Oh say can you see......the relegation round?

With the USA's 5-2 loss this afternoon for the Czechs, the much hyped Canada-USA New Years Eve game tomorrow night is now meaningless. Regardless of the outcome of that game, Canada will win the pool and get a bye through the quarterfinals, while USA will finish 4th and miss the medal round altogether. USA will actually have to compete in the relegation round with the likes of Denmark and Latvia just to keep their spot in the Tier I world juniors next year.

While the USA is naturally going to prevail in the relegation round and probably finish 7th, it's a shock to many that 7th place is now their best possible finish after just three games played at the tournament. In fact, USA was the pre-tournament gold medal pick of at least a couple "experts" that I read.

What went so wrong?

(And YES, I know that if the Danes beat the Finns tonight then USA still has a chance at the medals. However.....we all know that ain't going to happen.)

A sad anniversary

On the afternoon of December 30, 1986 the Swift Current Broncos bus went off the road and crashed in poor weather en route to a road game in Regina. Four players - Brent Ruff, Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, and Chris Mantyka - died in the crash. Today is the 25th anniversary of that accident, which is surely one of the darkest moments in the history of the WHL.

Take a minute (or more!) from your day today to remember the accident, the players that died, and the ones who survived but have had to deal with the effects for a quarter century now.

In the aftermath of the accident, the Broncos retired the numbers of the four players, and the league named its Player of the Year trophy the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy after them.

On a brighter note, the crash also gave life to one of the WHL's most emotional GOOD stories ever as well. Just a year and a half after the accident, the Broncos won the 1989 Memorial Cup with a roster that included six players from the team involved in the bus crash: Dan Lambert, Sheldon Kennedy, Trevor Kruger, Peter Soberlak, Tim Tisdale, and Bob Wilkie.

Another Macs update

List of all scorers at the Macs with more than 4 points after day four today (not counting the two late games):

Braden Oleksyn (Beardy's Blackhawks): 4-5-4-9-6 (Calgary (2011 3rd rd bantam pick))

Brett Boehm (Beardy's Blackhawks): 4-3-6-9-4 (Calgary (listed player))

Elliott Peterson (Beardy's Blackhawks): 4-1-8-9-8 (Calgary (2010 11th rd bantam pick))

Michael Statchuk (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-3-5-8-2 

Kyler Hehn (St. Albert Raiders): 4-2-6-8-0 (Brandon (2010 7th rd bantam pick))

Brandon Tkachuk (Calgary Flames): 3-0-8-8-4 

Mitch Amatto (Calgary Flames): 3-4-3-7-2 

Jace Hennig (Vancouver NE Chiefs): 3-4-2-6-0 (Calgary (listed player))

Riley Whittingham (Calgary Northstars): 2-3-3-6-2 (Spokane (2010 3rd rd bantam pick))

Ahmed Gimbatov (Russia Severstal/Locomotiv): 4-3-3-6-4 

Denis Buhaltsev (Russia Severstal/Locomotiv): 4-2-4-6-0 

Tanner MacMaster (Calgary Buffaloes): 3-1-5-6-0 (Spokane (2011 1st rd bantam pick))

Adam Rockwood (Vancouver NE Chiefs): 3-0-6-6-0 (Medicine Hat (listed player))

Thomas Foster (St. Albert Raiders): 4-5-0-5-0 (Vancouver (2011 1st rd bantam pick))

Darek Hejcman (Pirati Chomutov): 3-3-2-5-6 

Carson Stadnyk (Saskatoon Contacts): 3-3-2-5-0 (Everett (2010 8th rd bantam pick))

John Edwardh (Calgary Buffaloes): 3-3-2-5-0 (Seattle (2010 7th rd bantam pick))

Trace Elson (St. Albert Raiders): 4-3-2-5-10 (Red Deer (listed player))

Jason Duret (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-3-2-5-2 

Adam Fauchoux (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-3-2-5-14 

Matt Anholt (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-3-2-5-2 

Mitchell Friesen (Valley West Hawks): 3-2-3-5-2 (Kamloops (2011 4th rd bantam pick))

Chad Coulombe (Edmonton SSAC): 3-2-3-5-0 

Justin White (Vancouver NW Giants): 3-2-3-5-0 

Joe Serpico (Calgary Flames): 3-2-3-5-2 

Stephen Doane (Calgary Royals): 3-1-4-5-0 

Taylor Allan (Calgary Royals): 3-1-4-5-0 

Ryan Duret (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-1-4-5-0 (Calgary (2011 6th rd bantam pick))

Miles Warkentine (Prince Albert Mintos): 4-0-5-5-0 (Moose Jaw (2011 1st rd bantam pick))

WJC calculations

Just crunching the numbers here after Canada's win over the Czech Republic tonight coupled with USA's loss to Finland this afternoon...

If we assume that both Canada and Finland will beat Denmark in regulation time (which seems like a safe assumption to make), then the only way Canada does NOT win the round-robin pool is if:

 - USA beats the Czech Republic in regulation on Friday
 - Finland does NOT beat the Czech Republic in regulation on Saturday afternoon
 - USA beats Canada in regulation on Saturday night

All three of those things MUST happen for USA to take first place in the pool. So in other words, there's a decent possibility that the hyped New Years Eve game between Canada and USA will be meaningless.

