More from Thursday . . .

My wife and I walked into a local eatery Thursday evening – OK, it was a Boston Pizza outlet – and guess whose voice was coming out of the stereo speakers?
I’ll give you a hint . . . he owns a chunk of a WHL team.
Yes, I immediately chuckled and thought: Damn! Ron Toigo has done it again.
Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants and someone who understands product branding as well as anyone, welcomed international recording star Michael Bublé, into his ownership group on Thursday. Not only is Bublé local – he’s from Burnaby, B.C. – but he has won Juno and Grammy awards, has sold millions of CDs and if you include TV and concert performances he appears in front of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, every year. And if he mentions the Giants even once during each performance, well, you can’t buy that kind of exposure.
Yesterday, for example, Bublé and the Giants were all over the Internet.
Toigo and Bublé, 33, are partners in at least one other business deal – they are part of a consortium that is rehabbing a Lower Mainland golf course – but why do I get the feeling this isn’t so much a business deal as it is a fun thing for the singer? Why do I get the feeling that he’s going to have fun hanging out with the Giants on occasion? Of course, he’ll also get a kick out of being a co-owner along with the likes of Gordie Howe and Pat Quinn.
"I've done lots of amazing things in my life, but this is easily the most prestigious for me," Bublé said at a Thursday news conference. "It's a dream come true to be a part of this club."
You know, too, that he’ll be on hand to sing O Canada before a Giants game or two or three each season. And what other WHL owner is capable of doing that?
---
WHL commissioner Ron Robison has mediated a ceasefire between the Regina Pats and their landlord. The Regina Leader-Post’s Greg Harder has the story here.
---
The Kootenay Ice is doing quite a goaltending dance these days, all because Thomas Heemskerk left the team last week.
The Ice acquired G Todd Mathews, 18, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Thursday, but he won’t join the team until after the Christmas break.
Now the Ice is bringing in G Scott Orth, a 19-year-old Cranbrook native who played for the junior B Kimberley Dynamiters and then the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters. He will back up Nathan Lieuwen on an emergency basis when the Moose Jaw Warriors are in Cranbrook on Saturday.
The addition of Orth allows G Dylan Tait to return to the junior B Kimberley Dynamters for two weekend games. The plan is for Tait to return to the Ice for a Dec. 17 game against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers.
Orth, by the way, has played three games this season for a team at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
After Christmas, Mathews, who is with the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds, will join the Ice and the plan is for him and Lieuwen to carry the team through the remainder of the season.
---
JUST NOTES: Yes, it’s that time of the season again. With players leaving for various Christmas tournament responsibilities, good luck keeping up with additions to WHL rosters. . . . There will a lot over the next few days. . . . In Vancouver, the Giants are welcoming back D Nolan Toigo, 19, who left the team in October 2007 and has been with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles. He will dress Sunday against the visiting Prince George Cougars and again Tuesday with the Swift Current Broncos at Pacific Coliseum. He is a nephew of Giants’ majority owner Ron Toigo. . . . The Giants had hoped to have D Mike Berube (broken arm) back this weekend but he now isn’t likely to play until after the Christmas break. . . . The Giants also have brought in G Jay Deo, an 11th-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. Deo, who plays for the B.C. major midget league’s Valley West Hawks, will be on the bench in support of Jamie Tucker as Tyson Sexsmith is in Ottawa at the national junior team’s selection camp. The interesting thing about Deo is that he is 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds. . . .

The Prince Albert Raiders have added D Mark McNeill, the fifth overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft. . . . The Chilliwack Bruins have sent F Tanner Exner, 17, to the SJHL's Melfort Mustangs. He had three points in 19 games. Exner's roster spot went to F Mike Small, 18, who made his Bruins' debut in Tuesday's 1-0 loss to the visiting Spokane Chiefs. Small had five points in 48 games with Prince Albert last season. This season, he was with the AJHL's St. Albert Steel and had 26 points in 29 games. . . . Chilliwack also has brought in D Mitch Topping, the eighth pick in the 2008 bantam draft, and C Chris Collins, whom they got in the fourth round in 2007. Topping, 15, plays for the midget AAA Red Deer Rebels and made his WHL debut earlier this season with the Bruins in Medicine Hat. Collins, 16, has 29 points, including 21 goals, in 22 games with the midget AAA Calgary Buffaloes. He had one assist in two games with the Bruins last season. . . . As was first reported by the Prince George Citizen, the Cougars have hired Jeff Battah as an assistant coach. Battah, a former goaltender/video coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, spent the first half of this season as GM/head coach of the AJHL’s Drayton Valley Thunder. Battah, 28, got a two-year contract and will join the Cougars on Saturday in Everett.