Oil Kings make decision . . . Sawchenko wins but streak ends

Bobby Orr anyone! This terrific photo has been making the rounds on the
Internet. It features Victoria Royals D Joe Hicketts airborne as he tucks the
puck past Portland Winterhawks G Brendan Burke during a Monday game.
The host Royals won the game, 6-2.
Photo: Jonathon Howe, one lion photography (onelionphotography.com)

The Edmonton Oil Kings have released Russian D Marsel Ibragimov, 17, a freshman who played in one regular-season game. The Oil Kings released Ibraginov in order to get down to the limit of two imports, meaning they chose to keep veteran forwards Mads Eller, 19, and Edgars Kulda, who turns 20 on Nov. 13. . . . With Ibragimov on waivers, any WHL team can claim him, but only the Kootenay Ice and Swift Current Broncos are carrying one import. . . . However, there is speculation that F Tim Bozon, 20, may be on the verge of rejoining the Ice. Bozon, a third-round selection by Montreal in the NHL's 2013 draft, was in camp with the Canadiens and then assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. . . . The Ice also is carrying just two 20-year-olds, so would have room for Bozon in that department, too. . . . Bozon, of course, is back in the game after almost losing his life to Neisseria meningitis in March.
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In Moose Jaw, Warriors G Zach Sawchenko had his shutout streak snapped, but his 17 saves helped the Warriors to a 3-1 victory over the Kootenay Ice on Thursday night. Sawchenko, who was coming off back-to-back shutouts, had his streak end at 229 minutes 10 seconds when Ice F Luke Philp scored a shorthanded goal at 18:14 of the third period. G Keelan Williams made his first WHL start for Kootenay and was the game's first star, with 35 saves. . . . The Ice scratched F Vine Loschiavo, a 16-year-old freshman from Winnipeg, who left Wednesday's game in Regina after taking a heavy check. . . . Before the game, the Warriors released F Ethan Lazaro, 17. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. From St. Albert, Alta., Lazaro, who didn't get into any games with the Warriors this season, is expected to play in the AJHL. . . .
In Saskatoon, the Tri-City Americans scored the game's last four goals and beat the Blades, 5-3. According to Les Lazaruk, the long-time radio voice of the Blades, the Americans snapped a 10-game winless skid in Saskatoon that dated to Feb. 27, 1996. . . . F Parker Bowles had a goal and two assists for the Americans. . . . For the first time in franchise history, the Blades have started a season with six straight losses.
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Over the past couple of years, the OHL, under commissioner David Branch, has acted to squeeze fighting out of the game. As Jim Parker of the Windsor Star writes right here, “The heavyweight appears to be fast losing his place in the Ontario Hockey League.“
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Brain injuries have claimed another hockey career with the news Thursday that Simon Fraser University F Trevor Milner has retired from the B.C. Intercollegiate League team “due to concussion-like symptoms.” . . . “I'm sad to leave a sport I love and have played for so long, most of all I miss the camaraderie amongst the guys on the team and going out every game competing together,” Milner said in a news release. “It’s frustrating to stop playing due to concussions because they are somewhat invisible injuries. However, I understand that the implications of further concussions could be drastic to my personal health and that it’s in my best interest to help out the team in other ways than playing.” . . . Milner, 24, is from North Vancouver. He played junior A with the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds and played in 55 games over three seasons at SFU. . . . The complete news release is right here.
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Veteran D Tyler Bell, who played two games with the Lethbridge Hurricanes this season, may be about to join the MJHL's Steinbach Pistons. Bell, 20, last played for the Hurricanes on Sept. 20. He has 38 career points, 10 of them goals, in 196 regular-season WHL games. He also played with the Kamloops Blazers and Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Lethbridge gave up a third-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft to get Bell from the Warriors in November. . . . In Steinbach, Bell would join D Landon Cross, 20, with whom he played in Kamloops. . . . Without Bell, the Hurricanes would be down to three 20-year-olds -- D Nick Walters, F Zane Jones and F Riley Sheen. . . .
The Prince George Cougars got their roster down to 24 on Thursday by released F Lance Yaremchuk, 18, and D Raymond Grewal, 19. Yaremchuk will join the SJHL's Flin Flon Bombers, while Grewal, who has been out with a concussion, will play for the BCHL's Prince George Spruce Kings. Grewal is from Prince George. The Cougars are carrying 14 forwards and eight defencemen. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks have dropped D Joshua Smith and F Travis McEvoy, both 20, from their roster. Smith had one assist in eight games, while McEvoy was pointless in five. . . . It would seem that the Winterhawks have something brewing because they are left with two 20-year-olds -- F Miles Koules and D Josh Hanson -- and that's one under the maximum. . . .
F Eric Krienke, who was released this week by the Kamloops Blazers, has joined the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers. Krienke was a ninth-round pick by the Blazers in the 2011 bantam draft. . . . The Spokane Chiefs and Seattle Thunderbirds will play each other three times in six days, starting tonight in Spokane. They meet Tuesday in Kent, Wash., and again Wednesday in Spokane. . . . Meanwhile, the Portland Winterhawks meet the Silvertips in Everett tonight. That will be Everett’s fourth game against Portland in its first six games this season. This will be the fourth game between the two in 14 days.
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'Hi Garry?Doug Wilson with the Sharks here.We told @25mueller to move out of the hotel tonight' #17:54 #pptime #no3europrobleminEverett
— james stucky (@jamesstucky) October 9, 2014

