Raiders' hunt for GM ends . . . Leafs may have job for McCrimmon . . . Ex-Raider to coach Lakers

D Layne Viveiros (Portland, 2011-2015) signed a one-year contract with Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). This season, he had eight goals and 35 assists in 71 games with the Winterhawks. Viveiros is a dual Canadian-Austrian citizen. . . . He is eligible for his 20-year-old season in the WHL, but obviously has decided to go a different route. . . .
F Jakub Rumpel (Medicine Hat, 2006-07) signed a one-year extension with Herne (Germany, Oberliga). This seaosn, he had 26 goals and 40 assists in 24 games.
———

Multiple WHL sources tell me Curtis Hunt will be named the new General Manager of the Prince Albert Raiders, replacing Bruno Campese.

— Tyler King (@tyler_king) June 5, 2015

According to Tyler King, the Prince Albert Raiders have their general manager.
As noted above, King tweeted Friday morning that Curtis Hunt will be the Raiders’ next general manager.
Hunt resigned Friday as general manager and head coach of the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons. King spent four seasons as the Oil Barons’ play-by-play man and also was their manager of communications. He left the club Monday and now is the manager of communications for the AJHL’s Brooks Bandits.
Having spent four seasons working with the Oil Barons, it’s safe to say that King has connections there.
Hunt just completed his first season with the Oil Barons, who were 35-28-6 under him, including all regular- and post-season play.
Hunt, 48, isn’t a stranger to Prince Albert or the WHL.
From North Battleford, Sask., he was a defenceman for three seasons (1984-87) with Raiders. He was a first-year defenceman on the Prince Albert team that won the 1985 Memorial Cup.
He also has been a WHL head coach for eight seasons — Moose Jaw Warriors (2002-04) and Regina Pats (2004-08, 2009-11).
The Raiders have been without a GM since Bruno Campese’s departure last month after eight years in the organization.
The new general manager joins a team that has its coaching staff in place, with head coach Marc Habscheid starting a four-year contract, associate coach Dave Manson starting a four-year extension and assistant coach Kelly Guard on a one-year deal.
The Raiders have a news conference scheduled for Monday morning at which there will be, according to a release, “a major announcement regarding” their hockey operations department.
——
A note from Damien Cox, who writes Saturdays in the Toronto Star:
“Internally, the (Toronto Maple) Leafs continue to add personnel, although not a general manager yet. On Friday, with the departure of Steve Staios to the new Hamilton OHL franchise, Scott Pellerin was promoted within the player development area. It appears Brandon Wheat Kings owner/GM Kelly McCrimmon has a front office job waiting for him with the Leafs if he’s willing to leave Manitoba. Ditto for Sault Ste. Marie (head) coach Sheldon Keefe in a yet undefined coaching role.”
McCrimmon, of course, also is the Wheat Kings’ head coach.
——
The Auston Matthews saga continues, with his agent, Pat Brisson, telling Mike G. Morreale of nhl.com that the projected No. 1 pick in the NHL’s 2016 draft will play with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland’s top pro league or the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. . . . Of course, there isn’t anything new in that, although perhaps this is the first time that Brisson has said the Matthews camp has ruled out the NCAA route. . . . Morreale’s story from Friday is right here.
——
Jeff Pearlman, a respected author with a number of solid sports-related books to his credit, took some time on Friday to write about “when guys like Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon turned celebrity.” . . . It’s true. Guys like Smith and Wilbon used to be journalists . . . and highly credible journalists, at that. . . . Pearlman takes a look at that subject in a devastating piece that is right here.
———

THE COACHING GAME:

Jeff Tomlinson is the new head coach of the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, who play in Switzerland’s National League B. Tomlinson, 45, was an assistant coach with Germany at the IIHF World championship in Prague last month. He has coached in Germany for a number of years. . . . Tomlinson, from Winnipeg, played three seasons (1987-90) with the Prince Albert Raiders. He later played nine seasons in Europe.
——
Tim Kehler, a former Swift Current Broncos assistant coach, has been added to the list of presenters at the fifth annual Hockey Coaches Conference that is scheduled for Vancouver, July 24-25. Kehler spent three seasons (2007-10) on the Broncos’ coaching staff. . . . He has spent the last four seasons in Europe, the past three as head coach of Löwen Frankfurt of DEL2. . . . Also on the list of presenters is Victoria Royals head coach Dave Lowry. . . . For more on the conference, click right here.
——



The Medicine Hat Regional Event Centre is no more. Canalta Hotels has purchased naming rights for the new facility that is scheduled to open later this year. The arena now is known as the Canalta Centre. . . . Collin Gallant of the Medicine Hat News has more right here.
———

