Gordie Bombay helps Terriers win . . . Remembering the 1974 Steelers . . . Lowry to chat with Sharks?

F Dávid Šoltés (Prince George, 2013-15) signed a one-year contract with Košice (Slovakia, Extraliga). This season, as a 19-year-old with the Cougars, he had 28 points, 13 of them goals, in 44 games.
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The host Portage Terriers, who also are the MJHL champions, won the RBC Cup on Sunday, beating the
CCHL-champion Carleton Place Canadians 5-2 in the championship game.
The title goes from one team of Terriers, the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers, who won it last season, to another.
I can’t tell you how shocked I was to read that Portage’s victory in the national championship game was the first for a Manitoba team since 1974.
Yikes! That was a long time ago. I should know, because I was there.
I was in my first year at the Winnipeg Tribune, after two at the Brandon Sun, and one of my beats was the MJHL.
The Selkirk Steelers, under head coach George Dorman, won the MJHL title in 1973-74 and headed out on the playoff trail.
The Steelers won the MJHL, beating arch-rival Portage in seven games — the Terriers had won the national title the previous season — and taking out the West Kildonan North Stars in five.
The Steelers took the best-of-seven ANAVET Cup final from the Terry Simpson-coached Prince Albert Raiders, 4-2, and then beat the B.C.-champion Kelowna Buckaroos, 4-3, despite playing the last four games in the Little Apple.
There weren’t any three-, four- or five-team tournaments back in the day, and the victory over Kelowna put the Steelers into a best-of-seven national final with the Central Junior A League-champion Smiths Falls Bears.
The Steelers camped out in Ottawa — the first thing Dorman did was get the team out of the small motel in which the CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) had the team staying and into a Ramada Inn.
The series went seven games, with all games played in the Nepean Sportsplex because there wasn’t any ice in the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre. The Steelers won the first two games, 5-4 and 7-4, with the Bears taking Game 3, 3-0. After Selkirk won the fourth game, 2-1 behind a 48-save effort by G Andy Stoesz, I seem to recall writing that the series was all over, that the Bears were done like dinner.
You guessed it! Smiths Falls came back with 6-3 and 5-4 victories, the latter in OT, to set up a Game 7 with the winner taking home the Centennial Cup, this being the days before corporate sponsorship put business names on so many things.
In Game 7, the teams played through three scoreless periods — Smith Falls F Terry Fournier ripped a shot off the cross-bar late in the third — and appeared headed to a second OT when Gord Kaluzniak scored. In those days, under CAHA rules, teams played 10 minutes of overtime, no matter how many goals were scored, but if they were still tied they went to 20-minute sudden-death periods. Kaluzniak, a Selkirk kid, scored with two minutes left in the 10-minute period, and the Steelers were able to defend their lead until period’s end.
Considering that the victory gave the MJHL its second straight Centennial Cup, it is hard to imagine that the league wouldn’t be home to the trophy again until last night.
What makes it that much more interesting is that the Centennial Cup was presented to the CAHA by the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association to commemorate the province’s centennial year of 1970.
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The Portage Terriers are the first host team to win the RBC Cup as national junior A champions since the SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings in 2005.
Somehow it was only fitting that in this era of social media, at least one media outlet reported that “Terriers forward Gordie Bombay” scored a PP goal. Portage F Jordyn Boyd uses the Twitter handle @GordieBombay14. Boyd, who has played in the WHL with the Everett Silvertips and Kootenay Ice, gave the Terriers a 3-1 lead early in the third period.
The Bowles brothers, Brad and Shawn, stretched the lead to 5-1 later in the period. Shawn also had two assists. Their sister, Candace, works for Brandon radio station CKLQ and is the in-game host for the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Canadians had beaten the Terriers, 3-0, in the round-robin.
Last year, the Yorkton Terriers beat those same Carleton Place Canadians, 4-3 in overtime, in the final game in Vernon, B.C.
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The Memorial Cup tournament opens Friday in Quebec City with the WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets meeting the host Quebec Remparts. Also competing will be the OHL-champion Oshawa Generals and the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic. . . . Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News provides an early preview right here.
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Here is the Memorial Cup schedule (all games on Sportsnet; all times Eastern):
Friday, May 22: Kelowna vs. Quebec, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 23: Rimouski vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 24: Quebec vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Monday, May 25: Rimouski vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 26: Oshawa vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27: Quebec vs. Rimouski, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 28: Tiebreaker, if necessary, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 29: Semifina, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 31: Championship game, TBA
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The hockey season is over for many Canadians, it having ended when the last two Canadian teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames, were eliminated from the NHL playoffs. In his latest piece, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail writes: “It is impossible to count the number of Canadians who will now largely tune out. After the hardest winter in memory for so many, warm spring evenings or weekend afternoons are for spending anywhere but in front of the television watching, say, a team from Florida play a team from California.” . . . That column is right here.
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THE COACHING GAME:

Various sources, including Darren Dreger of TSN, have reported that Dave Lowry, the head coach of the WHL’s Victoria Royals, is in the mix for the head-coaching position with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. . . . Lowry, who has completed three seasons as the Royals’ head coach, also is the head coach of Canada’s national junior team. . . . Also believed to be contenders for the position are former NHL coaches Peter DeBoer, Dan Bylsma and Randy Carlyle. . . . Of course, the Sharks also want to have a chat with Mike Babcock. . . . Even if Lowry doesn’t get the Sharks’ job, his name now is in the NHL loop and you can bet that more interviews with different teams will follow, maybe not this offseason but in the future. . . . The Sharks have been looking for a head coach since they announced that Todd McLellan wouldn’t return for an eighth season. That was said to be by mutual agreement. . . . McLellan, a former WHL coach (Swift Current, 1994-2000), spent the past few weeks as the head coach of the Canadian team that won the IIHF World championship in Prague on Sunday. Canada, under McLellan, ran the table, completing its tournament with a 6-1 victory over Russia.
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At the moment, there are three WHL teams — the Kootenay Ice, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Vancouver Giants — without head coaches.
Last offseason, there were 10 teams changing coaches; this season, it doesn’t seem the number of changes will approach anywhere near that total.
In Kootenay, the Ice is looking for a replacement for Ryan McGill, while Lethbridge GM Peter Anholt is said to be down to a shortlist of three as he searches for a replacement for himself. The Giants, at some point, will hire a replacement for Claude Noel.
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Perhaps you heard about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s big game on the weekend. He scored eight times in an exhibition game that featured a lot of former NHLers and was played in Moscow. Putin’s team won, 18-6. . . . Putin spent most of the game on a line with Pavel Bure and Valeri Kamensky. . . .
The QMJHL championship will be decided tonight in Quebec City as the Remparts and Rimouski Oceanic play Game 7. The host Oceanic won Game 6 on Sunday, beating the Remparts 5-4 in OT on a goal by D Jan Kostalek. . . .
You may have seen the mini-documentary on Dickson Liong that got a whole lot of exposure earlier this month. On the weekend, Liong wrote a piece for The Fourth Period, explaining how he came to be the star of that piece. His story is right here.
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World champs 🇨🇦 @Burnzie88 pic.twitter.com/CjlNmZWo1h

— Tyson McLellan (@TysonMcLellan88) May 17, 2015

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Two more veterans leave WHL . . . Ex-WHLer forced to stop playing

Jerrid Sauer has joined the Medicine Hat Tigers' coaching staff.
(Photo: Medicine Hat Tigers)

