Giants get their coach . . . Chiefs deal D-man to Tigers . . . Hitmen, Thunderbirds sign skaters

F Štěpán Novotný (Kelowna, Swift Current, 2008-11) signed a one-year contract with the Graz 99ers (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). Last season, with Žilina (Slovakia, Extraliga), he had 13 goals and nine assists in 39 games. He also played 13 games with Nitra (Slovakia, Extraliga), scoring three goals.
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The Vancouver Giants will introduce Lorne Molleken today as their newest head coach. . . . Molleken, 59, is one of four coaches to have won more than 600 WHL regular-season games. His 603 victories trail only the retired Ken Hodge (742), Don Hay (637), who now is with the Kamloops Blazers, and Don Nachbaur (632) of the Spokane Chiefs. . . . Molleken, who is from Regina, began his coaching career with the SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings. In the WHL, he has been the head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors, Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades. He also has coached in the AHL and NHL. . . . In Vancouver, he takes over from Claude Noel, who wasn’t retained following the last season. Noel took over from Troy Ward, who was hired last summer and fired after 25 games. . . . Ward was hired after the Giants allowed Hay out of his contract in order for him to return to Kamloops. . . . The Giants have missed the playoffs in two of the past three seasons. . . . Daniel Nugent-Bowman has more on the Molleken signing right here.
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Steve Ewen, who covers the Giants for the Vancouver Province, takes a look right here at the team’s coaching situation. He says it’s time the organization changed its approach and started grooming future head coaches.
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With the Vancouver Giants having signed Lorne Mollken, it means that all 22 WHL teams now have head coaches in place. . . . Of those teams, three have made coaching changes since the 2014-15 season ended. . . . The Kootenay Ice hired Luke Pierce to replace Ryan McGill, who is believed to have been on Vancouver’s shortlist. . . . The Lethbridge Hurricanes hired Brent Kisio to take over from Peter Anholt, who will focus on his general manager’s duties. . . . Molleken, who turned 59 on June 11, is the third-oldest coach in the WHL, younger than only John Paddock of the Regina Pats, who turned 61 on June 9, and Don Hay of the Kamloops Blazers, who hit 61 on Feb. 13. . . . The youngest? Pierce will be 32 on Aug. 18, with Kisio scheduled to turn 33 on Dec. 15.
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The Spokane Chiefs have dealt D Tamas Laday, 19, to the Medicine Hat Tigers for an eighth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. Laday, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound Hungarian, had six assists in 60 games as a freshman last season with the Chiefs. . . . The trade allows the Chiefs, who also have Austrian F Dominic Zwerger on their roster, to select one player in today’s CHL import draft. They go into the draft with the 26th selection. . . . The Tigers also have German F Markus Eisenschmid on their roster. He had 44 points, including 19 goals, in 50 games last season, but at 20 years of age would be a two-spotter in 2015-16.
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The CHL import draft poses a lot of problems for WHL general managers because, in many instances, they don’t control a whole lot about it. So it’s always interesting to see what some of them have to say.
Here’s what John Paddock, the Regina Pats’ GM/head coach, told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post:
“It’s like picking a needle out of a haystack. You try to do your work. You have friends or people you know in the pro ranks that see these guys play. You talk to agents. You try to get as much information as you can.”
Paddock also said:
“You hope and pray. There are no guarantees of anything. When I looked around our league last year, there’s not a lot of significant Europeans. There’s the odd top one like (Leon) Draisaitl and (Ivan) Provorov, but with a lot of teams I couldn’t tell you who their Euros are.”
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Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, send an email to greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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The QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders will introduce Jim Hulton as their new head coach on Thursday. . . . He will replace Gordie Dwyer, who was dropped after the Islanders didn’t get through the second round of the postseason. . . . Hulton, 46, has OHL coaching experience with the North Bay Centennials, Mississauga IceDogs, Belleville Bulls and Kingston Frontenacs. . . . He also spent three seasons (2008-11) as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Florida Panthers. . . . Since 2011, Hulton has been the general manager and head coach of the USHL’s Tri-City Storm.
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Josh Hepditch, the former general manager and head coach of the junior B Creston Valley Thunder Cats of the Kootenay International junior league, has signed on as head coach of the County Aces, a junior A team that plays out of St. Stephen, N.B., in the Maritime Hockey League. . . . Last season, Hepditch was general manager and head coach of the MHL’s Amherst Ramblers.
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F Patrick D’Amico, who played out his eligibility with the Regina Pats last season, will attend the New Jersey Devils’ development camp. . . . F Tyler Soy, 18, of the Victoria Royals and F Jakob Stukel, 18, of the Vancouver Giants will be in the development camp of the Edmonton Oilers. . . . Tri-City Americans D Brendan O’Reilly, an 18-year-old from Southlake, Texas, will skate with the Dallas Stars. . . . F Terrell Draude, 18, of the Calgary Hitmen will be in camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning. . . . F Markus Eisenschmid, 20, of the Medicine Hat Tigers is to attend the Montreal Canadiens’ development camp. . . . D Justin Hamonic, who played with the Tri-City Americans as a 20-year-old last season, is going to camp with the Colorado Avalanche.
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The Calgary Hitmen have signed F Tristen Nielsen, the 19th overall selection in the 2015 bantam draft. Nielsen, from Fort St. John, B.C., played last season at the Edge School in Calgary. He had 97 points, including 59 goals, in 52 games with the bantam prep team.
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The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed D Brandon Schuldhaus, who was a fifth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. Schuldhaus, a 17-year-old native of Houston, Texas, who now lives in Calgary, has played two seasons at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minn. Last season, with the midget AAA team, he had 12 points, five of them goals, in 31 games.
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D Patrick Wey, 24, has retired from hockey after being unable to return from two concussions incurred less than a year apart. . . . Wey, from Pittsburgh, was a fourth-round pick by the Washington Capitals in the 2009 NHL draft. He had been playing with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. . . . Mike Vogel, who writes for the Capitals, tweeted the news Monday morning. . . . Wey has said he will pursue “educational interests.” . . . Wey played 28 games in 2013-14 and just three games last season. . . . He suffered his first concussion in a fight on March 30, 2014, while up with the Capitals, then suffered the second one in the third game of last season, thanks to an elbow to the head.
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Another year passes with no Clare Drake in the HHOF. Would John Wooden be left out of basketball's Hall?