Blades introduce their man; Royals haven't spoken with Richardson

D T.J. Fast (Tri-City, 2006-08) has signed a one-year contract with Heilbronner Falken (Germany, DEL2). Last season, with Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Germany, DEL2), he had 34 points, including nine goals, in 49 games. In the relegation round, he added 19 points, eight of them goals, in 17 games. . . .
F Robin Figren (Calgary, Edmonton, 2006-08) has signed a two-year extension with Frölunda Gothenburg (Sweden, SEL). Last season, he had 23 points, including nine goals, in 43 games.
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Bob Woods, the Saskatoon Blades' new
GM/head coach, addresses the media
at a Monday news conference.
(Photo: Saskatoon Blades)

The Saskatoon Blades, as expected, introduced Bob Woods as their new general manager and head coach on Monday.
Woods, who had spent the last two-plus seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, replaces Lorne Molleken and David Struch with the Blades. Molleken, the team’s long-time GM/head coach, was released by the team’s new owners, Mike and Colin Priestner, after last season. Struch, a former Blades player and long-time assistant coach under Molleken, got the heave-ho after one season as head coach.
Woods got a five-year contract from the Blades.
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix attended the news conference and, at one point, tweeted that under the terms of the contract Woods “is open to pursue NHL jobs. Terms not disclosed, but he'll one of the WHL's highest-paid people.”
Nugent-Bowman’s story is right here.
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With Bob Woods having signed on as the head coach of the Saskatoon Blades, only two of the WHL’s 22 teams are without head coaches.
The Calgary Hitmen, who fired Mike Williamson following the season, and the Vancouver Giants, who allowed Don Hay out of the final year of his contract so that he could take over the coaching duties with his hometown Kamloops Blazers, both are in the market.
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal has reported that the Hitmen are “very interested” in Edmonton Oil Kings assistant coach Steve Hamilton.
It’s unlikely that Hamilton will make a move until the immediate future of Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal is confirmed one way or the other. There have been hints that perhaps the parent Oilers might add him to their staff, perhaps as an associate coach under head coach Dallas Eakins. Should that happen, Hamilton would be in line to be the Oil Kings’ head coach.
However, should the Oilers leave Laxdal in place as the Oil Kings’ head coach, perhaps Hamilton would consider a move to another WHL team as its head coach.
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1. F Evan Richardson, a sophomore forward at Boston College, won’t be returning to the Eagles. Richardson, 20, had two goals in four games last season as freshman. From Nanaimo, B.C., Richardson was selected 15th overall by the Swift Current Broncos in the 2009 WHL bantam draft. . . . On Sept. 5, 2012, the Broncos dealt his rights to the Victoria Royals for 1995-born F Justin Spagrud and a conditional second-round bantam draft pick. . . . As of late Monday night, Royals general manager Cam Hope hadn’t spoken with Richardson, who is believed to be thinking about playing junior A or transferring to another school. . . . Of course, he would be welcome to join the Royals and, as Hope told me, “fight for an overage spot with us . . . he’s a skilled player.” . . . The Royals have five 20-year-olds on their roster in D Travis Brown, F Austin Carroll, F Steven Hodges, F Brandon Magee and G Patrik Polivka. However, Hodges has signed with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, while Magee and Polivka have signed with teams in Europe.

