Patrick tops Craig's List . . . Veteran forward in Blades' camp . . . Ex-WHL D is head coach at UBC

D Travis Ehrhardt (Moose Jaw, Portland, 2004-09) has signed a one-year contract with Genève-Servette (Switzerland, NL A). Last season, with the Utica Comets (AHL), he had six goals and 19 assists in 64 games. . . .

F Sean Ringrose (Medicine Hat, 2007-09) has signed a one-year contract with Gap (France, Ligue Magnus). Last season, he had two goals and six assists in 22 games with the Colorado Eagles (ECHL).

———

While chatting with an NHL scout at a recent exhibition game, it was mentioned that 2016-17 isn’t looking like a banner season for the WHL, at least not in terms of top-end NHL draft picks.

NOLAN PATRICK

In fact, he suggested that the WHL might be home to only . . . maybe . . . three first-round selections. That includes F Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings, who is coming off sports hernia surgery but remains the consensus No. 1 selection.

Craig Button of TSN issued his first 2017 draft rankings yesterday and his list pretty much bears out what the scout suggested.

The second WHLer on Craig’s List is F Kailer Yamamoto of the Spokane Chiefs. He’s at No. 19, one spot ahead of Kelowna Rockets D Cal Foote.

D Henri Jokiharju of the Portland Winterhawks is at No. 22, with F Michael Rasmussen of the Tri-City Americans at No. 27.

Craig’s List also has 10 “players to watch” and it includes four WHLers — F Jaret Anderson-Dolan of Spokane, D Cale Fleury of the Kootenay Ice, G Ian Scott of the Prince Albert Raiders, G Stuart Skinner of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Craig’s List is right here.

——

Whoops! Apologies to F Owen Seidel of the Seattle Thunderbirds, who, despite a report here yesterday, remains on their preseason roster. Seidel, 18, was acquired from the Swift Current Broncos last season and had a goal and two assists in 18 games with Seattle. He was pointless in seven games with the Broncos. . . . In 2013-14, he led the B.C. Major Midget League in scoring, putting up 67 points, including 50 points, with the Greater Vancouver Canadians. . . . His name was inadvertently dropped from the Thunderbirds’ online roster, which led to reports that he had been released. Seidel was back on that roster as of Tuesday afternoon.

——

The Kootenay Ice appears to be down to three goaltenders after dropping Jesse Makaj, 15, from its roster. He is expected to join the Vancouver-North West Giants of the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League. Makaj, a Vancouver native, was a second-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . News of the move was tweeted by Dickson Liong, the director of communications for The Sports Corporation. . . . Goaltenders still with the Ice are Cranbrook native Payton Lee, 20, who was acquired from the Edmonton Oil Kings over the summer; Declan Hobbs, who backed up Wyatt Hoflin last season; and Jakob Walter, 17, of Langley, B.C., who was a second-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft.

——

Veteran F Jesse Shynkaruk, 20, is in camp with the Saskatoon Blades on a tryout basis. He was released by the Moose Jaw Warriors over the summer. The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder is from Saskatoon and played a season there with the midget AAA Contacts. . . . He has three WHL seasons under his belt, having played 85 games with the Kamloops Blazers and 111 with the Warriors. In 196 regular-season games, he has 48 points, including 23 goals. . . . Shynkaruk is one of three 20-year-olds on the Blades’ roster at the moment, the others being F Ryan Graham and D Bryton Sayers.

———

Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.

———

The ECHL’s Worcester Railers, who are to begin play in October 2017, have signed Jamie Russell as general manager and head coach. Russell, 50, is a native of Kamloops. Russell spent the past two seasons as GM and head coach of the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach for three seasons at Providence College. He also was the head coach at Michigan Tech for eight seasons (2003-11).

——

Former WHL D Sven Butenschon has been named the head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds. An assistant coach with the Thunderbirds last season, he was named interim head coach on Aug. 30 when the university announced that it had parted company with head coach Adam Shell after one season. Butenschon played three seasons (1993-96) with the Brandon Wheat Kings before going on to a professional career.

———

Ryely McKinstry missed @WHLGiants practice today. GM Glen Hanlon admits it's more concussion concerns. D-man only played 11 games last year.

— Steve Ewen (@SteveEwen) September 14, 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.

