THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Andrej Podkonicky (Portland, 1996-98) signed a one-year contract with Zvolen (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had three goals and three assists in 16 games with Kometa Brno (Czech Republic, Extraliga) and six goals and nine assists in 31 games with Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic, Extraliga) last season. . . .
F Gilbert Brule (Vancouver, 2002-06) signed a one-year contract with ZSC Zurich (Switzerland, NL A). He had eight goals and 10 assists in 27 games with the Oklahoma City Barons (AHL) and five goals and nine assists in 33 games with the Phoenix Coyotes (NHL) last season. . . .
F Tyler Redenbach (Prince George, Swift Current, Lethbridge, 2001-05) signed a one-year contract extension with HIFK Helsinki (Finland, SM-Liiga). He had six goals and 15 assists in 23 games with Olten (Switzerland, NL B) and six goals and 13 assists in 26 games for HIFK after joining the club in January. . . . Redenbach is a former WHL scoring champion, having won the title in 2003-04 when he put up 105 points for the Swift Current Broncos.
———
D Zach Habscheid won’t be back with the WHL’s Victoria Royals. Instead, Habscheid, 20, will play for the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede. The son of veteran coach Marc Habscheid, Zach played three seasons under his father, two with the Chilliwack Bruins and last season with the Royals. In 139 regular-season games, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Habscheid had 13 points, two of them goals, and 195 penalty minutes. Injuries, including concussions, limited him to 45 games in 2010-11 and 41 games last season.
———
Terry Ruskowski (Swift Current, 1971-74) is the new general manager and head coach of the Central league’s Quad City Mallards. He replaces David Bell, who resigned from both positions after one season with the Mallards. . . . Ruskowski, 57, has been a pro coach for 17 seasons, nine of those in the CHL. He spent eight seasons with the Laredo Bucks and last season with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. He also almost two full seasons (1989-91) as head coach of the Saskatoon Blades. He lost his job late in the 1990-91 season with the Blades at 22-30-2. . . . Saskatoon GM Daryl Lubiniecki hired Bob Hoffmeyer to replace Ruskowski. Hoffmeyer finished the season but didn’t return to the Blades, ultimately signing on as head coach of the IHL’s Kalamazoo Wings. . . . Lubiniecki then signed Lorne Molleken as head coach.
———
David Branch, the commissioner of the OHL, won’t name names when it comes to the Windsor Spitfires and the recruiting violations that cost them a $400,000 fine and five draft picks. (The Spitfires, it must be noted, are appealing.) . . . “For good or bad,” writes columnist Bob Duff of the Windsor Star, this could prove to be Branch’s defining moment in a long and storied career as the man in charge of the OHL.” . . . Duff also calls for Branch to reveal the names of the players who were involved in this situation. Not doing so, says Duff, tars too many players with the same brush. . . . That piece is right here.
———
Bob Duff, the afore-mentioned Windsor Star columnist, has another piece right here that includes reaction on the Spitfires situation from some U.S. hockey people.
Here’s some of what Duff writes, this in reference to a lawsuit that was filed by the OHL's Kitchener Rangers following a story that appeared in the Michigan Daily:
Herschel Fink, the Detroit-based lawyer who represents the paper, has implied that he might put the entire Canadian Hockey League and its recruiting practices on trial, a can of worms that no junior hockey operator wants to see opened.
"Sometimes things come out and there are unintended consequences that you wish you hadn't started," Fink said in an interview with Toronto's Sportsnet 590 The Fan. "I don't know if that's going to be the case here.
"If it did go all the way and if it moved into the U.S. courts . . . there's a potential to dig into this whole question of compensation of players and whether it takes place and how the league deals with this issue."
That's a scary proposition for those in the hockey development business and may very well be why everyone is afraid to cast the first stone against the Spitfires.

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.

Marc Habscheid is moving on up.
Habscheid, who has spent the last three seasons as general manager and head coach of the WHL’s Victoria Royals franchise, is moving into an executive position with GSL Holdings Ltd., the parent company of RG Properties Ltd., and the Royals.
Habscheid told Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist that it was a mutual agreement between him and owner Graham Lee.
“He is the boss and I respect him . . . it’s the right time,” Habscheid said.
Asked if Habscheid had been pushed away from the Royals, Lee replied: “No, absolutely not. This was a mutually discussed decision.”