It may not be a problem, but it would seem to be a trend.
First, there was D Reid Gow, 20. Then, D Cole Wedman, 20, followed suit. On Sunday, it was D Jeremy McIntosh's turn.
And now F Geordie Maguire and F Aspen Sterzer have moved on.
Gow and McIntosh, 19, both cited a loss of passion in deciding not to return to the Spokane Chiefs. Wedman, who had been dealt by Spokane to Moose Jaw over the summer, has informed the Warriors that he won't report, choosing instead to attend the U of Alberta.
Now you can add Maguire and Sterzer to the list.
Maguire, 19, isn’t in camp with the Swift Current Broncos and apparently will be heading to school.
From Winnipeg, he began his WHL career in 2012-13, picking up nine points, including four goals, in 65 games with the Wheat Kings. The Everett Silvertips had selected Maguire in the fifth round of the 2010 bantam draft, then dealt him to Brandon for G Brandon Anderson, 20, and a fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft.
At the WHL’s 2013 bantam draft, the Wheat Kings dealt Maguire to Regina, along with a third-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft, in exchange for "draft day considerations."
At the 2013-14 trade deadline, the Pats traded Maguire to the Broncos for a sixth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. Maguire, who led the Manitoba midget AAA league in scoring in 2011-12, had 14 points, seven of them goals, in 27 games with Regina, and one goal in eight games with the Broncos.
Sterzer, meanwhile, has chosen not to report to the Red Deer Rebels for his 20-year-old season.
Greg Meachem, the Red Deer Advocate's sports editor, reports that Sterzer has told Brent Sutter, the Rebels' GM/head coach, that the passion is gone and that he plans on going to school.
“We’ll stay patient with it and see what happens," Sutter told Meachem, "but during my conversation with him he said he just didn’t feel he has the passion to play any more. He made that commitment to his family, to his mom and dad, that if he wasn’t at the pro level after his 19-year-old year that he would go to school.”
Sterzer played 174 regular-season WHL games, 144 of those with the Kamloops Blazers. He missed a lot of the 2012-13 season with health issues, including a brain injury. The Blazers traded him to the Rebels last season, giving up F Matt Bellerive and a third-round 2014 bantam pick. Sterzer had 21 points, 12 of them goals, in 30 games with Red Deer. Between the two teams, he had 53 points, including 29 goals, in 70 games.
“For us, it was disappointing. It caught us off guard,” Sutter added. “We didn’t expect it after our year-end exit meetings. He kept in contact with our coaches through the summer and was doing the conditioning stuff that was required of him.
“Then all of a sudden he changed his mind.”
Without Sterzer, the Rebels have three 20-year-olds on their roster -- D Brett Cote, who was acquired from the Victoria Royals for a second-round 2014 draft pick on May 1, D Devan Fafard and F Brooks Maxwell.
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Albin Blomqvist turned 21 on Jan. 8, so no longer is eligible to play in the WHL.
Not that he would be able to were he 20 years of age, because he has become another victim of brain injuries.
Blomqvist, from Osby, Sweden, played two seasons (2011-13) with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. In his first season, he had a goal and two assists in 38 games; the next season, he had three assists in 31 games.
Last season, he was limited to one game with Osby IK, a Division 2 club in Sweden.
As Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reports, Blomqvist has had to retire, and he has written a letter to Hockeysverige.se.
“It’s a tough read and brings up a lot of important issues for the hockey world,” Kennedy writes right here.
Kennedy continues: “Translated into English, Blomqvist rails against a culture that pushes dreams more than reality. With his hockey career over and no chance at playing in the NHL, the defenceman also has come to the realization that his singular focus and lack of education may not have been the best idea.”
Blomqvist‘s brother, Axel, plays for the Victoria Royals and has signed with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
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The OHL announced Wednesday that it has made more moves aimed at getting fighting out of the game.
What follows is from the OHL news release:
“The OHL will be augmenting the current staged fight rule whereby players receive an automatic game misconduct for a fight occurring immediately following the drop of the puck at the commencement of a period or game. Such rule has been expanded so as to include a fight that occurs immediately following any faceoff during the game. Should a staged fight occur, the player(s) involved shall each receive a game misconduct in addition to the major penalty and any other penalties assessed.
“If a player receives a third game misconduct during the season for a combination of any five-minute major and game misconduct penalties for checking to the head, checking from behind, boarding, kneeing and clipping, for which suspensions have not previously been applied, he shall receive an automatic one-game suspension. For each subsequent game misconduct, the suspension shall be increased accordingly.
“If a player receives a third minor penalty for instigating during the season, he shall receive an automatic one-game suspension. For each subsequent instigating minor penalty, the suspension shall be increased accordingly.
“The number of fighting majors that a player can receive in a game before a game misconduct is assessed shall be reduced from three to two.
“If a player receives a fourth minor penalty during the regular season in any one of the following categories, ie., checking from behind, checking to the head, kneeing, clipping or boarding, he shall receive a one-game suspension. For each subsequent minor penalty in any of the particular categories, the suspension shall be increased accordingly.
“Each OHL team shall have a threshold of three major penalties for fighting during each game. A disciplinary fine shall be assessed for each team exceeding such threshold.”
Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports Canada has more on the OHL changes right here.
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Alan Caldwell, over at Small Thoughts At Large, is in pre-training camp form in a big way. The other day, he took a look at the team-by-team 20-year-old situation. . . . Now he’s working on training camps, starting with rosters as they become available, and opening dates. Check it out right here; there also is a link over there on the right.
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F Jake Mykitiuk, who played two seasons (2011-13) with the Prince George Cougars, is going to camp with the Tri-City Americans. He had 21 points, including seven goals, in 126 games with the Cougars. Last season, the 5-foot-7, 160-pound Mykitiuk, who turns 19 on Nov. 21, split last season between the AJHL's Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints. He totalled 38 points, 16 of them goals, in 39 AJHL games.
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F Austin Calladine, who turns 19 on Dec. 21, is in camp with the Swift Current Broncos. A second-round pick by the Calgary Hitmen in the 2010 bantam draft, he has a goal and two assists in 37 regular-season games, 33 with the Hitmen in 2012-13. The Hitmen dealt him to the Saskatoon Blades for a conditional 2015 eighth-round bantam draft pick on Sept. 26. The Saskatoon native was pointless in three games with the Blades, then put up 34 points, 17 of them goals, in 46 games with the SJHL's Flin Flon Bombers.
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F Shane Danyluk won’t be back with the Prince Albert Raiders for a fifth season. Danyluk, 20, cleared WHL waivers on Wednesday. He expressed a desire to play in the BCHL for his hometown Salmon Arm SilverBacks. Danyluk was a second-round selection in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . Last season, he had 24 points, including seven goals, in 71 games. In 248 regular-season games, he put up 77 points, 25 of them goals. . . . Danyluk’s departure leaves the Raiders with five 20-year-olds on their roster -- F Calder Brooks, F Dakota Conroy, F Jayden Hart, D Sawyer Lange and F Carson Perreaux.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers have added Jerrid Sauer, 26, to their coaching staff. He will work as an assistant coach, alongside GM/head coach Shaun Clouston and assistant coach Joe Frazer. . . . Sauer, from Medicine Hat, played in the WHL with the Swift Current Broncos (2002-06) and the Tigers (2005-08). He then went on to the U of Calgary. . . . On the Tigers’ staff, he will replace Darren Kruger, who now is senior director, player development. . . . Sauer played for the Tigers in 2006-07 when they won the WHL championship.
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The Everett Silvertips go into the season under a bit more pressure than some other teams. That's because ownership has guaranteed its season-ticket holders at least a fourth-place finish in the 10-team Western Conference.
In February 2013, the Silvertips guaranteed season-ticket holders that they would finish at least sixth in the 10-team Western Conference or they would cough up $100 towards 2014-15 season tickets. Everett didn't have to pay up after finishing fourth.
At the same time, Everett management guaranteed at least a fourth-place finish in the conference in 2014-15. If the Silvertips don't get that high, season-ticket holders who renewed early will get a $100 credit towards 2015-16 tickets.
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Veteran F Trent Lofthouse, who turns 20 on Nov. 17, is in camp with the Portland Winterhawks. He also has played with the Everett Silvertips, Victoria Royals and Vancouver Giants. Last season, he started with Victoria, playing 11 games, and finished with the Giants. In 148 regular-season games, he has 38 points, including 25 goals. . . . As of now, Lofthouse is scrapping with F Adam De Champlain, F Trace Elson and D Josh Hanson for Portland’s three 20-year-old spots.
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The Central Hockey League’s Denver Cutthroats have suspended operations effective immediately. The franchise now is looking for additional investors and hopes to operate again in 2015-16. For now, all players who had signed with Denver are free agents.
The Central league also appears to have lost the Arizona Sundogs, and this could be permanent.
Brandon-based player agent Darryl Wolski tweeted Wednesday evening that the Sundogs “have ceased operations . . . players have been notified.”
That being the case, any players who have signed with the Sundogs now will be free agents.
Without Denver and Arizona, the Central league is down to seven teams. Shed a tear for F T.J. Fox. He played last season for the Cutthroats. On Friday, he signed with the Sundogs.
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Love the #OHL's additional penalties for fighting and dirty play. Players will eventually get the message #hockey
— Morris Dallacosta (@MoDaCoatLFPress) August 20, 2014

Mental illness costs Cdn economy $51B/year in direct treatment costs, lost productivity & quality of life. Early intervention is paramount!
— Wood's Homes (@ChildMntlHealth) August 21, 2014

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Winterhawks to introduce new man today . . . Three teams still looking

F Brandon Segal (Calgary, 1999-2004) has signed a two-year contract with Medveščak Zagreb (Croatia, KHL). Last season, he had 44 points, 17 of them goals, in 63 games with the Hershey Bears (AHL).
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1. The Portland Winterhawks are scheduled to introduce Jamie Kompon as their new general manager and head coach at a news conference today. Mike Johnston, who had been GM/head coach since October 2008, will be on hand to do the introduction. Johnston now is the head coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . Kompon spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks. He has two Stanley Cup rings, from the 2012 Los Angeles Kings and the 2013 Blackhawks. . . . Tommy Gorman, the head coach of the Blackhawks and Montreal Maroons (1934-36), was the last person to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with different teams. . . . Almost a year ago, Cory Smith of the Niagara Falls Review wrote a neat story about Kompon taking the Stanley Cup to visit family. That story is right here.

2. With Portland having its head coach in place, that leaves three other WHL teams still in the hunt. . . . The Moose Jaw Warriors are looking to replace Mike Stothers, who now is head coach of the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs. . . . The Regina Pats need a head coach and two assistants after the franchise’s new owners fired Malcolm Cameron and lost two assistants to resignations. . . . The Vancouver Giants will replace Don Hay, who left after 10 seasons to return to Kamloops and coach the Blazers.

3. If you’ve lost track, here’s a look at WHL teams that have signed new head coaches for the upcoming season:
Calgary Hitmen (Mark French; replaces Mike Williamson, who was fired after last season).
Edmonton Oil Kings (Steve Hamilton; promoted to replace Derek Laxdal, now head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars).
Kamloops Blazers (Don Hay; replaces interim head coach Guy Charron).
Kelowna Rockets (Dan Lambert; promoted to replace Ryan Huska, now head coach of the AHL’s Adirondack Flames).
Portland Winterhawks (Jamie Kompon; replaces Mike Johnston, now head coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins).
Saskatoon Blades (Bob Woods; replaces David Struch, who was fired after last season).
Tri-City Americans (Mike Williamson; replaces Jim Hiller, whose contract wasn’t renewed after last season).

4. Germany 7, Brazil 1. . . . If you are old enough to remember the 1972 Summit Series, that is about all to which I can compare Tuesday’s World Cup result. At the World Cup, like in that 1972 Canada-Russia series, it wasn’t one team against another; it was country versus country. If you can remember the feeling in Canada when a nation realized that the Great Russian Bear had quite a hockey team, well, multiply that by 10 and you will know what it’s like in Brazil today. . . . Brazilians waited a long time to play host to this World Cup and no one, absolutely no one, anticipated the dream ending the way it did. . . . Of course, if you’re ESPN, you equate Brazil’s loss to LeBron and the Miami Heat losing the NBA final to the San Antonio Spurs. Seriously!

5. The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed F Matthew Wedman, an Edmontonian who was a second-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. Last season, he had 72 points, including 32 goals, in 33 games with the Edmonton-South Side Athletic Club bantam AAA side. . . . His brother, Cole, 20, played three seasons with the Spokane Chiefs before being dealt to the Moose Jaw Warriors this offseason. Another brother, Dan, has played two seasons with the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs and has committed to Cornell.

6. NHL Central Scouting has released its “2014-15 Futures North American list.” Included on the list are 19 WHL players, including three members of the Seattle Thunderbirds. If you’re into such rankings, the complete list is right here.

7. The Russian Hockey Federation and the Russian Ministry of Sport are putting together a 10-team women’s hockey league. According to a report right here, each team will be allowed three foreign players “and the FHR is thinking about not allowing foreign goalkeepers starting from the 2015-16 season.” Gee, that sounds familiar. . . . Former NHLer Alexei Yashin, who is the general manager of the Russian national women’s team, will run this new league.

8. Ken Campbell of The Hockey News offers up his opinion right here on the latest move to unionize major junior hockey players. This, he writes, is good news for the players and bad news for the owner/operators.

9. With another move afoot to attempt to unionize major junior hockey players, Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News talked to a few players in an attempt to measure the level of interest. His column is right here, and it’s worth a read, if only for the line about players paying for Subway sandwiches with change.

10. Blaine Neufeld is the new head coach of the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles, replacing Peter Schaefer, who had been general manager and head coach. Neufeld, a goaltender who played in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers, Saskatoon Blades and Vancouver Giants (2004-07), is from Winkler, Man. He  had joined the Eagles in April as director of hockey operations. . . . Schaefer, who had a year left on his contract, will continue to work with the Eagles in a consulting role. Schaefer told Nick Greenizan of the Peace Arch News that he and the Eagles had agreed to a “mutual” parting of the ways. . . . Greenizan’s complete story is right here.
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F Mitch Barker, a 10th-round selection of the Spokane Chiefs in the 2011 bantam draft, says he will play next season with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Barker, who is from Kamloops, turns 18 on Oct. 12. He had four points in 24 games with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings last season. In 2012-13, he put up 39 points, 19 of them goals, in 48 games with the junior Kelowna Chiefs of the Kootenay International Junior League. . . . The AHL’s Manchester Monarchs have signed Chris Hajt as their new assistant coach. Hajt, 36, spent the last six seasons with the OHL’s Guelph Storm, most recently as assistant GM. He is the son of former NHL D Bill Hajt.
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Haven't seen anything so utterly helpless since Man shot Bambi's mother and he was alone in the forest.
— George Johnson (@GeorgejohnsonCH) July 8, 2014