Johnny Bower singing and swinging

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Casey Pierro-Zabotel (Vancouver, 2007-09) has been released by Lausitzer Füchse (Germany, DEL2). In 28 games, he had 19 points, including four goals. . . .
F Gal Koren (Kelowna, 2010-11) was released by Medvescak Zagreb (Croatia, KHL). This season with Medvescak, he had one goal in 23 games. According to Medvescak, Koren will report to Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia, Austria Erste Bank Liga). . . .
F Adam Courchaine (Medicine Hat, Vancouver, 2001-05) signed a three-year contract extension with Krefeld Pinguine (Germany, DEL). The deal runs through the 2016-17 season. This season, Courchaine leads the DEL in scoring, with 39 points, including 13 goals, in 29 games. . . .
D Sergei Drozd (Tri-City, 2009-10) was assigned to Neman Grodno (Belarus, Ekstraliga) by Dinamo Minsk (Belarus, KHL). This season with Dinamo, Drozd was pointless in seven games. With Neman, he had 16 points, 10 of them goals, in 22 games. . . .
F Travis Ehrhardt (Moose Jaw, Portland, 2004-09) signed for the rest of this season with the Stavanger Oilers (Norway, GET-Ligaen). He was released from a PTO by St. John's Ice Caps (AHL) on Dec 16. In eight games with St. John’s, he had one goal. He is scheduled to arrive in Stavanger on Dec. 27 and may make his debut on Dec. 28 against Vålerenga.
———
Here from Hockey Time Machine, as a Christmas gift to you, is a video of former NHL goaltender Johnny Bower singing and swinging with his hit song Honky the Christmas Goose. . . . Enjoy!