Later, Habscheid added:
“Graham and I talked about it and it’s a two-fold family and business decision. Now seemed like the perfect time. I can spend more time with the family. I will have weekends to myself. . . . I haven’t had them for awhile. And I can learn the business and tech side of the company.”
Habscheid, 49, played six games with the Kamloops Jr. Oilers in 1982-83 and later coached the Kamloops Blazers for two seasons (1997-99), guiding them to the WHL’s championship final in the spring of 1999. He went on to a stint as head coach of the Kelowna Rockets, taking them to the Memorial Cup championship on home ice in 2003.
After a brief time as the associate coach under head coach Dave Lewis with the NHL’s Boston Bruins, Habscheid joined the then-Chilliwack Bruins for 2009-10 and was there for two seasons. He made the move to Vancouver Island with the franchise a year ago, after it was sold to RG Properties and renamed the Royals.
The Royals went 24-41-7 last season, finishing seventh in the 10-team Western Conference, and then were swept by the Blazers from a first-round playoff series.
According to a news release issued Friday by GSL, Habscheid “will be taking on a new executive role within GSL to assist GSL in developing other hockey related businesses.”
GSL owns such things as Officepools.com, which bills itself as “the world’s largest on-line hockey pool site,” Planet Ice and Planet Youth Hockey, a charity program that helps inner city kids.
According to the GSL release, Habscheid “will be involved in advising these existing businesses as well as assisting in developing new hockey-related business opportunities.”
The released added: “In taking on this new role within GSL, Marc will be relinquishing his responsibilities with the hockey team.”
This move leaves three WHL teams without head coaches as the Royals join the Brandon Wheat Kings, who fired Cory Clouston after the season, and the Kootenay Ice, who dismissed Kris Knoblauch, as he was to interview for the head-coaching position with the U of Alberta Golden Bears while under contract to the WHL team.
Speculation on the Royals’ next general manager will, at least in the early going, focus on Doug Soetaert. The 56-year-old Soetaert was unexpectedly fired by the Everett Silvertips on Feb. 2 after working as their general manager for more than seven seasons. He later filed a lawsuit against the Silvertips, seeking what he claims are unpaid wages, along with damages and legal expenses.
Clouston, 42, who also coached the Ice, and Knoblauch, 33, both may be in the running.
According to Dheensaw, Lee isn’t sure whether he will split the GM and head-coaching duties.
“We’ll see what the candidates look like,” Lee said. “There’s quite a bit of interest among people out there in coming to Victoria. There are a lot of good candidates. We’re keeping an open mind.”
Dave Hunchak, the associate coach with the Blazers who has one year left on his contract, would seem to be a logical candidate, but Lee told Dheensaw: “All the people we are looking at are currently not with jobs.”
JUST NOTES: While meeting with media in Victoria, Habscheid said his son Zach, a 20-year-old defenceman, won’t be back with the Royals. He has played three years in the WHL, the first two with the Bruins, but injuries, including concussions, limited him to 53, 45 and, last season, 41 games. He has career totals of 13 points, including two goals, and 195 penalty minutes.
———
Brad Schmidt of The Oregonian reports that “Portland’s plan to renovate and greenify the aging Veterans Memorial Coliseum has met financial reality: There isn’t enough green to pay for everything.”
The Coliseum, of course, is home to the Portland Winterhawks.
It seems that costs have gone up by a third since November and negotiations with the Winterhawks, who have said they will be financially involved, perhaps for as much as $10 million, are four months behind schedule.
Schmidt’s story is right here.
———
With the NHL partying in Pittsburgh as it holds its two-day draft, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail, as he only can do, writes today about “a fear of Fehr.” . . . NHL owners, MacGregor writes, “are determined to address the minimum salary-cap issue.” . . . The NHL and NHLPA are soon to begin negotiations on a new CBA. And, at the moment, all signs point to another work stoppage.
MacGregor’s thoughts are 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.

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It seems the WHL may be within a year or two of changing its playoff format to one that involves more play within the four divisions.
Appearing with Dan Russell on Sportstalk, the nightly CKNW radio show out of Vancouver, Ron Toigo, the Vancouver Giants’ majority owner, said Wednesday night that a change may be two years from implementation.
