World Curling comes to Regina

First it was Swift Current, and now it's Regina who will take a turn hosting the World Curling Championships.

Regina was named the host of the 2011 World Mens Curling tournament today, which will run April 2nd to 10th, 2011, at Evraz Place - also known as the home rink of the Regina Pats. Swift Current is hosting the World Women's championships this year, in late March.

The WHL relevance of this stuff is that the Broncos are looking at being kicked out of their rink for the first round of the playoffs this season, and the Pats will be in the same boat for the 2nd round of the playoffs next season.

The Pats have seen the 2nd round of the playoffs only once in the last 11 years so there might not be a lot of risk involved in that decision. But still - how'd you like to actually make the 2nd round and then have to play your "home" games for that round somewhere else....like Moose Jaw?

I'm still wondering what the Broncos are going to do come March, since they are on pace to make the playoffs right now and won't have a place to play in the first round....

Schenn called up to NHL

The injury-riddled Los Angeles Kings have summoned their 2009 first round pick, Brandon Wheat Kings forward Brayden Schenn, from the WHL on an emergency recall basis.

Schenn has signed a 1-day amateur tryout contract with the Kings and is expected to play for them tonight in Vancouver against the Canucks. Apparently NHL rules do not permit him to stick around longer than one day, so he will presumably be reassigned to Brandon tomorrow.

The Kings lost forward Andrei Loktionov with an injury last night in Edmonton and with Schenn already on the left coast - having played last night in Victoria in the Canada-Russia series game there - it was probably more convenient for the Kings to add him for tonight on an emergency basis than try to fly in a replacement from their New England-based AHL club in time for the game.

Too bad the game is against Vancouver and not against Toronto. If it were the Leaves, then Schenn could make his NHL debut by facing his older brother Luke. Oh well.

Doyle to Portland

Firstoff today, happy Thanksgiving if you live south of the 49th....sadly, it's just another day at work for those of us on the other side....

The last team with more than three overagers on their roster has finally gotten down to the limit, as Swift Current has dealt overage defenceman Eric Doyle to Portland for 19 year old defenceman Travis Bobbee. Nothing official on this deal yet from either the teams or the league but Gregg Drinnan reported it on his blog so you know it's a done deal.

Swift had to make a deal to get down to three overagers since they are expecting Matt Tassone to be ready to play in the next little bit. As for Portland, they had a spot open after trading Kurtis Mucha last weekend.

A decent price was paid too, as the Broncos are going to get next season from Bobbee as well, whereas Doyle is strictly a half-year player for the Hawks. Doyle will provide another veteran puck-moving defenceman for Portland, who should be familiar with Doyle after his time in Everett earlier in his career.

Two other player movement notes this morning as well - Everett has reassigned 18 year old defenceman Drew McDermott to Junior A, and Medicine Hat has added former T-Bird and Rebel, Josh Lazowski, to their roster.

Phaneuf hits a girl

A story making the rounds here the other day now has a video to support it....

Background: the Canadian women's Olympic hockey team has been playing a series of exhibition games against the Alberta-based boys AAA midget teams, as a tuneup for the Olympics in February. (I beleive the games count in the standings for the boys, so they're not "exhibition" games for the boys). The women have done pretty well in the series (8-3 record against the boys so far) but most games have been pretty close and it gives a pretty good indication of what calibre top-level international women's hockey is at - about the same calibre as AAA midget boys hockey in Canada.

Anyways, the games are played under women's hockey rules, which means no bodychecking - a factor which is no doubt a disadvantage to the boys. Last Thursday, however, Edmonton SSAC defenceman Dane Phaneuf - little brother of Dion Phaneuf and a Prince George Cougars prospect - forgot that rule and checked Canadian star forward Hayley Wickenheiser into the boards behind the net. Wickenheiser responded by grabbing Phaneuf around the neck and trying to wrestle him to the ice.

Funny stuff....especially when you consider that Wickenheiser is 31 years old and actually bigger (5'10", 170lb) than the 15 year old Phaneuf (5'10", 150 lb).

Women's hockey needs bodychecking allowed. Maybe not necessarily the big open-ice headhunting hits if they don't want that, but when a defenceman can't even rub out a forward behind the net.....that isn't hockey.

More trades

Two more trades today - that makes seven deals in the WHL in the last three days, if you're counting.

In the first deal, Tri-City has taken the 13th round 2010 bantam pick they got from Prince George in the Spencer Asuchak deal, and flipped it to Vancouver for 19 year old forward Todd Kennedy.

Hey, it's a 13th round pick. That's the modern-day WHL equivalent of being traded for a bus.