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 Travis Ehrhardt (Moose Jaw, Portland, 2004-09) signed a one-year contract with TPS Turku (Finland, SM-Liiga) after a successful try-out. Ehrhardt had one goal and six assists in 41 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) last season. The TPS press release (in Finnish) with picture is right here.
———
Another email from a fan of the Whitney Forum:
“Noticed your comment on the Whitney Forum. The place is incredible. Team photos lining the walls from as early as the 1920s, championship banners, hockey hall of fame. Spent 5 years with the Bombers, 4 with Norm Johnston who guided the team to their last championship in 1992-93 restoring the pride to the Bursting B. The Bombers are having a 20th anniversary of that championship September 28-29 with at least 15 of the 23 players returning. There is a story on the Bomber website.”
Indeed, there is news of that reunion right here.
The writer also notes that “an interesting view on youtube is highlights of that series, game 6 in Flin Flon with over 3,000 jammed in the Forum that has a capaciy of 1800 and a jammed Melville Stadium with 10 bus loads from Flin Flon for game 7.”
Having been in Melville for that Game 7, I can attest to the craziness in the building that night. I can only guess at what Game 6 in Whitney Forum must have been like.
———
The Vancouver Giants will open the season with Liam Liston, 19, and Tyler Fuhr, 17, as their goaltenders. . . . On Wednesday, the Giants assigned Payton Lee, 16, to the junior B Richmond Sockeyes of the Pacific International league. Lee, a second-round selection in the 2011 bantam draft, is seen as the club’s goaltender of the future. . . . Liston was acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes over the summer, while Fuhr, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., and not related to Grant Fuhr, was perhaps the biggest success story of Vancouver’s training camp. He was a fourth-round selection by the Brandon Wheat Kings the 2010 bantam draft but was a free agent when he arrived in Vancouver’s camp.
———
The Regina Pats spent part of Wednesday helping Habitat for Humanity on a project. Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post was there and discovered something of a competition between the city and rural players.
An excerpt from Harder’s story . . .
“I got to go there and work and show the city slickers what to do,” offered forward Dyson Stevenson, who has some carpentry experience working on his family farm near Shaunavon. “I got to use the table saw. I was working with (goaltender Matt Hewitt), he was doing my measurements. I think every three measurements I had to re-cut a board because he had no idea what he was doing. Then he wanted to cut. I let him do the last board. I was pretty scared. I had my glasses on and was about 10 feet away from the tablesaw when he was trying to cut it. I’m surprised he didn’t get his fingers caught in there.”
Harder’s story is right here.
———
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reports that Lorne Molleken, the Blades’ GM/head coach, “is taking part in the Food Basket Challenge, where he will attempt to live off items from a food bank basket for the next week. Molleken begins his challenge this morning.”
According to Nugent-Bowman, Molleken “receives a basket from the Saskatoon Food Bank, five basic pantry items and a food allowance of $5 for the next seven days.”
That story is right here.
———
Nugent-Bowman also reported that the Blades have ordered all of their defencemen to wear Shot Blockers, plastic guards that fit over their skates and are designed to absorb most of the blow caused by blocked shots.
“It’s a situation where we expect our players to pay a price and part of that is blocking shots,” Molleken told Nugent-Bowman. “It’s a huge part of the game today. We’re hoping that this will prevent any type of foot injury.”
That story is right here.
———
D Ryan Murray was back on the ice with the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday. Murray, who was taken by Columbus with the second overall pick of the 2012 NHL draft, would be going to camp with the Blue Jackets if not for the labour problems at that level.
The Silvertips captain didn’t get shown a whole lot of respect during his first practice.
As Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald wrote: “. . . in his first practice with the team he sacrificed some blood to the hockey gods.”
It turns out that F Ty Mappin caught Murray with an elbow.
"(Mappin) caught me with a little elbow there in the corner," a laughing Murray told Patterson. "It's the way she goes, though. I guess that's my welcome back."
———
If you aren’t aware, Richard Doerksen, who handles discipline for the WHL, already has been busy.
And he dropped the hammer on Wednesday when he suspended Victoria Royals D Tyler Stahl for six games for a checking-to-the-head major and game misconduct from a game against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday.
The exhibition season isn’t even over and Doerksen has suspended 10 players for a total of 21 games. Of that total, 14 games have been dished out for checking-to-the-head penalties.
You are free to wonder if this is the season when Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president, hockey, starts handing out 10- and 20-game sentences.
———
The Moose Jaw Civic Centre (aka the Crushed Can) is gone. If you click right here, it will take you to a cbc.ca compilation of photos that mark the demolition of the arena.
———
The Tri-City Americans have added another defenceman to their stable, with the acquisition of Brodie Clowes from the Victoria Royals for a fifth-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Clowes will turn 17 on Oct. 30. . . . Clowes, from Calgary, was selected by Victoria in the fifth round of the 2010 bantam draft. . . . The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder played 46 games with the AJHL’s Olds Grizzlys, earning 13 points and 56 penalty minutes. . . . Clowes suffered an undisclosed injury in Victoria’s camp and is expected to miss the season’s first month. . . . Even without Clowes, the Americans are carrying nine defencemen, with six of those having been contributors to the Tri-City cause last season.
———
D Derrick Pouliot of the Portland Winterhawks has signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . Pouliot, a 5-foot-11, 195-pounder from Weyburn, Sask., was the eighth-overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft. . . . He had 59 points in 72 games last season, his second with the Winterhawks, and then added 17 points in the playoffs.
———
The Red Deer Rebels kept their roster at 26 after assigning two players and adding two others. . . . F Dexter Bricker, 17, is to join the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks, while F Vukie Mpofu, 16, will play for the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts. Both players are from Saskatoon. . . . Red Deer added F Ryley Bennefield, 18, to their roster on a tryout basis. A native of Wetaskiwin, Alta., he had been in camp with the Calgary Hitmen and scored twice in three exhibition games. A second-round pick by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2009 bantam draft, he has played three games with Lethbridge and six with the Portland Winterhawks over the last three season. . . . The Rebels also are taking a look at F Wyatt Johnson, 17, who played last season with the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers. He had 45 points in 42 games with the Blazers. He had been in the Vancouver Giants’ camp and will get checked out in Red Deer because he has been out with a concussion.
———
There was some ugliness in an SM-liiga exhibition game between HIFK and Jokerit in Finland recently and a whole whack of suspensions were handed out. That included eight-game suspensions to three coaches.
There’s more right here.

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 home of the Kootenay Ice now has a new name.