“I think it’s got lots of traction . . . it was discussed at length in the Las Vegas meetings (in February),” Toigo said. “And it’ll be picked up again at the annual general meeting in Vancouver in June.”
Asked whether a change could be in place for next season, Toigo replied: “I think it’s something that probably will be two years down the road. You might get the decision this year and plan it for two years after that. I think it’ll end up happening . . . it’s just a matter of when.”
The present format has been in play since 2007-08. While teams play within a division during the regular season, they are seeded one through eight in their conference for the playoffs.
Prior to 2007-08, teams played the first playoff round within their divisions, then were reseeded by conferences.
Toigo said he would be “more in favour of doing the complete division format.”
He said he would prefer each division come up with a playoff winner, with teams then meeting for conference titles and the two survivors advancing to the WHL final.
“Rather than play one series in the division,” Toigo said, “and then go to the conference. . . . If you want to do the rivalry division format, then do it all the way through.”
The biggest reason for wanting change has to do with an attempt to cut down on travel while encouraging geographic rivalries.
According to Toigo, the one problem in the B.C. Division is the presence of the Prince George Cougars.
“The travel aspect is . . . really important,” Toigo explained. “Where it gets killed is when you put Prince George in the mix. For the B.C. Division, you’d still have the 12-hour drive and the 10-hour drive. That’s where it kind of falls off on that part.”
Under the previous format, there were occasions when teams missed the playoffs in their division when they would have made it under a conference format. In 2005-06, for example, the Kamloops Blazers finished last in the B.C. Division with 73 points. In the U.S. Division, the Portland Winterhawks and Tri-City Americans made the playoffs with fewer points.
A desire to eliminate such situations led the WHL to the format it uses today.
“At the end of the day,” Toigo said, “everything goes in cycles and it is what is is . . . I think I’m more in favour of the division format than I have been in the past.”
———
Here are this season's playoff matchups under the conference format:
Western Conference
Tri-City vs. Everett
Kamloops vs. Victoria
Portland vs. Kelowna
Vancouver vs. Spokane
Eastern Conference
Edmonton vs. Kootenay
Moose Jaw vs. Regina
Calgary vs. Brandon
Medicine Hat vs. Saskatoon
Here is how the matchups would be had this season been played using a divisional playoff format:
Western Conference
Tri-City vs. Everett
Portland vs. Spokane
Kamloops vs. Victoria
Vancouver vs. Kelowna
Eastern Conference
Edmonton vs. Kootenay
Calgary vs. Medicine Hat
Moose Jaw vs. Regina
Saskatoon vs. Brandon
———
The Victoria Royals welcomed back F Robin Soudek, a 27-goal man in the regular season, for Game 1 against the Kamloops Blazers last night. Soudek, 20, from Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, missed the last three games of the regular season with what is believed to have been a shoulder injury.
The Royals, however, were without F Brandon Magee, 18, who had 23 goals in the regular season. Magee, from Edmonton, won’t play in the series. In fact, he will be out up to six weeks with a foot injury.
Victoria D Zach Habscheid (high ankle sprain) is back taking part in full practices. He was injured while unloading the team bus and hasn’t played since Feb. 3. Habscheid, who turned 20 on March 16, is the son of Marc Habscheid, the Royals’ general manager and head coach.
Meanwhile, the Blazers scratched G Taran Kozun, F Brock Balson, D Landon Cross and F Chase Souto, all of whom are healthy.
———
Victoria had assistant coach Craig Didmon situated in the press box with a walkie-talkie. He watches the Blazers bench and tells  assistant coach Ben Cooper, who is behind the Royals bench, which Kamloops forward line is next up when they are changing on the fly.
———
The Dallas Stars will honour the memory of former D Karlis Skrastins before playing the visiting Calgary Flames tonight. Skrastins was with the KHL’s Yaroslavl Lokomotiv when its plane crashed on Sept. 7, wiping out the entire team. His wife, Zane, and three daughters will be at tonight’s game.
The Stars have set up a trust fund for the three girls; Dallas players will make a donation that owner Tom Gaglardi, who also is the Blazers’ majority owner, has said he will match.

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.

Guy Charron, the head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, says a key to
beating the Victoria Royals will be to match them hit for hit.