2. The Medicine Hat Tigers have signed F James Hamblin, the 17th overall selection in the 2014 WHL bantam draft. Hamblin, from Edmonton, spent the past two seasons with the bantam AAA Edmonton-South Side Athletic Club Lions. Last season, he had 62 points, including 32 goals, in 31 games. . . . Hamblin was one of 21 prospects who attended the Tigers’ weekend orientation camp.

3. The Prince Albert Raiders have traded F Chance Braid, who turns 20 in September, and F Lance Yaremchuk, 18, to the Prince George Cougars for F Jordan Tkatch, 19, and a sixth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. . . . Braid, from Chauvin, Alta., has 57 points in 201 regular-season games, all with Prince Albert. . . . Yaremchuk had a goal and two assists in 15 games with the Raiders last season. He also had 31 points, 15 of them goals, in 20 games with the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos, who went on to win the Telus Cup. Yaremchuk was a sixth-round selection by the Raiders in the 2011 bantam draft. . . .  Tkatch, a second-round pick by the Cougars in the 2010 bantam draft, put up 82 points, 33 of them goals, in 196 regular-season games. He is from Prud’Homme, which is located 110 km south of Prince Albert, where he played for the midget AAA Mintos. Last season, he had 46 points, including 16 goals, in 72 games.

4. The deal between Prince Albert and Prince George leaves the Raiders with six potential 20-year-olds on their roster -- F Calder Brooks, F Dakota Conroy, F Shane Danyluk, F Jayden Hart, D Sawyer Lange and F Carson Perreaux. . . . In Prince George, Braid joins G Adam Beukeboom, F Troy Bourke, F Jari Erricson, F Zach Pochiro, F Brett Roulston, D Joshua Smith and D Wil Tomchuk as potential 20-year-olds on the Cougars’ roster. Bourke has signed an NHL deal with the Colorado Avalanche so isn’t likely to return.

5. When a team loses, it isn’t often that fans give the other team credit. When that happens in Game 7 of a championship series, it rarely happens. More often, the officials get the blame, it seems. So I must say I was quite pleased to get the following via email from a Portland Winterhawks’ fan:
“Has there ever been a more resilient and tough-minded WHL team than this year's Oil Kings - They took multiple ‘George Foreman in his prime haymakers’ from the Hawks . . . Storm . . . and Val-d'Or:
- Fall behind the Hawks 2-0 in games / getting shaky goaltending from (Tristan) Jarry;
- Fall behind the Hawks 2-0 three minutes into Game 3;
- Blow two three-goal leads at HOME ... lose Game 6 in epic failure fashion;
- Get beaten soundly by Guelph in the round-robin;
- Multiple OT's against Val-d’Or;
- Fall behind 1-0 . . . a minute into the championship game.
Unbelievable guts and courage shown by Edmonton.”

6. F Sam Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs is NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked North American skater going into this month’s draft. But at the combine last weekend in Mississauga, Ont., Bennett wasn’t able to do even one pull-up. . . . Yes, that raised some eyebrows. But, as Neate Sager of Yahoo! Canada Sports writes right here: Who cares? . . . It all reminds me of an anecdote involving F Bill Derlago, one of the great scorers in WHL history, who was selected by the Vancouver Canucks with the fourth overall pick of the NHL’s 1978 draft. When players showed up for training camp, the Canucks’ braintrust put them through some dryland stuff that included sprints. Jake Milford, who had a long history with the Wheat Kings, was the Canucks’ general manager at the time. He called Brandon head coach Dunc McCallum and admitted that he was concerned because Derlago didn’t run very well. McCallum asked Milford: “Are you putting together a track team or a hockey team?”