In the other deal, Portland continues to get younger by trading 19 year old forward Colin Redden to Prince Albert for a 2010 4th round pick. With the deal, and the move of Kurtis Mucha on the weekend, Portland now drops into 22nd on the average age list. So, they are the youngest team in the league now.

And another trade

Third trade today.....and it's those crazy Bonner brothers hooking up again. Does Scott Bonner even trade with anyone other than his brother anymore?

This time it's overage defenceman Ryan Funk heading to Kamloops in exchange for 18 year old forward Brett Lyon. And yes, Lyon was traded to Kamloops FROM Vancouver just last season.

Moving Funk gets the Giants down to three overagers on their roster, clearing the way for Garry Nunn to rejoin the team once his broken leg is healed.

Yet another deal

Another trade today - Tri-City sends 18 year old forward Spencer Asuchak to Prince George for an undisclosed bantam pick.

Blazers-Hitmen deal

Kamloops traded overage defenceman Giffen Nyren to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional 6th round pick this morning.

Calgary had room for an overager and a need for a puck-moving defenceman. For the Blazers, this move drops them down to two overagers, since they waived Justin Leclerc yesterday after acquiring Kurtis Mucha. They now have only Mucha and forward C.J. Stretch for overagers.

Monday notes

The WHL's active leader in almost every accumulative goaltending statistical category was traded yesterday, and he did not go gently.

The Winterhawks traded overager Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers for a 2010 4th round bantam pick, and Mucha was not able to hide his unhappiness at the way Portland treated him: "It’s tough. I put in my time and waited for the good times, and when the good times came they sent me out of here. It definitely leaves a little bit of bad taste in your mouth, no question about that."

Mucha is a nearly 4-year starter who leads all WHL goalies in every statistical category except wins (where Calgary's Martin Jones is the active leader) but his lack of wins is more because of the quality of teams he played on rather than his own abilities. So it's hard not to feel sorry for the guy; during those three long losing years, Mucha was often the only bright spot on the team, and now that Portland is in a position where they may be able to make a playoff run this year, his reward is a trade to another non-contender whose 09-10 postseason ambitions rely on them making the postseason first.

Sentimentality aside though, it's a business and with three goalies on the roster, the Hawks had to make the move that made sense for them both this year and in the future. I'm guessing they were not comfortable with the thought of Mac Carruth (and his one career WHL game) being their starter in 2010-11, which is what would have been on track to happen if they had kept Mucha and moved Ian Curtis instead. And a 4th round pick is a fair price for a midseason move of a one-year player at a position where there's usually not a lot of openings around the league.

And who knows, perhaps Mucha's stay in Kamloops will be a short one; with the WHL trade deadline coming up in just over six weeks, the possibility exists that Kamloops could flip him to a contender if the fortunes of the Blazers' season don't improve by Christmas.

One other trade in the WHL from the weekend that is worth mentioning as well, as the Rebels and Giants swapped 17 year old forwards. Gone to Red Deer is Lane Scheidl, and going to Vancouver is Connor Redmond. Trading Redmond represents the Rebels giving up on what appears to be a first round bantam bust (Redmond was #11 overall in 2007) although perhaps a change of scenery closer to home (he's from Maple Ridge) will help Redmond re-start his stalled career.

Interestingly, Redmond is the 2nd former Rebels first round bantam pick acquired by Vancouver this year - they picked up 2005 first rounder Cass Mappin earlier this season.

Thursday notes

Couple things today.....

First, a trade in the WHL today sees the Lethbridge Hurricanes returning 19 year old defenceman Eric Mestery to Tri-City (where they got him from last year in the Mitch Fadden trade) in return for a 2010 2nd round bantam pick.

Color me slightly surprised that Mestery commanded a pick that high in return. Sure, Tri-City's 2nd round pick is going to be at the tail end of the 2nd round and thus is about the same in value as, say, Prince George's 3rd round pick, but Mestery just never impressed me in his stay with the Hurricanes. But that's why I'm not a G.M. in the league....and we know the market value for four-year veteran defencemen is never cheap in this league.

One other thing that I think you can take away from this trade is that the chances that Lethbridge is dealing Luca Sbisa just continue to get smaller. Regardless of what Sbisa's agent might want for his client, I think the guy is staying put unless there's an offer that just knocks the Canes' socks off. They have too few good experienced defencemen behind him.

And on an NHL note, if you want an example of how badly the NHL is capable of bungling an absolute no-brainer of a call - even after video review - then you need to watch this video from last night's action. It's 2-1 Dallas midway through the 3rd period and Detroit scores the tying goal. Absolutely, unquestionably scores a goal. Except the on-ice refs AND video review central in Toronto decide it isn't a goal.....and Detroit goes on to lose the game.