(Photo by Christopher Mast / mastimages.com)

 KAMLOOPS (2) vs. VICTORIA (7)
Friday – Victoria at Kamloops, 7 p.m.
Saturday – Victoria at Kamloops, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 27 – Kamloops at Victoria, 7:05 p.m.
Wednesday, March 28 – Kamloops at Victoria, 7:05 p.m.
x-Friday, March 30 – Victoria at Kamloops, 7 p.m.
x-Monday, April 2 – Kamloops at Victoria, 7:05 p.m.
x-Wednesday, April 4 – Victoria at Kamloops, 7 p.m.

x — if necessary.

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The last time the Kamloops Blazers won a playoff series, Marc Habscheid was their head coach.
When the WHL playoffs begin Friday, Habscheid will be out to beat the Blazers because his Victoria Royals will be providing the opposition.
As B.C. Division champions, the Blazers (47-20-5) go into the playoffs as the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed, meaning they have home-ice advantage in the first round. Thus, Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven first-round series will be played at Interior Savings Centre on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Royals (24-4-17) finished seventh, 44 points behind the Blazers and will play host to Games 3 and 4 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on the evenings of March 27 and 28.
Going in, the Blazers will be heavily favoured, if only because they took seven of eight regular-season games from the Royals, outscoring them 39-21 in the process.
However, Kamloops head coach Guy Charron knows that now isn’t the time for looking back.
“It’s a whole new season and you can’t look back at what you’ve done,” Charron said Sunday afternoon as he took a break from watching video.
That being the case, Charron hardly will be interested in going back to 1998-99, which is when Habscheid guided the Blazers to the WHL’s championship final where they won the first game and then lost four in a row to the Calgary Hitmen.
The rest, as they say, is history and the Blazers have had to wear it around their necks like an albatross over the years.
In the 12 seasons since then, the Blazers have made 10 first-round exits; they didn’t make the playoffs in the other two seasons, including last spring. In those 10 playoff appearances, they have bowed out in four games seven times, left in five games once and exited in six games on two occasions.
In those 10 appearances, they are 5-40. Throw in the end of the 1998-99 final, and the franchise is 5-44 in its last 49 playoff games.
Of course, none of that should matter a whole lot to the present-day players because it’s not like any of them contributed to the first seven or eight years of that run.
That, as they say, was then and this is now.
And now the focus is on the Royals, who are in their first season in Victoria after five winters as the Chilliwack Bruins.
The Royals booked their ticket into the playoffs with a couple of impressive performances last week when they scored 4-3 and 3-1 victories over the visiting Portland Winterhawks, who are one of three teams to finish with at least 100 points.
Charron and associate coach Dave Hunchak spent some of yesterday watching video of those two games. Charron saw a Victoria team that was more impressive than it had been earlier in the season.
“They had some key guys injured,” Charron said in reference to the Royals. “(Defenceman Tyler) Stahl was hurt all season. He’s a pretty solid defenceman. They built some confidence with the way they need to play to be successful against good teams. Obviously, they did some good things against Portland.
“Victoria is banging them every shift and Portland doesn’t deal with that very well. They didn’t respond the same way towards Victoria. If Victoria is going to be aggressive, you have to be aggressive. You have to match hit for hit and they don’t like it either.
“We’re a north-south team. We forced defences to make mistakes. We have to have the same game plan (against Victoria).”
———
Kamloops F Chase Schaber, the team captain, missed his sixth straight game with a leg injury Saturday when the Blazers closed out the regular season with a 4-2 loss to the Cougars in Prince George.
Schaber last played March 3, but Charron said he’ll be ready for this weekend.
“We were told by the doctors . . . it’s the type of injury that if it does reoccur he’ll have to work though it,” Charron said. “It’s not going to endanger him in any way.”
The Royals may be without D Zach Habscheid, who turned 20 on Friday, and F Brandon Magee.
Habscheid, who suffered a high ankle sprain while helping unload the team bus, hasn’t played since Feb. 3.
Magee, who turned 18 on Jan. 23, suffered an undisclosed injury — he may have injured a foot while blocking a shot — against Portland on Friday and the Victoria Times Colonist has reported that he may be out for the playoffs. That being the case, the Royals will miss his energy and his offence – he had 47 points, including 23 goals, in 65 games.