7. D Kyle Sheen (Kootenay, Kamloops, 1999-2004) will be bringing home at least one

souvenir from the 2014 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship that opened Sunday in Pardubice, Czech Republic. . . . Sheen’s first goal in an IIHF competition gave Canada a 1-0 lead less than a minute into Monday’s game against Finland. However, the Finns came back for a 5-3 victory. . . . Canada, bronze medalists a year ago, had opened with a 3-1 victory over Germany on Saturday. . . . Canada (1-1) will meet Sweden on Tuesday. . . . Interestingly, F Ales Hemsky of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators has joined the Czech team. His father, Petr, is the head coach of the Czech side.


8. Hockey Canada has revealed that registration for the 2013-14 season was down 5,600 from the previous season. The number of boys played hockey in Canada decreased for a third straight season. . . . Meanwhile, the number of new players involved in soccer went up by 20,000. . . . Alan Maki of The Globe and Mail delves into why that is happening right here.

9. D Andrew Alberts’ hockey career may be over, but he’s not even thinking about that. All he wants right now is to experience one day without a headache. Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun has the story right here on what he calls “the NHL’s shame.”

10. Retired NFL star Dan Marino is part of a lawsuit filed against the NFL on May 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Yes, it has to do with concussions. As Massachusetts-based attorney Michael McCann, who writes on legal matters for Sports Illustrated, notes right here, these lawsuits aren’t going away any time soon.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Brandon West has been promoted to head coach of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks. He had been the associate coach under GM/head coach Troy Mick. . . . Mick now is the franchise’s governor, president and general manager. According to the BCHL constitution, a team’s head coach isn’t allowed to serve as governor. . . . Mick and West, who has been with Salmon Arm for three seasons, have worked together through the past two seasons.
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Tom Keca won’t be back as the assistant GM/assistant coach with the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons. Curtis Hunt, the team’s new GM and head coach, made that revelation on Monday. Keca had been with the Oil Barons for nine seasons. . . . Hunt also said that Ryan Allen, the club’s other assistant coach, will be back. . . . Robert Murray of Fort McMurray Today has more right here.
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From the Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants): “Be a part of our 2014/15 Dance Team! Auditions will take place on June 14 at the Coliseum. http://fb.me/2V4lENzyY”
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From Giants F Joel Hamilton (@Jhamilton181): “@WHLGiants I'm out of town until about mid august... Can I audition then? #jk”
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The Giants response: “We’ll hold a spot for you!”

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THE MacBETH REPORT:


F Justin Keller (Kelowna, 2003-06) signed a one-year contract extension with the Vienna Capitals (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). He had 16 goals and 19 assists in 52 games split between Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) and the Capitals. . . .


F Matt MacKay (Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, Vancouver, Brandon, 2008-11) signed a one-year contract extension with the Schwenninger Wild Wings (Germany, 2. Bundesliga). He had three goals and five assists in 42 games with the Wings this season. . . .

D Robert Schnabel (Red Deer, 1997-99) signed a one-year contract extension with the Manchester Phoenix (England, Premier). He had eight goals and 18 assists in 45 games with the Premier League champs this season. . . .

F Lauris Darzins (Kelowna, 2004-06) signed a one-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk (Russia, KHL). He had four goals and eight assists in 24 games with Ak Bars Kazan (Russia, KHL) this season. Darzins also was captain of the Latvian national team at the world championship last month, where he had five goals and one assist in seven games. He also was Latvia’s leading scorer at the 2014 Olympics Qualifying Tournament with three goals and two assists in three games. Latvia won its group and qualified for Sochi. . . .

And an interesting note from the KHL. The league has mandated going to NHL-sized rinks starting with the 2013-2014 season. Hmmm. . . .
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There was a time when the WHL would at least put out a news release in advance of its annual general meeting.
These days, it seems the WHL would prefer to operate in secrecy.
There was no news release early in the week to provide even a speck of information on what would be on the agenda. That annual two-day meeting apparently was held in Vancouver and ended Wednesday. (Allow me to ask once again: Why not hold the annual meeting in one of the league’s smaller cities, providing a hotel or two and a restaurant or three with some offseason business? Or perhaps it could have been held in Portland where it might have received far more media attention than it did in Vancouver.)
Anyway . . .
According to the WHL’s own news release:
“One of the highlights of the meetings was a report on the WHL Concussion Management Safety Program indicating that concussions were down over 20% overall during the 2012-13 season compared to the 2011-12 season. The reduced number of concussions is largely a result of the WHL's Seven Point Plan, a comprehensive education and prevention program designed to reduce contact to the head and concussions, introduced prior to the 2011-12 season.”
The WHL, of course, didn’t provide any numbers. It expects us to take this at face value.
Brain injuries, it wants us to believe, are down more than 20 per cent. Of course, that could mean 20.1 per cent; it could mean 50 per cent. It could mean anything more than 20 per cent.
But more than 20 per cent of what? The WHL needs to start giving the media and fans credit for some intelligence; in other words, don’t expect that stuff to be swallowed like so much pablum.
The WHL started hiding its injury information following a 2010-11 season in which players accumulated more than 100 brain injuries and alarm bells started to go off. Those alarm bells got louder when some media outlets made something out of the WHL having surpassed the century mark.
The WHL’s response was to start reporting all injuries as being of the upper- or lower-body variety.
And now, with no point of reference, the WHL wants us to drink the Kool-Aid and believe that brain injuries were down more than 20 per cent this season.
I would suggest that if there was a drop of even 20 per cent, it means that brain injuries were way up — way, way up — in 2011-12 from 2010-11.
It is impossible to document a precise number because the WHL and its teams simply refuse to be truthful about such injuries. However, tracking upper-body injuries and using anecdotal evidence gathered throughout this season, I would suggest there were somewhere between 75 and 110 brain injuries.
Again, this is pure speculation, the numbers having been compiled by perusing the WHL’s weekly injury list and then attempting to research each upper-body injury.
What is known is that a number of players including F Spencer Main of the Kelowna Rockets, F Brayden Cuthbert of the Moose Jaw Warriors and F Shae Howorko of the Swift Current Broncos weren’t able to start the season because of previously incurred brain injuries.
A number of others, including forward Brent Benson of Swift Current, D Albin Blomqvist of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, D Reid Jackson of the Moose Jaw Warriors, G Daniel Wapple of Moose Jaw, F Phil Tot of the Tri-City Americans and F Tyrel Seaman of the Brandon Wheat Kings were shut down during the season to allow them more time to recover from brain injuries.
Two years ago, the WHL announced a “Seven-Point Plan” aimed at reducing brain injuries.
Then, following its annual meeting a year ago, the league said in a news release: “Despite a slight increase in concussions, the WHL remains confident the Seven Point Plan will assist in reducing concussions in the future.”
In the same news release, commissioner Ron Robison stated that the league actually expected that increase.
“We anticipated the rate of concussions may increase this past season as there is more emphasis being placed now than ever before on the care and treatment of concussion injuries,” Robison stated. “We remain confident that the WHL's Seven Point Plan will address this matter effectively and reduce concussions in the seasons ahead.”
Of course, no one from the WHL has said exactly how many brain injuries were suffered during that 2011-12 season. So, again, there is no point of reference.
We aren’t likely to find out how many there were in 2012-13 either because the WHL continues to hide the numbers.
But, as mentioned, that total would appear to be between 75 and 110, and that’s far too many, especially if you are one of the unfortunate young men who has ended up with a brain injury that may have a long-term impact on your life.
But until the WHL chooses to become more transparent and provide hard numbers, we will never know what is really happening.
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The WHL’s news release from its annual meeting that benefited the economy of Vancouver also mentioned:
1. The league will use video replay “in the offensive zone to review goal situations when a player may have scored as a result of a hand pass or high stick.” This change is too late to help the Swift Current Broncos who lost a home playoff game in OT because the on-ice officials missed a gloved pass in the goal area that resulted in a goal.
2. The league is using a “new computer assisted scheduling system.” . . . The exhibition schedule is to be released June 25, with the regular-season schedule to follow the next day.
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1. The Tri-City Americans have acquired F Jessey Astles, 20, from the Saskatoon Blades for a conditional sixth-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. Astles had two points in 26 games with the Blades. He missed a lot of the season after suffering a skate cut to one wrist during a November game against the Regina Pats. The injury required surgery. Astles, a sixth-round selection by Kelowna in the 2008 bantam draft, played three seasons with the Rockets He was dealt to the Blades last summer.