As I understand it, the reason for the no-goal call was that the ref blew the whistle, or intended to blow the whistle, prior to the puck crossing the goal line. If so, what was the whistle being blown for? There was no penalty assessed on the play, the puck never left the area of play, there was no hand pass or knocked-down-with-a-high-stick situation, and there's no way the ref could have lost sight of the puck before it crossed the goal line. Those are about the only reasons why the referee can blow the whistle and stop play.

Bad, bad call.

Broncos/Rockets swap

Couple pretty big names on the move today as the Rockets and Broncos swap 19 year old forwards. Gone to Kelowna is Geordie Wudrick, while bound for the prairies is import Stepan Novotny and a prospect, 16 year old forward Tanner Clark.

I think Wudrick needed a change of scenery in Swift so the Broncos' end of this deal makes sense if that's the reason - it also moves him a lot closer to his home in Abbotsford. And with Wudrick likely to play next year as an overage, the Rockets probably had to add Clark to the deal to make it fair to the Broncos, who will only get the remainder of this season out of Novotny.

What I don't quite understand is why Kelowna would want to deal Novotny - their leading scorer. Were they just that high on Wudrick that they would surrender Novotny for him?

Sbisa to the Olympics

While catching up on things from the weekend, I found this link on Gregg Drinnan's blog...basically a columnist for NHL.com making his picks for the Swiss Olympic team.

What makes the item WHL noteworthy is that one of the players picked by the writer is current Lethbridge Hurricanes defenceman Luca Sbisa. Not a far-fetched choice either, since it is entirely possible that even at just 19 years old, Sbisa is one of the 6 or 7 best Swiss defencemen in the world. Couple thoughts about this though....

First, does Lethbridge (or whoever owns his WHL rights post-deadline) have to release him for the Olympic tournament? I can't think of any precedence for this because I can't remember the last time a major junior player was invited to play in the Olympics, if it has ever happened before.

Second, if you were Lethbridge, and assuming you had the choice, would you release Sbisa for the Olympics? It would mean you'd lose him for a big chunk of the month of February, which could have serious consequences for your team if they're fighting for a playoff spot down the stretch at that time. You're already going to lose him for a chunk of time after Christmas as he is a lock to play for the Swiss at the World Juniors as well.

And if Lethbridge were so inclined to trade Sbisa before the trade deadline, does his potential departure for the Olympics affect what they can expect to get in return from possible suitors? Playing in the Olympics - which is about the only chance we get in the hockey world to see the true creme de la creme of every country playing against each other - can only make a player like Sbisa a better player. But that's small consolation if his absence from your lineup in February means you miss the WHL playoffs by two points.

Just some things to think about....

Minor trade

Minor trade last night, the Calgary Hitmen shipped a 2011 4th round bantam pick to Chilliwack for the rights to 17 year old defenceman Carter Berg.

Berg was Chilliwack's 2nd round pick in the 2007 bantam draft and played 50 games for the Bruins last year as a 16 year old. He was sent to Jr A (Melfort Mustangs of the SJHL) this fall though, citing the need for him to get more playing time in order to develop. I suspect the Hitmen may leave Berg in Jr A for the season.....they have eight defencemen on their roster already and don't need more help.

This move may be one Chilliwack needed to make in order to open up a protected list spot for Cole Penner. Just a guess.

Russian roster

Here we go with the annual Canada-Russia series rant.....I went looking for the roster that Russia plans to use in the "Subway Super Series" games against the WHL, and found a roster on the Pipeline Show's blog.

I see (surprise!) that it's the usual group of Jr-B reject calibre Russian players. 25 players on that list, all 18 or 19 years old. Of that group:

- 3 are not yet NHL draft-eligible

- 3 are NHL draft picks: 1 2nd rounder and 2 3rd rounders

- 19 have been eligible for the NHL draft and were not picked

And now to run down the WHL roster here.....there are 33 WHLers selected to play in the two WHL-vs-Russia games of this series. Of those 33 players:

- 5 are not yet draft-eligible

- 6 were NHL first round picks

- 4 were NHL second round picks

- 6 were NHL third round picks

- 5 others were fourth round picks or later picks

- 3 were not drafted but signed with NHL teams as free agents

- only 4 have been eligible for the NHL draft but are not still drafted/signed

Tell me again why we are sending our very best players to play games against a bunch of Russians who are mostly hacks who aren't close to being good enough to play in the WHL, let alone the World Juniors?

With this series we basically give the Russians a free look at most of the players who are going to eventually play for Canada at the WJCs, while they give us diddly squat in return. Enough already.