———
On Saturday, Spencer Asuchak, a 20-year-old from Kamloops who was playing his final WHL game, had two goals for the Cougars, giving him 18 this season.
Chase Witala and Reid Jackson also scored for Prince George, which didn’t qualify for the playoffs. Jackson broke a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal at 16:48 of the third period. Asuchak iced it with an empty-netter.
Tim Bozon and Ryan Hanes scored for the Blazers.
Prince George goaltender Devon Fordyce stopped 38 shots, 20 more than the Blazers’ Cam Lanigan.
———
JUST NOTES: G Cole Cheveldave didn’t make the trip to Prince George with the Blazers as the coaching staff chose to give him the extra rest. . . . F Brendan Ranford led the Blazers in goals (40), assists (52) and points (92). He is the team’s first 40-goal scorer since F Erik Christensen (54) in 2002-03. . . . Bozon led all WHL freshmen in goals (36) and his 71 points left him three behind Vancouver Giants F Marek Tvrdon, who closed with five points in his last two games. . . . Kamloops D Bronson Maschmeyer, who is in his final season, didn’t miss a game in his three seasons with the Blazers, completing a 216-game regular-season run on Saturday.

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 Doug Lynch (Red Deer, Spokane, 1998-2003) was signed to a contract extension for the rest of this season by Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) at the end of his three-month contract. He has four goals and five assists in 16 games for Red Bull this season. Last season, Lynch had seven goals and 21 assists in 44 games for Red Bull.
———
Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports either has too much time on his hands, or he’s a real hard-core junior hockey fan.
Bet on the latter.
F Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers goes into the weekend with 22 goals in 16 games, which is eight more goals than any other WHL player.
“So just for fun,” Sager writes, “and to be a huge stat nerd, someone pored through 15 years of WHL game-by-game stats to look up how many other players had scored so prolifically through their first 16 games.”
We will leave it to you to figure out who that someone was.
His findings are reported right here.
———
The WHL firmed up a pair of suspensions on Thursday.
F Darian Dziurzynski of the Brandon Wheat Kings will sit two games for a charging major he incurred late in their 7-3 victory over the Broncos in Swift Current on Tuesday. He will sit out Friday and Saturday games against the visiting Calgary Hitmen and Medicine Hat Tigers. (The latter game, by the way, signals Chapter 2 in the Clouston Contest, with Shaun, the head coach of the Tigers, holding 1 -0 edge over Cory, the Wheat Kings’ head coach.)
F Jordyn Boyd of the Everett Silvertips received a one-game suspension after being hit with a clipping major in a 4-3 shootout loss to the host Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday.
———
In the QMJHL, meanwhile, F Jonathan Lessard of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar was hit with a 15-game suspension. He initiated a knee-on-knee hit on Quebec Remparts F Nick Sorensen on Oct. 28. Sorensen, a freshman from Sweden, suffered a season-ending knee injury on the play. According to the Remparts, Sorensen has ACL and MCL damage and won’t play for up to six months.
As a sidebar to that suspension, Patrick Roy, the Remparts’ GM/head coach, was fined $2,500.
The QMJHL employs a discipline system that employs an independent disciplinarian, in this case a gentleman named Raymond Bolduc.
After the game in which Sorensen was hurt, Roy told the media that the league’s disciplinary system had one problem, that being that Bolduc was “too nice”, resulting in discipline that wasn’t nearly stiff enough.
Gilles Courteau, the QMJHL commissioner, said in a statement: "At no time will I permit that a staff member of a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club make inappropriate comments toward League personnel, especially in regards to their capacity to accomplish a mandate which I have given them."
———
JUST NOTES: The ECHL’s Alaska Aces have released G Andrew Hayes (Brandon, 2007-10). The move was made in order to make roster room for G Adam Courchaine, who played with the Aces last season but opened this season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. The NHL’s Boston Bruins re-assigned Courchaine to the Aces on Thursday. . . . Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun reports that Hayes “is expected to go to the University of Regina.” . . . The Vancouver Giants have Russian F Alex Kuvaev, 18, on their list. Kuvaev had 24 points in 58 games with the Lethbridge Hurricanes last season, but was dropped prior to the 2011 CHL import draft. The Kootenay Ice picked up his rights, but dropped him after learning that he had signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo had acquired Kuvaev’s rights from HC Vityaz Chekhov. The Giants are playing with just one import — Slovakian F Marek Tvrdon, who has 20 points in 17 games after shoulder woes limited him to 12 games (and 11 points) last season . . . .