Attention Brazil soccer writers: don't answer phone or e-mail. Editors calling with orders for 12-pt series on what's wrong with your game.
— David Shoalts (@dshoalts) July 8, 2014

Haven't seen defence this bad by Brazil since 13-4 Oilers rout NJ in 80s where Gretzky called NJ Mickey Mouse
— Jim Matheson (@NHLbyMatty) July 8, 2014

Of all the sports, I didn't think id miss 3 goals in soccer while peeing
— Peter Holland (@PeterHolland13) July 8, 2014

If this were baseball, Germany would not be allowed to steal bases, according to the unwritten rules.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 8, 2014

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Shawn Limpright (Moose Jaw, 1998-2002) signed a one-year contract with Mulhouse (France, Ligue Magnus). He had 28 goals and 53 assists in 65 games for the Rapid City Rush (CHL) this season, which was good enough for fifth in CHL scoring. . . .
F Lance Monych (Brandon, 1999-2005) signed a one-year contract with Löwen Frankfurt (Germany, Oberliga). He had 29 goals and 30 assists in 27 games with Ratinger Ice Aliens (Germany, Oberliga) this season.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Former WHL coach John Becanic is back in the game. Becanic, who has WHL coaching experience in Everett, Seattle and Vancouver, spent this season as head coach of the NAHL’s Wenatchee Wild. He left the Wild at the end of the season. . . . He now is the head coach the Team Seattle Major Bantam Team. . . . Team Seattle is the combined rep teams for Seattle Junior Hockey and Sno-King Amateur Hockey. . . .
Ron Gay is the new general manager and head coach of the USHL’s Indiana Ice. Gay takes over from Charlie Skjodt, who is back to being the club’s president. Gay has been with the Ice since September 2011 when he signed on as skills development coach and head coach of the Indiana Jr. Ice U18 team.
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Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun has more right here on the 15-year-old hockey player who drew a suspension from some summer tournaments after he slashed a linesman during a game in Brandon. It turns out he is a draft pick of the Prince Albert Raiders.
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Just in case you don’t yet understand that major junior hockey is a big, big business, check out this piece right here by Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette.
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Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News notes right here that the agreement between the CHL and NHL is in need of an adjustment. It is time, he writes, that players drafted by NHL teams out of the CHL be provided with the same options as those drafted out of NCAA programs.
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Sean McMorrow, the former Rochester Americans tough guy, was sentenced to 24 months in a federal prison on Wednesday. Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has the story right here.
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“A culture is shifting sharply,” writes Jason Gay of The Wall Street Journal. He is referring to football and its culture of violence. He points out that many mothers and fathers are having second thoughts about allowing their children to play football, and if there aren’t any feeder leagues – “those furthest from the paychecks” as Jonah Lahrer of Grantland.com puts it – there won’t be an NFL.
A world without the NFL? Don’t laugh.
Gay’s piece is right here.
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Today is the day for a number of WHL players who were selected in the 2010 NHL draft. If a player from that draft doesn’t sign an NHL contract by today, he becomes eligible for the 2012 draft.
As of late last night, D Alex Theriau, D Troy Rutkowski, D Tyler Stahl, D Brandon Davidson, D Ricard Blidstrand, F Brendan Ranford and F Josh Nicholls had yet to sign.
The Philadelphia Flyers aren’t expected to sign Blidstrand, but have been negotiating with Ranford’s agent, former WHLer Mark MacKay.
The Calgary Flames said Wednesday that they won’t sign Kootenay Ice D Joey Leach, who was a third-round selection.
Check out Alan Caldwell’s blog, Small Things at Large, for a list of who has signed and who hasn’t.
I would suggest the one real surprise here Rutkowski, who was a fifth-round selection by the Colorado Avalanche. Rutkowski had a terrific playoff and is a big-time shotblocker, something that seems to be popular in NHL circles these days.

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