I'd like to propose an alternate WHL roster for these games:

Forwards: Cameron Abney, Kyle Beach, Lance Bouma, Mike Brown, Rigby Burgart, Darian Dziurzynski, James Henry, Tayler Jordan, Brett Lyon, Randy McNaught, Garrett Mitchell, Brock Montgomery, David Robinson, Ian Schultz
Defencemen: Curt Gogol, Dylan McIlrath, Ryley Miller, Mike Reddington, Tanner Sohn, Teigan Zahn

None of these guys is likely to be invited to play for Canada for real, but I think they could give this ragtag bunch of Russians a run. Plus, they would be the most physical Canada-Russia games ever and who doesn't enjoy watching the Russians get pounded through the boards? Fun!

Carruth to Portland

The Portland Winterhawks have won the recruiting battle for '92 goaltender Mac Carruth. The Minnesota product, considered one of the better '92 goaltenders in the United States, has agreed to forfeit his NCAA scholarship to Minnesota-Duluth - which was to start in 2010-11 - and join the Winterhawks.

Carruth has been playing Jr A for the NAHL's Wenatchee Wild but will be joining Portland right away.

Portland now has three goaltenders on their roster, with veterans Kurtis Mucha (20) and Ian Curtis (19). Obviously one of those guys is now about to be moved somewhere because few teams carry three goaltenders this late into the season. Who's out? Will the Hawks move Mucha and pick up some overage help at another position? Or do they move Curtis, which means Carruth would be Portland's starting goaltender as early as next season? Both Mucha and Curtis have comparable stats so far this season so I don't know if there's a clear odd man out.

And another name to consider in the Hawks' sudden crease crowd is that of Keith Hamilton. Once considered Portland's top goalie prospect and possible "goalie of the future", it now looks like Hamilton's WHL future may not be in Portland at all since Carruth is the same age....

.545 is the new .500

Not a new concept at all, but just something that got under my skin once again while poring over the WHL standings today: 16 of the 22 teams in the league have a winning percentage of .500 or better.

Once upon a time, being a .500 team was a reasonable barometer of average-ness. Roughly half the teams in the league would be above that mark and half would be below it. Teams that were above .500 were usually happy with that result, and teams below it were correspondingly less happy.

Today "being .500" is a useless stat. The problem lies in its method of calculation - a team's point total is divided by its' maximum possible points (games played x 2) and presto, there's the "winning percentage". Except that nowadays teams get points for losing too, and so your point total has nothing at all to do with winning anymore. If you use .500 as your barometer of success today, then 16 of 22 (73%) of the teams in the WHL are having pretty good seasons, and that's ridiculous.

So far there have been 497 points awarded this year for 456 games played. That works out to a .545 winning percentage for the "average" team. Using .545 as the measuring stick, there are 10 teams above that mark and 12 below it - a much more even distribution.

Penner on the move

I see the Prince Albert Raiders and the Chilliwack Bruins completed a blockbuster trade last night involving the #4 overall pick in the 2006 bantam draft.

Yes, power forward Cole Penner is on his way to Chilliwack for the price of.....a 12th round bantam pick???

Imagine, that is all the Raiders could get for a player who just two years ago was considered to have such promise. How many bridges must he have burned since then to reduce his value around the league to that of a draft pick which will probably not even be used (since few teams pick into the 12th round).

It's actually kind of a good deal for Chilliwack, since they get a guy who could be a pretty good player for basically nothing. If he flops there too, they haven't lost anything. Penner's problems have been said to be between his ears and not a case of lacking in ability.

I tried to find where Penner was playing this year but there doesn't seem to be any current location....his Jr A rights have pinballed across the prairies this winter, from Brooks (AJHL) to Melfort (SJHL) to Grande Prairie (AJHL) to Merritt (BCHL) since the beginning of September. Near as I can tell he did not report to Merritt so who knows where he has been playing for the last month.

Powerplay points

Fun stats time again....which players in the league have been getting the highest percentage of their points on the powerplay this year?