D Zach Habscheid of the Victoria Royals will be back in the lineup tonight against the visiting Vancouver Giants. Habscheid, 19, has missed 11 games since suffering the fourth concussion of his career on Oct. 6. . . . The Royals continue to be without D Tyler Stahl, 19, who has sat out 13 games since suffering a concussion on Oct. 1.
———
From today’s Regina Leader-Post:
“Delisle Chiefs goalie Cam Irwin scored an empty-net goal with 44 seconds left in Wednesday's Prairie Junior Hockey League game against the visiting Saskatoon Quakers.
Irwin, who also made 20 saves, helped the Chiefs win 7-4. Paul Sonntag led the Chiefs with two goals and an assist.”
———
The Connolly family quite enjoyed it when F Brett Connolly of the Tampa Bay Lightning scored his first NHL goal the other night.
Dave Kearsey of the Western Star in Corner Brook, Nfld., has that story right here.
———
TWEET OF THE DAY:
This comes from the aforementioned Brett Connolly, who on Thursday afternoon tweeted:
“Nothing like buying your first car. And nothing like going to the rink in flip flops. What a job.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Shawn Belle (Regina, Tri-City, 2000-05) signed a tryout contract with Adler Mannheim (Germany, DEL). He didn’t have any points in nine games with the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche (both NHL) and six goals and 20 assists in 51 games with the Oklahoma City Barons and Lake Erie Monsters (both AHL) last season. The contract is through Sept. 22.
———
The Swift Current Broncos have suffered something of a blow with the departure of G Steffen Soberg.
Soberg, 18, is from Oslo, Norway, and was a fourth-round pick by the Washington Capitals in the 2011 NHL draft. The Broncos used the sixth overall pick in the CHL’s 2011 import draft to take Soberg.
He arrived at the Broncos’ training camp and was expected to be the Broncos’ No. 1 goaltender. Shawn Mullin, the radio voice of the Broncos, reported that Soberg “played half an exhibition game before injuring his knee and missing the Edmonton tournament.”
Soberg didn’t go to the Capitals’ camp, and the Broncos, according to Mullin, are saying that “Soberg had to leave to deal with personal issues.”
This isn’t to say Soberg won’t return to Swift Current, but his departure leaves the Broncos with Austin Smith and Steve Myland as their goaltenders.
Smith, an 18-year-old from Calgary, was a second-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft. Smith was 0-6-0, 4.86, .871 in 11 appearances with the Broncos last season.
Myland was acquired from the Kootenay Ice in the January blockbuster in which the Broncos surrendered F Cody Eakin. Myland, a 17-year-old from Cloverdale, B.C., played last season with the Valley West Hawks of the B.C. Major Midget League. The Ice selected him in the 10th round of the 2009 bantam draft.
———
On the afternoon after his side absorbed a 10-1 loss at the hands of the Medicine Hat Tigers, GM/head coach Rich Preston of the Lethbridge Hurricanes acquired a new goaltender.
The Hurricanes picked up G Damien Ketlo, 20, from the Regina Pats for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft.
The plan in Lethbridge would seem to call for Ketlo, who is entering his fourth WHL season, to partner with Brandon Anderson, 19, who has signed with the NHL’s Washington Capitals. Or perhaps the plan is to move Anderson, who would seem to be a rather valuable asset.
In speaking with Kelowna Rockets head coach Ryan Huska on Friday, he mentioned that he feels his club’s one-two punch in goal — Adam Brown, who is expected to return from the camp of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, and Jordon Cooke — is as good as any in the league.
Huska put it like this: “If we get Adam back, which we are expecting we will, we feel like we have a good one-two punch . . . some teams don’t have a one.”
That being the case, Anderson might become a really valuable chip.
Ketlo is one of four 20-year-olds on the Hurricanes’ roster, joining F Cam Braes, F Austin Fyten and F Brody Sutter.
The deal leaves Regina with three 20-year-olds on its roster — D Brandon Davidson, D Art Bidlevskii and F Garrett Mitchell, all of whom are at NHL camps.