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 29, 2015

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Brad Leeb (Red Deer, 1994-99) signed a one-year contract with the Coventry Blaze (England, UK Elite). He had three goals and six assists in 44 games with the Nuremberg Ice Tigers (Germany, DEL) last season. Leeb joins his brother Greg (Spokane, 1994-98), who signed with Coventry three weeks ago. The brothers also played the past four seasons together in Nuremberg. . . .
F Kyle Bailey (Portland, Lethbridge, 2002-07) signed a one-year contract with Alba Volan Szekesfehervar (Hungary, Austria Erste Bank Liga). He had 16 goals and 17 assists in 27 games with University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds (CIS) and was pointless in five games with Rochester Americans (AHL) last season. Bailey was captain of UNB the last three seasons and capped his final university season by leading the Varsity Reds in scoring; winning the 2011-12 UNB Red Black Award for overall contribution as a player, student, and community member for the third time; winning the 2011-2012 Atlantic University Sports Godfrey Award recognizing leadership, academics, and community service for a second straight year; and winning the 2011-12 Dr. Randy Gregg Award as the CIS hockey player who best combined hockey, academics, and community service, all accomplished while in graduate school working on his MBA degree. Bailey finished his university career as the third-leading career scorer at UNB.
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The Prince Albert Raiders have signed F Leon Draisaitl, who was the second overall selection in the CHL’s 2012 import draft. Draisaitl, from Cologne, Germany, had 56 points, including 21 goals, in 35 games last season for Jungadler Mannheim’s U-18 team. The previous season, he had 192 points, including 97 goals, in 29 games for the U-16s. He has represented Germany in U-18 and U-17 competitions.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Josh Hepditch is the new head coach of the junior B Creston Valley Thunder Cats of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. A product of the minor hockey system in Fredericton, N.B., he played four seasons with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats and five at the U of New Brunswick. He went on to play for the Central league’s Allen Americans. . . . In Creston, Hepditch replaces head coach Brent Heaven, who now is an assistant coach with the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters. . . .
Reports indicate that Scott Pellerin will be named the next head coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s New York Islanders. . . . Pellerin has been an assistant coach with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, an affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, since 2006. . . . Pellerin, a native of Shediac, N.B., spent four seasons playing at the U of Maine where he was teammates with Islanders GM Garth Snow. . . . Brent Thompson, Bridgeport’s last head coach, has moved into an assistant’s role with the Islanders. . . .
Dwight McMillan has indicated that 2012-13 will be his final season as head coach of the SJHL's Weyburn Red Wings. The team made the announcement on its website, announcing at the same time that he had signed a one-year contract. This, folks, is a big deal. Why? Well, consider that he has been with the team for almost every season since its inception in 1961. Back then, he was a rookie player. He took over as the head coach of the junior B Red Wings in 1967 and became head coach of the junior A team in 1972. Other than two seasons in the 1980s, he's been the coach ever since. He has won well over 1,000 games in the SJHL and two national championships. . . . McMillan's final season will be his 25th consecutive winter behind the Red Wings' bench.
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So what happens when a WHL team moves from a bandbox into a new facility? If you’re the Moose Jaw Warriors, who said hello to Mosaic Place and goodby to the Crushed Can (aka the Civic Centre), the gate receipts, including playoffs, more than double. Here’s Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, reporting on the Warriors’ annual general meeting that was held Tuesday: "The Warriors’ gate receipts totalled $1,651,235 last season which nearly doubled the $881,357 from the season previous. The deep playoff run to the Eastern Conference final also earned them $580,109 in receipts, but their direct playoff expenses were $228,109." . . . In the end, Gourlie reported, "The Warriors announced net earnings of $394,646 and have retained earnings of $923,702 at the end of the fiscal year." . . . At the meeting, Dave Kiefer and Dean Lang were re-elected to three-year terms on the board of directors, while Darrell Markin was elected to replace governor Darin Chow on the board. Chow, who is moving to Yorkton where he will serve as a judge, is to remain the Warriors’ governor. . . . Warriors president Chad Taylor also told Gourlie that the Warriors have been promoted within the WHL and no longer are considered small market. Instead, they now are a "mid-market team." . . . "We’ve always been in the bottom classification. It’s based on revenues and season ticket base," Taylor said. "We’ve moved up into the next category which is a bit of a pat on the back from the other owners. It’s a good thing."
For more, lots more, on the annual meeting, check out Gourlie’s story right here.

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