Statistically, 32.4% of all points scored this year have come on the powerplay. So anyone higher than that is above average....and some players are WAY above average:

		Pts	PP Pts	%
Neil Manning	Vancouver Giants	17	15	88.2%
Brett Plouffe	Tri-City Americans	11	9	81.8%
Brennan Yadlowski	Lethbridge Hurricanes	12	9	75.0%
Sergei Drozd	Tri-City Americans	10	7	70.0%
Stefan Ulmer	Spokane Chiefs	13	9	69.2%
Tyson Barrie	Kelowna Rockets	12	8	66.7%
Bronson Maschmeyer	Kamloops Blazers	15	10	66.7%
Kevin Connauton	Vancouver Giants	17	11	64.7%
Justin Feser	Tri-City Americans	14	9	64.3%
Mike Reddington	Lethbridge Hurricanes	11	7	63.6%
Charles Wells	Seattle Thunderbirds	11	7	63.6%
Matt MacKenzie	Calgary Hitmen	16	10	62.5%
Travis Hamonic	Moose Jaw Warriors	24	15	62.5%
Austin Madaisky	Calgary Hitmen	10	6	60.0%
Michael Stone	Calgary Hitmen	15	9	60.0%
Troy Rutkowski	Portland Winterhawks	20	12	60.0%

(I only calculated this for players who have at least 10 points this year)

Neil Manning's 17 points looks good for a defenceman, but if not for powerplay time he would have almost no points at all. Clearly he doesn't provide much offence at even strength. Not to pick on Manning though as the same can be said for a lot of other players, and all but three names on the list are defencemen so you can see that for a lot of defencemen in general, they rely on the powerplay to get their point totals up.

How about the other way around? Players who have at least 10 points despite getting very few of them on the powerplay:

		Pts	PP Pts	%
Curtis Hamilton	Saskatoon Blades	14	0	0.0%
Dillon Wagner	Swift Current Broncos	12	0	0.0%
Cody Chikie	Kelowna Rockets	10	0	0.0%
Jeremy Boyer	Saskatoon Blades	10	0	0.0%
Burke Gallimore	Saskatoon Blades	13	1	7.7%
Dylen McKinlay	Chilliwack Bruins	12	1	8.3%
Brett Bulmer	Kelowna Rockets	12	1	8.3%
Scott Glennie	Brandon Wheat Kings	18	2	11.1%
Gaelan Patterson	Saskatoon Blades	20	3	15.0%
Spencer Bennett	Portland Winterhawks	13	2	15.4%
Nathan Deck	Prince Albert Raiders	13	2	15.4%
Brent Raedeke	Edmonton Oil Kings	18	3	16.7%
Stefan Elliott	Saskatoon Blades	18	3	16.7%
Chris Langkow	Everett Silvertips	12	2	16.7%
Michael Stickland	Swift Current Broncos	12	2	16.7%
Tomas Vincour	Edmonton Oil Kings	17	3	17.6%
Emerson Etem	Medicine Hat Tigers	22	4	18.2%
Cass Mappin	Vancouver Giants	11	2	18.2%
Roman Horak	Chilliwack Bruins	16	3	18.8%
Shane Harper	Everett Silvertips	21	4	19.0%
Bretton Cameron	Medicine Hat Tigers	31	6	19.4%

Valchar gone in Lethbridge

Today's Lethbridge Herald reports that overage import forward Radim Valchar has been placed on waivers by the Hurricanes, as they make room for new overage forward Dustin Donaghy and also get back down to two imports after the arrival of Luca Sbisa from the NHL.

I think this may be the end of Valchar's WHL career, since he takes up both an overage and an import spot. Both Calgary and Kelowna still have openings for both overage and import players and could claim him without having to move out anyone else, but I don't think it that happen. More likely Valchar will move on to the minor pro ranks or return to Europe.

Chiefs/Canes deal

Another overage move last night - Spokane has gotten down to the limit of three overagers by trading forward Dustin Donaghy to Lethbridge for a 2010 6th round bantam pick.

Two of the Chiefs' overagers (Letts & Spurgeon) are still injured, but with this move the Chiefs will not need to make any further moves when those guys become available.

For Lethbridge, this trade gives them four overagers, and when you combine that with them also having three imports, it doesn't look good at all for Radim Valchar. He seems to have fallen out of favour there a bit, and the Canes can solve both their overage and import problems by trading or releasing Valchar.

O/A notes

Prince George began the process of getting down to three overagers yesterday by trading forward Del Cowan to the Calgary Hitmen for a conditional 2010 8th round bantam pick. The Cougars only acquired Cowan three weeks ago at the overage deadline, but with defenceman Dallas Jackson coming off the injured list, the Cougars had four overagers and needed to get back down to three this week. I am a little surprised that Cowan was the guy to go though, instead of Tyler Halliday.

Calgary now has the full complement of three overagers, although I heard an unconfirmed report that they have released Cody Gross in order to stay at a 25 player roster. If that's true, then without Gross they are back down to two overagers. (Update: Gross was indeed released this morning)

We're going to see some more overage moves in the coming weeks as well, as Prince George, Spokane, Swift Current, and Vancouver all still have four overagers on their rosters. As their injured players begin to return to action, there will be more moves yet....