Sunday . . .

 Scott Fisher of the Calgary Sun thinks the time is right for the WHL to move a franchise into Winnipeg.
“Now that the NHL is safe and sound back in Winnipeg, the WHL is staring at a great opportunity,” he writes.
That piece is right here.
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Only eight Russian players were among the 210 selected in the NHL draft, and three of those went to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Perhaps the existence of the Kontinental Hockey League has something to do with the dearth of Russian draft picks.
Here's a piece from The Globe and Mail.
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You’ve been touring the Internet and you still haven’t had enough of the NHL draft. Check out this notebook from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal.
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JUST NOTES: Apologies to Jeff Paterson of Vancouver radio station Team 1040. After the NHL draft, Paterson, a former radio voice of the Kamloops Blazers, tweeted: “Not right or wrong, just strange: 652 players taken in NHL drafts since Canucks last drafted a WHLer (7th rd 2008).” . . . I misremembered or something and got it all wrong. He was correct. That last pick was G Morgan Clark, then with the Red Deer Rebels. . . . John MacNeil of the Brandon Sun reports that G Jacob DeSerres, who backstopped the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs to the Memorial Cup title, “has earned an invitation to the Phoenix Coyotes’ prospects development camp next month.” DeSerres told MacNeil that he “probably attend.” DeSerres, who completed his junior eligibility last season, is keeping his options open, though, and admits that he still might end up going to school, perhaps at the U of Manitoba. DeSerres was a third-round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2008 NHL draft but was never signed. . . . The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the NHL’s Nashville Predators will hold a new conference today at noon to introduce Kirk Muller as the head coach of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. Muller has spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens. The Admirals lost their head coach, Lane Lambert, to the parent Nashville Predators. . . . Two former WHL players, Ian Herbers and Brad Lauer, were assistants with Milwaukee last season and were in the running for the head-coaching job.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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