Great day for Morrow

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Doug Lynch (Red Deer, Spokane, 1998-2003) signed a contract extension with Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). He had seven goals and 21 assists in 44 games with Red Bull last season. . . .
F Simon Ferguson (Lethbriodge, Kelowna, 1999-2004) signed a one-year contract with Esbjerg (Denmark, AL-Bank Liga). He had 20 goals and 15 assists in 51 games with the Utah Grizzlies (ECHL) last season. . . .
F Björn Svensson (Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, 2003-06) signed a one-year contract with Eisbären Berlin (Germany, DEL). He had four goals and 14  assists with Timrå (Sweden, Elitserien) last season. . . .
F Roman Tomanek (Calgary, Seattle, 2004-06) signed a one-year contract with Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had 29 goals and 18 assists in 48 games with Banska Bystrica (Slovakia, Extraliga) last season.
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You just know that this is going to be a great day for Portland Winterhawks D Joe Morrow.
Morrow, who has played three seasons in Portland, is in Edmonton at the Canadian national junior team’s development camp.
And the Pittsburgh Penguins are expected to announce today that they have signed him to a three-year entry-level contract. They selected him 23rd overall in the NHL’s 2011 draft.
Morrow, who doesn’t turn 19 until Dec. 9, had 49 points, including nine goals, and 67 penalty minutes in 60 games with Portland last season. In 165 regular-season games, he has 16 goals and 71 assists, to go along with 152 penalty minutes.
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Hockey Canada finalized the 22-player roster for the team that will play in the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament and five of the skaters are from the WHL. D Matt Dumba (Red Deer), D Derrick Pouliot (Portland), D Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton), D Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw) and F Hunter Shinkaruk (Medicine Hat) made the club that will play in the tournament that runs from Monday through Aug. 13 in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Piestany, Slovakia. . . . Don Nachbaur, the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs, is an assistant coach. The head coach is Steve Spott of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers. . . . There is no radio or TV coverage of the tournament. . . . Canada, which has won the tournament each of the last three years, will play an exhibition game against Slovakia in Piestany on Saturday and then opens the tournament against Sweden on Monday.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Jim Parker of the Windsor Star reports that Bob Boughner is expected to return as head coach of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires today. After winning back-to-back Memorial Cups, Boughner, who owns a piece of the Spitfires, spent last season as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. . . . Bob Jones, the associate coach under Boughner, was the club’s head coach last season. . . .
Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald reports that the Everett Silvertips may be in the market for a goaltending coach. According to Patterson, “Sources indicate that Sigalet is in line to become the goaltending coach for the AHL's Abbotsford Heat.” . . . Sigalet spent last season working with the Silvertips on a part-time basis. . . .
Greg Ireland is to be named head coach of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack today. Fred Wallace of CFOS Radio reported Tuesday that the job had been offered to Ireland, 46. A coach since 1992, Ireland spent the last eight seasons in the AHL, with the San Antonio Rampage and Grand Rapids Griffins. He will replace Mark Reeds, who guided the Attack to the OHL championship last season and has since signed on as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. . . . Owen Sound assistant coach Terry Virtue, a former WHL player and assistant coach, was on the short list. According to Wallace, Virtue “is expected to remain with the Attack, conceivably with elevated responsibilities.” . . .
The AHL’s Houston Aeros have named Sebastien Laplante and Mike Van Ryn as assistant coaches. They will work with head coach John Torchetti. . . . Laplante, 38, spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Northeastern University. . . . Van Ryn, 32, was an assistant coach with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs last season. . . .
The OHL’s Erie Otters have agreed to two-year contract extensions with head coach Robbie Ftorek, who had one year left on his present deal, and assistant coach Peter Sidorkiewicz.
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JUST NOTES: As speculated late last week, the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat has named Ryan Walter (Kamloops, Seattle, 1984-78) as president. Walter spent last season as the head coach of Canada’s national women’s team after working two seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. The Heat is the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Calgary Flames. . . . The BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies have dealt F Evan Richardson, 17, to the Powell River Kings for G Michael Garteig, 20, D Braden Pears, 18, and F Scott Renner, 18. Richardson was selected 15th overall by the Swift Current Broncos in the 2009 WHL bantam draft, but has committed to attend Boston College for the 2013-14 season. Last season, he had 42 points, including 12 goals, in 55 games with the Grizzlies. . . . The Grizzlies apparently were concerned that Richardson may end up in the USHL this season. . . . F Colton Graf (Chilliwack, 2006-08) has chosen to attend Simon Fraser University and play for its hockey club in the B.C. Intercollegiate league. Graf, 21, played the last two seasons with the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings. He put up 92 points in 111 regular-season games with Dauphin.
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Another former WHL player has had to quit hockey because of post-concussion syndrome.
Eric Doyle (Everett, Swift Current, Portland, 2005-10) has told Jon Keen, the radio voice of the Kamloops Blazers: “Over my career I had five diagnosed concussions . . . and probably two more that weren't. The last three concussions all came pretty close together and were the worst by far.”
Doyle last skated in November with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign. He was able to play only 12 games with the Reign, though.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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