THE CONCUSSION REPORT:

From a news release issued on Friday: “The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) supports the education-driven recommendations made by the jury serving on the inquest into the death of Rowan Stringer highlighting the important role an educated coach plays in the prevention, identification, and management of sport-related concussions and return to play for participants.” . . . This is important stuff. The complete release is right here.
——
Anthony Davis, the San Francisco 49ers starting right tackle, has retired after five NFL seasons. The 25-year-old Davis, who was the 11th overall selection in the NFL’s 2010 draft, said in a release: “This will be a time for me to allow my brain and body a chance to heal. I know many won’t understand my decision, that’s OK.” . . . Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle has more right here.
——

“Two former players have filed a landmark $200-million lawsuit against the Canadian Football League, former CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon, a leading brain injury expert and a Toronto neurology clinic, alleging they knew and withheld information about how repeated brain trauma leads to long-term cognitive problems,” Rick Westhead, TSN’s senior correspondent, reported on Friday. “The lawsuit was filed May 29 in Ontario Superior Court by Korey Banks and Eric (The Flea) Allen.” . . . Westhead’s story is right here.
———

Head of WADA-approved lab says she can't in good conscience keep testing CFL players samples. Lots of positive tests, no repercussions.

— Paul Friesen (@friesensunmedia) June 5, 2015

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.

Giants happy with Noel . . . Ice stuns Silvertips . . . Thunderbirds derail Chiefs

F Radek Meidl (Seattle, Tri-City, 2006-08) has signed a contract with Prostějov (Czech Republic, 1. Liga). Contract terms weren’t announced. This season, he had nine goals and eight assists in 16 games with Polonia Bytom (Poland, Ekstraliga). . . .
D Jindřich Barák (Red Deer, 2009-10) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with Skalica (Slovakia, Extraliga) after requesting his release from Sparta Prague (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Barák played for Skalica each of the past two seasons. With Sparta this season, he had one goal in 12 games.
---

THE COACHING GAME:

The Vancouver Giants have signed Claude Noel as the fifth head coach in franchise history.
The WHL team made the announcement via a press release Sunday evening, during halftime of the Grey Cup, the annual championship game of the Canadian Football League that this year was held in Vancouver.
“We’re excited to have Claude join our organization,” Giants general manager Scott Bonner said in the news release. “He has worked extensively with Ken Hitchcock, who is one of the best coaches in WHL history, and with Claude coming from the NHL, we know he’s one of the top coaches in the world. We’re confident that he can get us back on track.”
Noel attended the Giants' game in Calgary on Saturday night. The Giants snapped a six-game losing skid, beating the Hitmen, 6-3. The Giants next play on Friday when they entertain the Portland Winterhawks.
The news release didn't give any indication of contract length or terms.
The Giants fired head coach Troy Ward on Wednesday. He was 25 games into a three-year contract and had a 9-16-0 record at the time. Assistant coach Matt Erhart was named interim head coach and the Giants were 1-2-0 with him running the bench.
Noel, 59, has twice been an NHL head coach, with the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets. He was 80-79-18 with the Jets when they fired him in January. During his time in Winnipeg, he coached former Giants like Evander Kane, Spencer Machacek, Kenndal McArdle and James Wright.
In a short stint as the Blue Jackets' head coach in 2009-10, Noel was 10-8-6.
A native of Kirkland Lake, Ont., Noel has a lot of coaching experience but has never been a head coach at the major junior level. He spent two seasons (1988-90) as an assistant coach under head coach Bert Templeton with the OHL's North Bay Centennials.
Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province tries to piece together the Noel hiring right here.
---
The BCHL's Victoria Grizzlies are bringing in Craig Didmon to replace general manager and head coach Brad Knight. The move wll be made official today at a news conference. The Grizzlies are 11-10-0-5, good for fourth spot in the Island Division, four points out of third and five points out of second. . . . Didmon, who is taking over on an interim basis, had been with the Grizzlies, but he resigned in June. . . . Independent Sports News has the story right here.
---



Bob Woods, the general manager and head coach of the Saskatoon Blades, learned a lesson on Saturday night in Moose Jaw. We'll never know if it may have cost his side a 4-2 loss to the Warriors. . . . Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has the story right here explaining how Blades F Alex Forsberg had to leave a game in the middle of the second period, even though he was healthy and hadn't taken a penalty.
---
The Moose Jaw Warriors have released F Linden Penner, a 19-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta. Penner, who was a 10th-round selection by the Saskatoon Blades in the 2010 bantam draft, had a goal and three assists in 24 games with the Warriors. . . . The Warriors had acquired Penner from the Calgary Hitmen on Sept. 24, giving up a conditional sixth round pick in the 2016 bantam draft. Perhaps the draft pick was payable if Penner was on the Warriors' roster on Dec. 1.
---
The Colorado Avalanche have recalled F Colin Smith from the AHL's Lake Erie Monsters and he could make his NHL debut tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. Smith, 21, is from Edmonton. He had 271 points, including 102 goals, in 272 regular-season WHL games with the Kamloops Blazers. The Avalanche selected him in the seventh round of the NHL's 2012 draft. . . . Last season, his first as a pro, he had 34 points, eight of them goals, in 76 games with Lake Erie. This season, he has four goals and seven assists in 16 games.
---
F Mason Shaw of the Medicine Hat Tigers won’t play again this season. Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News reports that Shaw “will undergo season-ending surgery this week.” . . . Shaw, a 16-year-old from Lloydminster, Alta., was a second-round pick by the Tigers in the 2013 bantam draft. In his first WHL season, he has three goals and six assists in 23 games.
---

SUNDAY’S GAMES:

In Everett, D Tyler King scored at 3:08 of OT as the Kootenay Ice erased a 3-0 deficit and beat the Silvertips, 4-3. . . . Kootenay trailed 3-0 early in the third period when F Tim Bozon scored his ninth goal at 1:35. . . . Ice D Rinat Valiev got his side to within a goal with his fourth goal at 5:40, via a PP. . . . D Tanner Faith scored his first goal of the season at 13:52 of the third to force OT. . . . F Nikita Scherback (bruised thigh) returned to the Everett lineup and had his 12th goal and an assist. . . . The Silvertips also had F Remi Laurencelle (ankle) back in the lineup. . . . Kootenay F Sam Reinhart had his point streak snapped at 10 games. . . . The Ice is 9-2-0 with Reinhart in the lineup. . . . The Ice (13-15-0) has won two in a row. . . . Everett is 16-5-4. . . . Taylor Rocca of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman has more right here on the Ice’s weekend. . . .

In Kent, Wash., the Seattle Thunderbirds scored three PP goals and beat the Spokane Chiefs, 4-1. . . . Only the game's first goal, from Seattle D Turner Ottenbreit, didn't come via the PP. . . . F Ryan Gropp scored twice for Seattle, giving him 12 goals this season. Gropp played six games without a goal after last scoring on Nov. 8. . . . F Justin Hickman had two assists for Seattle. . . . F Calder Brooks had Spokane's lone goal, his 11th. . . . Seattle D Sahvan Khaira gave his side a 3-1 lead with his first goal at 10:03 of the second period. . . . The Thunderbirds scratched F Mathew Barzal (knee) and D Shea Theodore (undisclosed). . . . The Thunderbirds improved to 11-12-4, while the Chiefs (14-8-3) had a five-game winning streak end.
---

Just watched a midget game with a total of 9 coaches on the benches. Why is this necessary? #ThreeIsPlenty #Overkill
— Mike Fraser (@MikeFraser29) November 30, 2014

A Tuesday night tweet from Tyler King, the radio voice of the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons:
“Mayor Melissa Blake says they could have qualified bidders and shovels in the ground for a downtown arena as early as this year.”
All of which is rather interesting because there are hockey people who aren’t anywhere near the Alberta city who would love to put a WHL franchise there.
However, the WHL office has said it’s not interested.
You have to wonder how long the WHL can ignore Fort McMurray.
Consider a couple of paragraphs from a piece by Fabrice Taylor, a financial journalist and analyst, that I spotted on the Winnipeg Free Press’ website:
“The average household income in Fort Mac is about $180,000. The average house price is almost $750,000. The majority of the population is under 40. The unemployment rate is about four per cent. The population in the region is 104,000, has doubled in the past decade and will grow by double-digits for years.”
Fort McMurray is located 452 kilometres north of Edmonton.
———
The MJHL and a group that is calling itself Virden Hockey Ventures Inc. will hold a news conference in the south-western Manitoba community this morning. The group is expected to announce the purchase and relocation of the Winnipeg Saints.
According to the Winnipeg Sun, it is expected that Troy Leslie, who was the head coach of the midget AAA Southwest Cougars, who play out of Souris, Man., will be named the Virden team’s head coach. He is expected to bring some of his coaching staff with him. Assistants with the Cougars were Brett Braybrook, Chad Leslie, Brad Vandenberghe and Bob Caldwell. The Cougars announced Monday that the coaching staff wouldn’t be returning.
The departure of the Saints will leave the Winnipeg Blues as the only junior A franchise left in the Manitoba capital.
———
The NAHL’s Alexandria, Minn., Blizzard is moving to Brookings, S.D., where it will continue to be know as the Blizzard and play in a 2,000-seat facility. . . . Roman Augustoviz, over at the The Roman Empire blog, reports that the 28-team NAHL set an attendance record this season, drawing 1,128,098 fans, an average of 1,342 fans per game. . . . The Wenatchee Wild was third in attendance, averaging 3,028 for each of its 30 home games.
There’s more right here.
———
Yesterday, you will recall, a list appeared here showing the five goaltenders who have scored goals in the WHL.
It turns out that one of those goaltenders didn’t even start the game in which he scored.
It turns out that Jeff Calvert was on the bench when the Tacoma Rockets began play against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors on Dec. 29, 1992.
Considering that his family lived in Moose Jaw and that there wasn’t an Internet back in the day, well, he apparently wasn’t very happy because his folks would be listening to Rob Carnie’s call of the game on CHAB but he wouldn’t be in the game.
Todd MacDonald was in goal for the Rockets when the game began, but it wasn’t long before Tacoma was down 3-0.
So, at 9:30 of the first period, out went MacDonald and in came Calvert and away went the Rockets.
“We ended up getting even and then getting the go-ahead goal,” recalls former Tacoma defenceman Dallas Thompson, now the GM of the Prince George Cougars. “The Moose Jaw goalie was pulled and history was made.”
Thompson remembers Carnie providing Calvert’s father, Bob, with a tape of the broadcast.
As Thompson puts it: “Pretty sure it was not emailed to his iPod.”
It could be, too, that as Thompson notes: “I would bet he was the only goalie in history to score in a game he never started.”
The Rockets, who trailed 4-0 at one point, won the game 6-4. It was their 17th straight victory on home ice, a streak that would reach 23.
By the way, Calvert also had an assist in that game.
Think about this for a second . . . he was a scrap away from a Gordie Howe hat trick, and how many goaltenders have one of those to their credit?
———
Thanks to the reader who passed along a link to a Prime Sports Northwest video that shows G Olaf Kolzig of the Tri-City Americans scoring a goal against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Kolzig, it turns out, also had an assist in that game. So he, too, was a fight away from a Gordie Howe hat trick.
It was Nov. 29, 1989, and Kolzig was the first WHL goaltender to score a goal.
That link is right here and it's a good one. Enjoy!
———
The Vancouver Giants have signed F Taylor Vickerman, 16, who was a sixth-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. Vickerman, who is from Kennewick, Wash., played minor midget with the Cleveland Barons this season. He had 41 points in 61 games.
———





The Western Conference final resumes tonight in Portland with the Winterhawks holding a 2-0 series lead over the Tri-City Americans. The first two games both went to OT. . . .

TUESDAY’S GAME:
In Moose Jaw, the Edmonton Oil Kings ran their winning streak to 22 straight as they beat the Warriors, 3-2. . . . Edmonton leads the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final, 3-0, with Game 4 in Moose Jaw tonight. . . . The Oil Kings have won 11 consecutive playoff games as they attempt to sweep their third straight series tonight. . . . Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit, the CHL’s goaltender of the week for each of the previous two weeks, stopped 30 shots in running his winning streak to 20 games. . . . In the playoffs, Brossoit is 11-0, 1.45, .949. . . . The game was 1-1 going into the second period when Edmonton F Curtis Lazar scored his seventh goal of the these playoffs, on the PP, at 1:44. . . . F Michael St. Croix added insurance at 5:48 of the third. . . . F James Henry got Moose Jaw to withing one at 15:33 of the third. . . . Moose Jaw G Luke Siemens stopped 20 shots. . . . Among the faces in the crowd — Brian Burke and Steve Yzerman.
———
Ray Easterling, 62, committed suicide last week. The former Atlanta Falcons safety was among more than 1,000 players involved in lawsuits against the NFL over the way the league has handled concussion-related injuries.
“He had been feeling more and more pain. He felt like his brain was falling off. He was losing control,” his wife, Mary Ann, told foxsports.com. “He couldn’t remember things from five minutes ago. It was frightening, especially somebody who had all the plays memorized as a player when he stepped on the field.”
There is more right here.
———
As well, there was another lawsuit filed against the NFL on Tuesday, this one including a number of former Dallas Cowboys. The NFL now is facing more than 50 such lawsuits that include more than 1,200 former players.
There is more right here on the latest lawsuit.


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.