Brain injuries put Muth into retirement

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Mark Isherwood (Medicine Hat, 2005-10) signed a one-year contract with Angers (France, Ligue Magnus). He had five goals and 12 assists in 37 games with the Utah Grizzlies (ECHL), one goal and two assists in 13 games with the San Francisco Bulls (ECHL), and was pointless in two games with the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) last season.
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If you missed it here yesterday, here’s another plug for Alan Caldwell over at Small Thoughts At Large. . . . He’s endeavouring to keep track of WHL training camp rosters. . . . Which is why every team in the WHL should be making sure that Caldwell receives their most up-to-date rosters ASAP. Here is an opportunity for WHL teams to get some exposure at no cost to them. . . . So come one teams, get those rosters to Caldwell. There are no excuses for you not to get your rosters posted on Small Thoughts At Large.
The email address is: smallatlarge@gmail.co.
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D Tanner Muth, 20, of the Kootenay Ice won’t be back for a fifth season in the WHL. Muth is suffering with post-concussion syndrome. Last season, the Calgary native had nine points in 60 games with the Ice. He also has played with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Swift Current Broncos. . . . Muth’s departure leaves the Ice with two 20-year-olds on its roster — F Zach McPhee and D Jagger Dirk — as it opens camp. . . . Muth is the fourth WHL player to have announced his retirement recently due to previous brain injuries. He joins D Reid Jackson of the Moose Jaw Warriors, and F Shea Howorko and F Brent Benson of Swift Current. As well, F Tyrel Seaman, who has had at least three concussions over the last two seasons, won’t be in camp with the Brandon Wheat Kings when it opens this week, and D Tanner Mort of the Spokane Chiefs has retired due to what the team says is a neck injury. Mort suffered a brain injury during a game in Kamloops last season. . . . F Tyler Alos, 20, who was limited to 10 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds last season due to a brain injury, actually announced in December that he was done with playing. The Thunderbirds have since added him to their coaching staff.
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The Swift Current Broncos have signed F Cole Johnson, the 34th overall selection in th 2013 WHL bantam draft. From Marwayne, Alta., Johnson had 71 points in 33 games with the bantam AAA Lloydminster Heat last season.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers will have 10 eligible players attending NHL rookie or training camps in the next while — F Hunter Shinkaruk, Vancouver Canucks; G Marek Langhamer, Phoenix Coyotes; D Tyler Lewington, Washington Capitals; F Boston Leier, Washington; D Spenser Jensen, San Jose Sharks; D Ty Stanton, Winnipeg Jets; F Miles Koules, Minnesota Wild; D KyleBecker, Anaheim Ducks; and F Jake Doty and F Curtis Valk, both St. Louis Blues. . . . Shinkaruk, Langhamer and Lewington all are draft picks; the others are free-agent invitees.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers signed D Marshall Skapski and F Caleb Fantillo, both 2013 bantam draft selections, on Monday. . . . Skapski, from Abbotsford, B.C., is the younger brother of Kootenay Ice G Mackenzie Skapski and Everett Silvertips D Mitchell Skapski. Marshall was the 54th overall pick in the bantam draft. He had 40 points in 48 games with the Abbotsford Hawks (Bantam A1 Tier 1) last season. . . . Fantillo, from Coquitlam, B.C., was the 123rd selection in the draft. He had 83 points in 60 games with the Coquitlam Chiefs, another Bantam A1 Tier 1 team.
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F Stephane Legault, 20, has chosen not to return to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a fourth season. Legault, from Edmonton, has decided to attend NAIT. In 186 regular-season games, Legault had 108 points. Last season, he put up 41 points in 57 games. . . . His departure leaves the Oil Kings with perhaps one 20-year-old on their roster – D Cody Corbett.
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The Kootenay Ice is to open its training camp on Wednesday with 60 players on hand. It looks like Russian D Rinat Valiev, 18, won’t be among them. Valiev, whose rights were selected in the 2013 CHL import draft, is among those players who has been able to get his visa due to a Canadian foreign service workers’ strike. Jeff Chynoweth, the Ice’s president and GM, has told Trevor Crawley of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman that Valiev’s IIHF transfer has been approved and that he will be in Cranbrook once he gets his visa.
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The Tri-City Americans have signed F Austyn Playfair, 16, to a WHL contract. Playfair, from Scottsdale, Ariz., was listed by the Americans in October. He is the son of former WHLer Jim Playfair, who now is an associate coach with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes, and the brother of Spokane Chiefs F Jackson Playfair. . . . Austyn, 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, had 11 points in 41 games with the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes of the Tier 1 Elite Midget Hockey League.
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The Kelowna Rockets have nine players off their roster heading to NHL camps — F Myles Bell, New Jersey Devils; D Madison Bowey, Washington Capitals; F Tyrell Goulbourne, Philadelphia Flyers; F Colton Heffley, Minnesota Wild; D Jesse Lees, Boston Bruins; F Ryan Olsen, Winnipeg Jets; D Damon Severson, New Jersey; F Colton Sissons, Nashville Predators; and D Mitchell Wheaton, Detroit Red Wings.
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Three players off the Portland Winterhawks’ roster have been invited to play in the CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game in Pittsburgh on Sept. 26. F Chase DeLeo, F Keegan Iverson and F Dominic Turgeon, all of them eligible for the 2014 NHL draft, will play in the game in the Consol Energy Center. . . . There’s more right here.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors have signed F Ryan Bowen and G Brody Willms, both of whom are from Penticton where they play at the Okanagan Hockey Academy. . . . Bowen was a fifth-round selection in the 2013 bantam draft, while Willms was taken in the eighth round.
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From Dylan Walchuk (@Wally19): “Wont forget that experience for the rest of my life! Best...day...ever @HockeyCanada #thanksforthegoodies #goodluck #Sochi2014”
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F Dylan Walchuk, who played as a 20-year-old with the Spokane Chiefs last season, played some ball hockey with prospective Canadian Olympians on Monday in Calgary. There are 45 NHLers in Calgary for an orientation camp that won’t include ice time. So head coach Mike Babcock and his staff had the players doing some ball hockey run throughs on Monday. With Claude Giroux (thumb) and Joe Thornton (ill child) unable to attend, Walchuk, who will attend the U of Calgary, filled in on a line with Taylor Hall and Jordan Staal. . . . Walchuk is from McBride, B.C., and played some of his minor hockey in Kamloops. He had 60 points in 70 games with the Chiefs last season.
Aaron Vickers of nhl.com has more on Walchuk’s day right here.
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The Regina Pats and Harvard Broadcasting have signed a multi-year deal that will keep the WHL team on 620 CKRM, which has been home to games since 1995-96. . . . The exact length of the contract wasn’t revealed. . . . Phil Andrew will be back calling the play, with Daniel Fink the analyst for a second season.
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Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun reports that Russian D Dmitri Osipov, whom the Vancouver Giants took with the first pick in the 2013 import draft, “has been unable to scrimmage due to a shoulder problem that was discovered during team testing. He is skating, however.” . . . Head coach Don Hay told Pap that Osipov is “week-to-week.” . . . That means he isn’t likely to play Saturday in Ladner, B.C., against the Kelowna Rockets or Sunday in Kamloops against the Blazers.

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