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Travis Ehrhardt (Moose Jaw, Portland, 2004-09) signed a try-out contract with TPS Turku (Finland, SM-Liiga). He had one goal and six assists in 41 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) last season. The contract lasts until the start of the regular season (Sept. 13) and rolls into a one-year contract should Ehrhardt's try-out be a success. TPS play their first exhibition game on Friday. . . .
D Dustin Friesen (Swift Current, 2000-04) signed a one-year contract
with the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven (Germany, 2. Bundesliga). He had one goal and two assists in 19 games with the Chicago Wolves (AHL) and one assist in one game on loan to the Missouri Mavericks (CHL) last season. Friesen is due to arrive in Bremerhaven in the middle of next week to begin practices with the club. The Pinguins play their first exhibition game on Aug. 31 and begin their regular season on Sept. 21. . . .
F Justin Kelly (Prince Albert, Spokane, Saskatoon, 1997-2002) signed a one-year contract with Troja/Ljungby (Sweden, Allsvenskan), returning to the club after a 10-year absence. He had two assists in 14 games with Dusseldorf (Germany, DEL) during an injury-plagued 2011-12 season. The contract contains a clause in which either party can terminate the agreement at anytime prior to the end of September. Kelly is to arrive in Ljungby on Sunday and the team opens its exhibition season on Aug. 10. Sweden's Allsvenskan begins its regular season on Sept. 12. . . .
G Alexander Fomitchev (Calgary, Seattle, 1997-2000) signed a one-year contract with THK Tver (Russia, Vysshaya Liga). He had a 2.94 GAA and a .916 save percentage in nine games with Sarov (Russia, Vysshaya Liga) last season.
———
The Cranbrook RecPlex is no more. Under a 10-year deal, the home of the Kootenay Ice will be called Western Financial Place. . . . According to a news release, “Western Financial Group, an insurance and financial services company based in Alberta, won naming rights for the next 10 years and plans to work with the City of Cranbrook, the facility operators, and the company's regional partner, Falkins Insurance Group, to build on the longstanding tradition of providing the residents of Cranbrook and surrounding areas a first-class destination for entertainment, recreation, and community involvement.” . . . The 10-year deal that includes naming rights and other sponsorship and usage commitments, is worth $750,000, “including an advance of $500,000.” . . . The facility opened Oct. 13, 2000, and also includes a lap and wave pool, and racquet ball/squash courts.
———
Dan Mulhausen has had the ‘interim’ removed from his title as he has been named the Tri-City Americans’ vice-president of business operations and marketing communications. He had been in that role since the departure of Brian Sandy in December. . . . Mulhausen, 30, joined the Americans seven years ago as an account executive. For the last four seasons, he worked as the club’s director of marketing, media relations and game operations.
———
The Everett Silvertips have signed D Kevin Davis, the 11th overall selection in the WHL’s 2012 bantam draft. Davis, from Kamloops, had 46 points in 49 games with the bantam AAA Jardine’s Blazers last season.
———
D Paul Bonar (Moose Jaw, Everett, 2008-10) has committed to attend the U of Regina and play for the Cougars. Bonar, who is from Brandon, spent the last two seasons with the MJHL’s Winnipeg Blues. He played 44 games with the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2008-09 and two with the Everett Silvertips in 2009-10.
———
Grant Armstrong is the Victoria Royals’ new director of player personnel. Armstrong spent the last four seasons as the Portland Winterhawks’ head scout. Armstrong, 50, is from North Vancouver. For the last two seasons, he was head coach of the junior B North Delta Devils, who played in the Pacific International league. He also was the North Vancouver Minor Hockey Association’s director of hockey operations since 2010. . . . Armstrong’s signing doesn’t affect the status of Garry Pochipinski, who remains the Royals’ director of scouting.
———
The Portland Winterhawks have had two recent departures from their scouting department, what with Garry Davidson having stepped down as director of player personnel to join the Everett Silvertips as general manager and now Grant Armstrong leaving for Victoria. . . . “With the departures of Grant and Garry we now have two key scouting positions to fill, and we will begin that process immediately,” Portland GM/head coach Mike Johnston said in a news release.
———
The Lethbridge Hurricanes will be without D Adam Henry until at least January. According to the Hurricanes, Henry has been diagnosed with myocarditis, “a condition that’s an inflammation of the heart muscle and while there are various causes, it’s most often due to common virus infections.” . . . Henry, who will turn 18 on Nov. 24, had 21 points and 47 penalty minutes in 60 games as a freshman last season.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
The Victoria Royals have confirmed that assistant coaches Enio Sacilotto, Ben Cooper and Brady Robinson will be back for another season, as will Jeff Compton, the strength and conditioning coach. Robinson works with their goaltenders. . . . They will be working with new head coach Dave Lowry. . . . The Royals’ staff also will include Geoff Grimwood, the head coach of the major midget South Island Royals. He will work with the WHL team when available. . . .
Jim Mollard (Brandon, Winnipeg Warriors, 1981-83) has signed a three-year deal as the new head coach of the MJHL’s OCN Blizzard. He actually signed a couple of weeks and I somehow missed this one. Mollard, 48, has been away from the game for 13 years, but he has coaching experience with the now-defunct Brandon U Bobcats and in Europe. He replaces Jomar Cruz, who resigned in May.

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.