The Pats are down to three goaltenders now — veteran Matt Hewitt, 19, and freshmen Teagan Sacher of Winnipeg, who turns 17 on Dec. 1, and Adam Beukeboom, 17, of Sundre, Alta.
———
A story in Coquitlam Now contained an interesting quote from Jon Calvano, the head coach of the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express.
His club recently had two players — Austin Carroll and Jason Fram — move on to WHL teams. Carroll, a ninth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft, is with the Victoria Royals, while Fram, an eighth-round pick in 2010, went to the Spokane Chiefs.
“It's an old cliché, but it is what it is,” Calvano told the newspaper. “We are both in the position of developing players and both in it to win. I'd be foolish to say that the WHL is not a good league and won't open doors for players; we're just different options. When it's all said and done, I wish both players well.”
———
According to Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist, the Victoria Royals will be without D Zach Habscheid (upper body) for “up to six weeks.” D Tyler Stahl also has an upper body injury, meaning the Royals are missing two of their top four defencemen. . . . As well, Victoria F Brendan Persley is out with mononucleosis. . . . Stahl was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the sixth-round of the NHL’s 2010 draft. His injury has prevented him from joining them in training camp. . . . RW Jordan DePape (hip flexor) didn’t get on the ice a whole lot in the Kamloops Blazers’ camp before leaving to join the Winnipeg Jets’ rookie team for a tournament in Penticton. The Jets kept DePape off the ice Sunday — he did work out off the ice — but hope he can play in a game today.
———
TWEET OF THE DAY:
From D Matt Dumba of the Red Deer Rebels:
“Would rather punt my dog off a bridge than lose to Calgary.”
That was after the Calgary Hitmen beat the Rebels 4-2 on Saturday.
———
And now for something completely different. . . .
Buzz Bissinger, who wrote Friday Night Lights, provides his take on remembering 9/11. You’ll find it right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

JUST NOTES: The ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads have acquired F Aaron Lewadniuk (Brandon, 2008-10) from the Ontario Reign in exchange for the rights to F Geoff Irwin. Lewadniuk had 31 points, including 17 goals, in 69 games for the Reign last season, his first as a professional. . . . Regan Bartel, the radio voice of the Kelowna Rockets on AM1150, reportes that Latvian F Zemgus Girgensons, 17, won’t be joining the WHL team. Girgensons, selected by Kelowna with the 54th pick in the 2011 CHL draft, will return to the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints. "His agents have basically avoided us on a steady basis here,” Bruce Hamilton, Kelowna’s president and GM, told the radio station. “We have talked to his father a couple of times and I think they have been convinced by the team in the USHL, Dubuque, to remain there this year and try to go through the draft from there." . . . The Rockets expect their other selection, Slovakian F Philip Vasko, to arrive in Kelowna next week. . . . D Adrian Van de Mosselaer (Edmonton, 2007-11) has signed with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign. He played out is WHL eligibility with the Oil Kings last season, picking up 22 points and 137 penalty minutes in 66 games.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Eric Thurston, who coached the U of Alberta Golden Bears last season, has signed on with the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation. According to Evan Daum of southcampussports.com, Thurston will “be tasked with helping Hungary develop its grassroots hockey system after the Hungarian government identified hockey as one of five sports it would be targeting to improve moving forward.” He also will work with the federations junior teams. . . . Edmonton broadcaster Bob Stauffer first reported Thurston’s move. . . . For more, check out Daum’s report right here. . . .
Brian Renfrew has joined the U of Nebraska-Omaha as an assistant coach. Renfrew spent the last eight seasons at Michigan State; he was the Spartans’ associate coach for the last three seasons. With UNO, Renfrew replaces Mike Guentzel, who now is at Minnesota.
———
The Habscheids are back together for a third WHL season. Marc, the general manager and head coach of the Victoria Royals, has coached his son Zach, now a 19-year-old defenceman, for the last two seasons with the Chilliwack Bruins. Cleve Dheensaw takes a look at their relationship right here.
———
MERRY TWEETINGS:
Courtesy of Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun, who on Monday morning tweeted:
1. Costco ALREADY has Christmas decorations out. It's cold today but not that bad.
2. The funny thing is air conditioners are besidr those Christmas decorations at Costco.
———
Jingle bells, jingle bells . . .

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter