F Mads Eller (Edmonton, 2013-15) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with the Gentofte Stars (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). Last season, he had three goals and three assists with the Adirondack Thunder (ECHL), and two goals and four assists in 22 games with the Windsor Spitfires (OHL). . . .
F Shane McColgan (Kelowna, Saskatoon, Portland, 2008-14) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with the Tilburg Trappers (Netherlands, Germany Oberliga). Last season, he had five goals and four assists in 14 games with St. Thomas University (CIS).
-———
It would seem that the WHL is attempting to muzzle anyone who happens to be employed under its umbrella.
Why else would the league fine Peter Anholt, the general manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, for answering a question? Anholt got touched for $1,000 on Friday.
(Psst! Just between you and me, and don’t tell anyone because it’s confidential, but the WHL also touched up the Hurricanes for $2,500 for an equipment violation. Apparently, something happened that was in violation of an agreement with a CHL licensed supplier.)
Earlier in the week, Anholt dealt his team’s leading scorer, F Brayden Burke, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for F Ryan Bowen, a second-round selection in the 2017 bantam draft and an undisclosed conditional pick in the 2019 draft.
Last season, Burke finished third in the WHL scoring race, with 109 points. He tied for the assists lead,
 |
| PETER ANHOLT |
with 82. This season, he had 23 points, including 19 assists, in 15 games.
However, the Hurricanes, so good a season ago, have been like hot-and-cold running water — 7-8-3, including 2-6-2 in their last 10 outings.
Asked by Matt Battochio of Global TV to explain the deal, Anholt replied:
“He was distracted a lot from Day 1. He wasn’t great at (training camp). I just really sensed that he was a distraction to our team in a lot of ways.
“We want players to understand, we will give you every opportunity you can have to be a player here, within reason. In (Burke’s) case he took it for granted, and abused it. So it’s time to move on.
“I gave him a great coaching staff to work with to enable him to put up over a 100 points last (season) with a real good team. You give a guy lots of opportunities, lots of breaks, and in the end they kind of stick it to you.”
Burke was selected by the Red Deer Rebels in the seventh round of the 2012 bantam draft and later was traded to the Hurricanes. Anholt was on the Rebels’ scouting staff in 2012 so was familiar with Burke before joining the Hurricanes during the 2014-15 season.
After head coach Brent Kisio left the Hurricanes in mid-October to coach at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge, Anholt moved back behind the bench. Whatever he saw in five games from that vantage point was enough for him to pull the trigger on the deal with Moose Jaw.
“I think anybody who’s been on a team realizes what a good teammate is. Making good decisions when you’re away from the rink and someone’s not looking over your shoulder. That’s the bottom line,” Anholt told Battochio. “We had guys that signed here because of my vision and what we wanted to do with the hockey club. And when somebody stifles that, and I see that, and I saw it even closer when I was up close and personal as a coach, it’s time to make a call.”
Anholt also told Battochio that he felt the issue with Burke went back to last spring.
“I think we’ll be a better team as we come through this (adversity),” he said. “Last (season) we had none until playoffs, and what good did it do? It’s kind of interesting that one of the players that didn’t really play well in playoffs was one of the ones we moved out. We will be a better team.”
Battochio even asked Anholt how he felt Burke would do with the Warriors.
Anholt’s response: “I don’t care. He’s a Moose Jaw Warrior now. I don’t care.”
Burke has yet to report to the Warriors, although the team says he is expected to arrive on Sunday. He apparently went home to Edmonton after the trade occurred.
In a league where so much of what we hear is pablum, Anholt’s decision to answer a question with something other than “the kid wasn’t giving 110 per cent so his compete just wasn’t there” was extraordinary.
As the general manager of a team he feels has a whole lot more to give, Anholt obviously chose to take a scorched-earth approach as he delivered a message he no doubt hoped would be heard in his dressing room. Rest assured that Anholt also wanted the ticket buyers of Lethbridge to know why chose to trade away a top-flight player.
He didn’t light up a 16-year-old freshman in the process; rather, it was a 19-year-old in his third season. You can bet that Anholt was hoping Burke would get the message, too.
However, the WHL doesn’t like spice on its pablum or brown sugar on its oatmeal, and it didn’t like what it heard.
All other general managers and coaches now are on notice, so it’ll be back to “we have to get pucks in deep and be hard on their defence. We have to play a heavy game for 60 minutes.”
Oh, and general managers and coaches are going to have to add one other line to the standard repertoire: “We have to make sure the guys are wearing the proper elbow pads.”
Criticize a player publicly and it might cost you $1,000. Wear the wrong elbow pads and it’s $2,500.
Welcome to today’s WHL.
——
The Saskatoon Blades have acquired D Jordan Henderson, 19, from the Spokane Chiefs for a sixth-round selection in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft. . . . Henderson, from Surrey, B.C., was a fourth-round pick by Spokane in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . He has four assists in 15 games with Spokane this season. In 112 career regular-season games, he has one goal and 12 assists. . . . The Blades, who obviously were looking to add experience and depth to their back end, now are carrying eight defencemen. However, Jake Kustra is injured and Libor Hajek will be leaving for the World Junior Championship where he will play for his native Czech Republic. . . . The Blades next play Sunday when they meet the Hurricanes in Lethbridge. Henderson is expected to join them before that game.
——
The Saskatoon Blades have signed F Ethan Mack, who was an eighth-round selection in the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft. Mack, from Edmonton, had 40 points, including 21 goals, in 34 games with the bantam AAA South Side Athletic Club Lions last season. This season, he has five goals and nine assists in 13 games with the Northern Alberta Extreme 15 of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
———
Got a tip or some information you would like to pass along? Email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
———
——
FRIDAY’S GAMES:
At Brandon, F Ty Lewis, F Stelio Mattheos and F Reid Duke each had three points to lead the Wheat Kings to a 5-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . The Wheat Kings took control with three first-period
 |
| TY LEWIS |
goals that allowed them to take a 3-1 lead into the second period. . . . F Tyler Coulter got his seventh goal at 4:45 and D Kale Clague’s fourth goal, shorthanded, made it 2-0 at 6:44. . . . Red Deer F Dawson Martin cut into the lead with his fourth goal at 8:39. . . . Lewis got his 10th goal, on a PP, at 10:40 to restore the two-goal lead. . . . F Michael Spacek’s 11th goal, on a PP, pulled the visitors back to within one at 7:27 of the second period. . . . Lewis scored again just 58 seconds into the third period and Mattheos added a PP goal, his eighth score this season, at 13:10. . . . Lewis added an assist to his brace of goals, while Duke had three assists and Mattheos had two. F Tanner Kaspick also had two helpers. . . . G Jordan Papirny stopped 32 shots for Brandon. . . . Red Deer starter Riley Lamb was beaten on the only two shots he faced. Lasse Peterson came on to stop 21 of 24 shots in 53:16. . . . Brandon was 2-4 on the PP; Red Deer was 2-5. . . . The Wheat Kings (8-7-3) went into the game not having scored in 17 power-play opportunities. . . . The Rebels slipped to 9-8-2. . . . Red Deer is without D Alex Alexeyev (undisclosed injury) and F Grayson Pawlenchuk (high ankle sprain). Alexeyev is week-to-week; Pawlenchuk could be gone for as long as six weeks. . . . Announced attendance: 5,024.
——
At Kamloops, F Garrett Pilon and F Deven Sideroff each had a goal and two assists to help the Blazers to a 5-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Pilon, whose father, Rich, a hard-nosed defenceman who
 |
| GARRETT PILON |
banged heads on behalf of the Raiders back in the day, has three goals; Sideroff has 11. . . . D Brendan Guhle got the Raiders on the board first, scoring his second goal, on a PP, at 7:42 of the first period. . . . But it was pretty much all Blazers after that. . . . Sideroff tied the score at 9:21 and F Erik Miller gave the home side the lead with his first goal at 14:25. . . . Pilon scored what proved to be the winner at 16:19. . . . Kamloops D Shaun Dosanjh’s first goal stretched the lead at 4:48 of the second period. . . . Raiders F Austin Glover, with his sixth, got his guys to within two at 12:43. . . . Kamloops F Rudolfs Balcers, who missed on a second-period penalty shot, put the game away with his 11th goal at 9:30 of the third period. . . . Kamloops D Dawson Davidson had two assists. . . . The line of Sideroff, Pilon and Balcers finished with seven points. . . . G Connor Ingram, who hoped Prince Albert’s midget AAA team to a national championship, stopped 21 shots for the Blazers. . . . Raiders starter Ian Scott fought the puck in this one and was gone after allowing four goals on 19 shots. The fourth one was a rebound off the end boards that bounced into the crease before Scott kicked it into his own net. Reliever Nick Sanders came on to stop 16 of 17 shots in 35:12. . . . Prince Albert was 1-4 on the PP; Kamloops was 0-3. . . . The Blazers moved to 11-9-1, while the Raiders are 5-12-1. . . . Kamloops continues to be without veteran D Dallas Valentine (elbow), but he is back skating and could return before too long. . . . Announced attendance: 3,844.
