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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
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The Portland Winterhawks have signed D Jack Dougherty, 19, who was a second-round selection by the Nashville Predators in the NHL’s 2014 draft. He signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Predators on Friday. . . . Dougherty was a freshman with the U of Wisconsin Badgers last season, putting up two goals and seven assists in 33 games. . . . Before heading to Portland, Dougherty will take part in USA Hockey’s national junior team evaluation camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. It runs from Saturday through Aug. 8. . . . Portland will have four players at that camp, veteran forwards Paul Bittner and Dominic Turgeon and freshman D Caleb Jones being the others. . . . Dougherty, from St. Paul, joins Bittner, D Nick Heid, D Blake Heinrich and F Keegan Iverson as fellow Minnesotans on the Winterhawks’ roster.
The 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship will be held in Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis or Tampa. USA Hockey announced Tuesday that those cities are the finalists to play host to the tournament. . . . Detroit, which has billed itself as Hockeytown USA, didn’t make the cut, although it was one of at least 12 cities that had expressed an interest. . . . The list will be shortened even more over the next two months, with the host city to be selected before year’s end. . . . The fact that five major cities are left in the running tells you just how big this tournament has become in North America. As Chicago Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz said yesterday: "Next to the Olympics, I think that’s the biggest hockey event there is out there.” . . . The 2016 tournament is to be held in Helsinki, Finland, while the 2017 event is scheduled for Montreal and Toronto. . . . Chris Peters of cbssports.com takes a really good look at the picture 
Ryan McGill, a veteran WHL head coach, is on his way to the OHL, having signed a two-year contract as head coach of the Owen Sound Attack. . . . He replaces Greg Ireland, who resigned earlier this month and now is the head coach of Adler Mannheim in Germany. . . . McGill, 46, spent the past three seasons as head coach of the WHL’s Kootenay Ice. His contract wasn’t renewed at season’s end. He is the second coach to move from the Ice to the OHL, following Kris Knoblauch, who has coached the Erie Otters for two-plus seasons. . . . “To get a head coach of Ryan’s calibre, in the time frame we were working under is unbelievable,” Attack general manager Dale DeGray said in a news release. “Ryan brings with him a wealth of experience and success, both at the professional and junior levels. He’s a competitor who knows how to win. Our organization is extremely lucky to have him.” DeGray also likes McGill’s familiarity with small-market franchises. “Ryan played in Swift Current, coached in Kootenay and now being the head coach of the Owen Sound Attack means that he has been a part of three of the smaller markets in the Canadian Hockey League,” DeGray added. “Performing in a small-market in front of a very loyal fan base will be nothing new to him and something he is comfortable with. The man knows how to win.” . . . The Attack also signed Derek King, 48, to a two-year deal as assistant coach. He spent the past six seasons on the coaching staff of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. . . . Daniel Nugent-Bowman, who now is doing some writing for Yahoo! Sports Canada, has more 
F Zdenek Okal (Medicine Hat, 2008-10) and F Ondrej Vesely (Portland, Tri-City, 1996-98) signed one-year contract extensions with Zlin (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Okal had seven goals and four assists in 46 games with Zlin, one goal in a one-game loan to Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic, 1. Liga), and was named Extraliga rookie of the year. . . . Vesely had 10 goals and 31 assists in 52 games with Zlin.
If you haven’t seen it by now, 
Former Kamloops Blazers F Chase Schaber played this season with the U of Lethbridge Pronghorns, but has since turned pro and is with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads. Chris Langrill of the Idaho Statesman has Schaber’s story 
In Calgary, the Edmonton Oil Kings scored four times in the first 10:15 of the opening period and went on to beat the Hitmen, 7-3. . . . Edmonton F T.J. Foster scored the game’s first two goals, in the opening 2:10, giving him three in the playoffs. . . . Oil Kings F Michael St. Croix finished with a goal and three assists. . . . Edmonton D Martin Gernat had a goal and an assist, and was plus-5. . . . The Oil Kings, who took a 5-1 lead into the second period, have twice enjoyed five-goal periods in this series, while Calgary has done it once. . . . Calgary F Brooks Macek scored on a second-period penalty shot. . . . Calgary F Elliott Peterson, who had four goals in 38 regular-season games, got his fifth in his 14th playoff game. . . . The Oil Kings were without D Griffin Reinhart, who left in the third period of Game 3 with an undisclosed injury, and F Luke Bertolucci, who departed in the second period after absorbing a stiff check by Calgary D Jaynen Rissling. . . . Edmonton inserted F Cole Benson and D Stephen Shmoorkoff into the lineup. . . . Reinhart actually returned to Edmonton in order to be re-evaluated. . . .
In Kamloops, G Mac Carruth stopped 29 shots and F Nic Petan scored twice as the Portland Winterhawks dumped the Blazers, 3-0. . . . Carruth has two shutouts in this series, four in these playoffs and seven in his career. . . . Portland F Nic Petan scored twice, giving him eight this spring, and had an assist. . . . For the second straight game, the Winterhawks got an early 1-0 lead with a 5-on-3 PP goal. . . . Portland F Ty Rattie had three assists, upping his career playoff total to 88 points. He passed former Kamloops F Rob Brown (1983-87) and moved into third on the WHL’s all-time list. Former Kamloops D Greg Hawgood (1983-88) is next on the list, with 100 points. . . . Rattie leads the WHL playoff scoring derby, with 29 points in 14 games. . . . Portland F Keegan Iverson drew a charging major and game misconduct for a third-period hit that knocked Kamloops F Brendan Ranford out of the game. . . . Blazers head coach Guy Charron wasn’t able to provide an update on Ranford’s condition after the game. . . . There’s a video featuring that Iverson hit on Ranford 
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