2. The Americans now have six 1993-born players on their roster. The others are F Tyson Dallman, F Lukas Walter, D Zach Yuen, D Mitch Topping and G Luke Lee-Knight. . . . The Blades, meanwhile, have 13, but two of those are imports. . . . Teams are allowed to carry three 20-year-olds after a mid-October deadline.


3. The Prince Albert Raiders have signed F Lance Yaremchuk, a local lad who led the Saskatchewan midget AAA league in goals (38) with his hometown Mintos this season. Yaremchuk, a sixth-round selection in the 2011 bantam draft, is a 1996-born player. He had 63 points, leaving him fourth in the league scoring race.


4. Dan Lambert, who is prepping for his fifth season as an assistant coach with the Kelowna Rockets, has been named head coach of Team West, the Manitoba-Saskatchewan combines who will play in the U17 World Hockey Challenge in Cape Breton, Dec. 28 through Jan. 5. . . . Lambert, 43, replaces Malcolm Cameron, who stepped aside after being named head coach of the Regina Pats last month.

5. Lambert, then a defenceman with the Swift Current Broncos, played for a similar U17 team that met a touring Soviet side in a three-game series late in 1986. It was while he was with that team that the Broncos’ bus crashed, on Dec. 30, 1986, killing four of his teammates. . . . The book that is linked to at the top right of this page — Sudden Death: The Incredible Saga of the 1986 Swift Current Broncos — is about that crash and all that happened afterwards.

6. The OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds have signed general manager Kyle Dubas to a two-year extension, taking him through 2015-16. Dubas, 27, is a Sault Ste. Marie native who signed with the team in April 2011. . . . Earlier, the Greyhounds picked up an option on head coach Sheldon Keefe and now have him signed through 2014-15.


7. Doug Harrison of CBC Sports has spoken with Sherry Bassin, the majority owner and general manager, of the OHL’s Erie Otters about the CHL’s decision to prohibit European goaltenders. That story is right here.
Bassin, who has been around since they flooded the ice with water barrels and gunnysacks, talks a lot about the lack of coaching provided to goaltenders in minor hockey.
But at the end of the story he opens another can of worms by telling Harrison that it wouldn’t surprise him if all European players were prohibited from playing in the CHL in the not-too-distant future.
Discuss.

8. The Grand Rapids Griffins closed to within one victory of the AHL championship with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Syracuse Crunch last night. . . . The Griffins lead the best-of-seven final for the Calder Cup, 3-0. Game 4 is scheduled for Friday night in Grand Rapids. . . . F Jan Mursak broke a 2-2 tie at 15:11 of the third period. . . . Game 4 will be available on AHL Live, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio, and ESPN America). Game time is 7 p.m. ET. . . . Attendance for Game 3 was 10,102.

9. Ken Campbell of The Hockey News has a piece right here speculating on the future of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Will they stay, or will they go? And if they go, what is their destination? . . . Interestingly, Campbell has former Tampa Bay Lightning co-owner Oren Koules involved in a group that is “lurking in the background.” . . . Campbell also speculates that the Coyotes could end up relocating to Tacoma. Why Tacoma? Because Seattle’s Key Arena no longer has ice-making equipment or an accessible chilling system. That would precede a move to Seattle, should Chris Hansen get a new arena built for an NBA franchise that he hasn’t yet obtained. . . . Campbell doesn’t suggest an owner should the Coyotes end up Tacoma/Seattle, but I have to wonder if Bill Gallacher, who owns the Portland Winterhawks, would be involved.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The OHL’s Ottawa 67’s have added Travis Crickard, 25, to their staff as an assistant coach. A native of St. John’s, N.L., Crickard spent this season as the head coach of the major midget Ottawa Jr. 67’s, who played in the Telus Cup.
Paul Fixter has signed on with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves as the associate coach. He had been with the Kitchener Rangers as assistant GM/associate coach since 2008.
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From Guy Flaming (@TPS-Guy): "Petr Mrazek and the Grand Rapids Griffins lead Syracuse 3-0 in the AHL finals. Waiting for AHL to ban Euro goalies now.”
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From WHL Facts (@WHLFacts): “#35 - So I propose to have the Euro Netminder ban be dubbed the ‘Bartosak Rule’, since apparently he's too good for the CHL #GoalieOfTheYear”

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.