——
At Portland, the Everett Silvertips scored the game’s first two goals and went on to a 2-1 victory over the Winterhawks. . . . Everett (14-2-2) has points in seven straight (6-0-1) and has moved into a tie with the idle Prince George Cougars for first place in the overall standings, one point ahead of the Regina Pats. . . . The Winterhawks (8-12-0) have lost nine in a row. . . . Everett got a PP goal from F Patrick Bajkov, his eighth, at 16:38 of the first period. . . . F Dominic Zwerger’s eighth goal, at 5:07 of the second, proved to be the winner. . . . F Keegan Iverson got the home side to within a goal with his ninth at 12:51 of the third. . . . D Noah Juulsen had two assists for Everett, with Bajkov adding one to his goal. . . . G Carter Hart turned aside 23 shots for Everett, while Cole Kehler stopped 26 for the Winterhawks. . . . The Silvertips were 1-5 on the PP; the Winterhawks were 0-4. . . . Announced attendance: 3,065.
——
At Kent, Wash., the Calgary Hitmen gained a 2-0 lead early in the third period en route to a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . F Beck Malenstyn’s third goal, at 19:51 of the second period, opened
 |
| MATTEO GENNARO |
the scoring and F Jakob Stukel (5) made it 2-0 at 2:48 of the third period. . . . Seattle D Ethan Bear made it interesting when he scored his fourth goal at 17:00, with G Rylan Toth on the bench for the extra attacker. . . . Calgary F Matteo Gennaro, who also had an assist, got the empty-netter at 18:59. He’s got four goals. . . . Calgary G Cody Porter stopped 27 shots, 14 more than Toth. . . . Calgary was 1-3 on the PP; Seattle was 0-5. . . . The Hitmen (7-5-2) are 4-0-1 in their last five outings. . . . The Thunderbirds slipped to 7-8-1. . . . Calgary, which opened a U.S. Division tour with the game, remains without D Jake Bean (hand). . . . F Mathew Barzal, who has been returned to the Thunderbirds by the NHL’s New York Islanders, has rejoined the team but didn’t play in this one. The Thunderbirds are to play the Vancouver Giants in Langley, B.C., tonight. . . . Prior to the game, the Thunderbirds announced that they have dropped F Mackenzie Wight, 17, and G Matt Berlin, 18, from their roster. Wight, from Burnaby, B.C., was pointless in six games. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft. Berlin, who was acquired from the Spokane Chiefs last month, got into one game, beating the Warriors 5-1 in Moose Jaw. . . . Berlin is expected to join the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders, who acquired his rights from the Drayton Valley Thunder. . . . Announced attendance: 5,342.
——
At Victoria, F Matt Phillips scored twice to help the Royals to a 4-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans. . . . Phillips, who has 11 goals, struck 14 seconds apart — at 1:13 and 1:27 of the second period — as the home team took a 4-0 lead. . . . F Ryan Peckford’s sixth goal, on a PP at 14:12 of the first period, had made it 1-0, with F Jack Walker’s 11th goal, at 19:23, making it 2-0. . . . Peckford also had two assists. . . . The Americans made it interesting on third-period goals from D Dylan Coghlan (4), at 2:47, and F Vladislav Lukin (10), on a PP, at 5:45. . . . The Royals got 32 saves from G Griffen Outhouse, 18 of them in the third period. Tri-City’s Rylan Parenteau stopped 26 shots. . . . Victoria was 1-4 on the PP; Tri-City was 1-5. . . . The Royals (11-7-2) have points in five straight (3-0-2). . . . The Americans (12-7-1) had a four-game winning streak snapped. . . . Announced attendance: 6,027.
——
SATURDAY’S GAMES (all times local):
Kootenay at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Prince George at Kamloops, 7 p.m.
Prince Albert at Kelowna, 7:05 p.m.
Saskatoon at Medicine Hat, 7:30 p.m.
Red Deer at Moose Jaw, 7 p.m.
Calgary at Portland, 7 p.m.
Everett at Spokane, 7:05 p.m.
Brandon at Swift Current, 7 p.m.
Seattle vs. Vancouver, at Langley, B.C., 7 p.m.
Tri-City at Victoria, 7:05 p.m.
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.
Posts
