardy, B.C., will join the Royals, according to general manager Cam Hope, “on an as-needed basis.” . . . With the Braves, who are 21-9-1, Mathieson is 3.25, .902.

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The Prince George Cougars have added Shawn Chambers, a two-time Stanley Cup winner as a player, to their staff as an assistant coach. A defenceman, Chambers played 625 regular-season and 94 playoff games in the NHL over 13 seasons. He won Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils (1995) and Dallas Stars (1999). He and Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk were teammates in Dallas. . . . In Prince George, Chambers, a native of Sterling Heights, Mich., will work alongside Matvichuk and assistant coach Steve O’Rourke. . . . Chambers played 28 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 1986-87, after leaving the U of Alaska-Fairbanks. . . . He retired after playing four games with Dallas in 1999-2000.

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WHL commish Ron Robison said before season that "fighting is almost nonexistent in many ways today." WHL at 371 fighting majors this year.

— Brad E. Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) December 27, 2016

There's a 17-year-old in WHL who has fought 11 times so far this season. Nobody in NHL fought more than 12 times last season.

— Brad E. Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) December 27, 2016

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Hurricanes asking for grant . . . Cougars sign interim assistant coach . . . Oil Kings, Raiders deal

F Wacey Rabbit (Saskatoon, Vancouver, 2001-07) has signed a one-year contract with Val Pusteria (Italy, Alps HL). Last season, with the Nippon Paper Cranes Kushiro (Japan, Asia HL), he had seven goals and 34 assists in 48 games. Rabbit had signed a one-year contract with Nové Zámky (Slovakia, Extraliga) in May, but took advantage of an exit clause to sign with Val Pusteria.

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The Lethbridge Hurricanes’ share of $25 million in renovation costs for the Enmax Centre is $2.5 million. To date, the team has paid $330,000 of that. Melissa Villeneuve of the Lethbridge Herald reports that under the team’s lease with the city “the organization needs to pay $167,000 per year for the next 13 years” in order to pay off that debt. . . . Villeneuve also reports that the Hurricanes have applied for a provincial grant of as much as $600,000 that would help accelerate those payments. . . . That story is right here.

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Shawn Chambers, who played 13 NHL seasons and won two Stanley Cups, has joined the Prince George Cougars as an interim assistant coach. Chambers was at the bench with head coach Richard Matvichuk as the Cougars played the host Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash., on Wednesday night. Chambers, from Sterling Heights, Mich., and Matvichuk were teammates with the NHL’s Dallas Stars. . . . Chambers played one season (1986-87) with the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Prince George associate coach Steve O’Rourke isn’t with the Cougars for now as he tends to a health-related matter. The Cougars also have yet to replace assistant coach Michael Hengen, who left the team late last month.

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The Edmonton Oil Kings have acquired F Trey Fix-Wolansky from the Prince Albert Raiders and signed him to a WHL contract. In exchange, the Oil Kings gave up a fourth-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft. Edmonton had acquired that pick from the Kamloops Blazers on Tuesday, in exchange for G Carter Phair. . . . Fix-Wolansky, 17, is from Edmonton. He had 31 points, including 16 goals, in 51 games with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints last season.

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The Prince Albert Raiders released veteran F Cal Babych on Wednesday. Babych, 19, is from North Vancouver. Last season, he had 14 points, including five goals, in 56 games with the Raiders. He had six points, including three goals, in 41 games with the Calgary Hitmen in 2013-14. In 2014-15, he had three assists in one game with the Hitmen and 12 points, five of them goals, in 51 games with the Prince George Cougars. The Hitmen selected him in the fourth round of the 2012 bantam draft.

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The Spokane Chiefs have signed D Luke Gallagher, a Spokane native who was an eighth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. The 5-foot-7, 145-pound Gallagher, 16, had 19 points, including four goals, with the Calgary-based Edge 15s in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League last season. Gallagher is expected to spend 2016-17 with the junior B Spokane Braves of the Kootenay International Junior League.

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Over at sportsnet.ca, Neate Sager asks some interesting questions pertaining to the health of Brandon Wheat Kings F Nolan Patrick, who underwent summer surgery to repair a sport hernia that he incurred during last season’s playoff run. “Without knowing the cause of Patrick’s problem, it is worth wondering whether the conventional wisdom about how a young player can survive an 80- to 100-game grind is lacking,” Sager writes. “After all, the hockey industry isn’t about to start shortening schedules any time soon.” . . . That piece is right here.

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There isn’t a league anywhere that features the kinds of trades that sometimes take place in the OHL. On Wednesday, the Mississauga Steelheads dealt F Kirill Nizhnikov, 16, who was the seventh overall pick in the OHL’s 2016 draft, to the Barrie Colts for a whole bunch of draft picks. From the Steelheads’ news release: In the exchange, Mississauga got Guelph’s second-round pick in 2017, Flint’s fourth-round selection in 2017, Windsor’s third-round pick in 2019, Barrie’s third-round selections in 2019 and 2020, Barrie’s second-round pick in 2023, conditional third-round selections in 2021 and 2022, a conditional fourth-round pick in 2021 and a conditional fifth-round selection in 2021. In addition to the acquired draft picks, Mississauga is also set to receive a compensatory first-round selection” in the OHL’s 2017 draft. . . . Seriously. That trade really happened. . . . Nizhnikov is from Moscow, Russia, but for CHL purposes is a non-import because he has played in North America. The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder had 47 points, 31 of them goals, in 34 games with the bantam AAA Mississauga Rebels in 2014-15. Last season, he had 37 points, 23 of them goals, in 27 games with the minor midget AAA Toronto Jr. Canadiens. . . . He is eligible for the NHL’s 2018 draft.

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F Devin Setoguchi played four seasons (2003-07) in the WHL, the first three with the Saskatoon Blades and the last one with the Prince George Cougars. In the spring of 2007, he almost singlehandedly carried the Cougars past the Kamloops Blazers in a first-round playoff series. Now he’s fighting to keep his career alive. Setoguchi, now 29, played last season in Switzerland and later this month will join the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings on a tryout basis. He spoke with writer David Pollak about all that he has been through, including his battle with alcoholism. Setoguchi really opened up and that story is 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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WEDNESDAY’S GAMES:

In Kennewick, Wash., F Hudson Elynuik’s second goal of the game, 30 seconds into OT, gave the Spokane Chiefs a 4-3 victory over the Everett Silvertips. Spokane F Pavel Kousel had forced OT at 18:08 of the third period. F Keanu Yamamoto had two assists for the Chiefs, while Elynuik had one. Everett G Carter Hart, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game on Tuesday night, stopped 28 shots in going the distance. . . . F Carson Focht’s second PP goal of the game, at 16:25 of the third period, broke a 3-3 tie as the Tri-City Americans beat the Prince George Cougars, 5-3, F Jordan Topping had a goal and two assists for the Americans. F Kody McDonald scored twice for the Cougars, while F Jesse Gabrielle had two assists and F Jansen Harkins had a goal and an assist. The last 3:10 of the second period was tacked on to the start of the third after a pane of glass behind the Americans’ net was broken.

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Stop the presses. Forget the election. Put a hold on all the wars. Tiger is coming back to play a tournament in October.

— Dan Jenkins (@danjenkinsgd) September 7, 2016

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.