If the Finns beat the Czechs in regulation that afternoon (which is a good possibility), then USA would have to beat Canada by 6 goals in order to get first place. And you know that isn't likely going to happen. So while the USA coaches and players were putting on a brave face after today's loss, the reality is that the loss may already have caused them to give up control of their own fate in the round-robin.

Macs update

A quick look here at how the WHL prospects are faring at the Macs midget tournament after two days....

The top scorers among the WHL prospects:  (stats are GP-G-A-PTS-PIM)



Riley Whittingham (Calgary Northstars): 2-3-3-6-2 (Spokane (2010 3rd rd bantam pick))
Braden Oleksyn (Beardy's Blackhawks): 2-3-1-4-4 (Calgary (2011 3rd rd bantam pick))
Griffin Mumby (Calgary Flames): 1-1-3-4-0 (Regina (2011 3rd rd bantam pick))
Tanner MacMaster (Calgary Buffaloes): 2-1-3-4-0 (Spokane (2011 1st rd bantam pick))
Elliott Peterson (Beardy's Blackhawks): 2-0-4-4-2 (Calgary (2010 11th rd bantam pick))
Thomas Foster (St. Albert Raiders): 2-3-0-3-0 (Vancouver (2011 1st rd bantam pick))
Carson Stadnyk (Saskatoon Contacts): 2-2-1-3-0 (Everett (2010 8th rd bantam pick))
Cameron Gotaas (Sherwood Park Kings): 2-2-1-3-2 (Medicine Hat (2010 8th rd bantam pick))
Kyle Krabben (Calgary Buffaloes): 2-1-2-3-2 (Kootenay (2010 6th rd bantam pick))
Joel Topping (Red Deer Optimist Rebels): 2-1-2-3-2 (Lethbridge (2010 2nd rd bantam pick))
Bobby Zinkan (Calgary Northstars): 2-1-2-3-2 (Swift Current (2010 4th rd bantam pick))
Brett Boehm (Beardy's Blackhawks): 2-0-3-3-2 (Calgary (listed player))
Brycen Martin (Calgary Buffaloes): 2-0-3-3-2 (Swift Current (2011 1st rd bantam pick))

Deadline countdown starts...

The WHL's Christmas trade freeze was lifted today and the Chiefs and Raiders promptly hooked up on a 4 player deal.

Spokane sends 19 year old forward Anthony Bardaro and 18 year old goaltender Luke Lee-Knight to Prince Albert for 18 year old goaltender Eric Williams and 18 year old forward Todd Fiddler. The deal looks to me like Spokane shoring up their goaltending by getting a potential #1 goalie in Williams, while the Raiders add Bardaro's offence.

As a side note, Lee-Knight started the season in Prince Albert and now returns there in his 2nd trade of the season. He was earlier traded from the Raiders to the Chiefs for Tyler Vanscourt....

Counting WHL Alumni in the NHL

A few weeks ago I came across a debate among some WHL fans about which WHL club had been most successful at putting its players into the NHL. I thought this was something worth exploring, but quickly had to abandon the idea of doing any kind of an all-time count because it was simply too much work to go back 40+ years.

So, I settled for determining which WHL franchises had the most alumni playing in the NHL right now. I've taken the current NHL rosters (as they are found on NHL.com) and calculated which WHL club, if any, each NHLer played for. Here are the results - some of them surprising, some not.

# of alumni in the NHL by WHL franchise:

Red Deer: 17
Portland: 15
Kelowna, Moose Jaw: 14
Medicine Hat: 13
Calgary: 12
Prince George, Saskatoon: 11
Brandon: 10
Kamloops, Vancouver: 9
Spokane, Tri-City: 7
Lethbridge, Regina, Swift Current: 6
Prince Albert: 5
Kootenay, Seattle: 4
Everett: 2
Edmonton, Victoria: 1

And the team-by-team listing of the actual players, with their current NHL club:

Red Deer (17): Colby Armstrong (Toronto), Arron Asham (Pittsburgh), Martin Erat (Nashville), Colin Fraser (Los Angeles), Boyd Gordon (Phoenix), Martin Hanzal (Phoenix), Blair Jones (Tampa Bay), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Derek Meech (Winnipeg), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton), Dion Phaneuf (Toronto), James Reimer (Toronto), Brandon Sutter (Carolina), Jim Vandermeer (San Jose), Kris Versteeg (Florida), Cam Ward (Carolina), Jeff Woywitka (NY Rangers)

Portland (15): Braydon Coburn (Philadelphia), Brandon Dubinsky (NY Rangers), Andrew Ference (Boston), Paul Gaustad (Buffalo), Jannik Hansen (Vancouver), Marian Hossa (Chicago), Ryan Johansen (Columbus), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Frazer McLaren (San Jose), Cody McLeod (Colorado), Brenden Morrow (Dallas), Scott Nichol (St. Louis), Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders), Michael Sauer (NY Rangers), Luca Sbisa (Anaheim)

Kelowna (14): Mikael Backlund (Calgary), Jamie Benn (Dallas), Blake Comeau (Calgary), Alexander Edler (Vancouver), Vernon Fiddler (Dallas), Josh Gorges (Montreal), Scott Hannan (Calgary), Duncan Keith (Chicago), Chuck Kobasew (Colorado), Travis Moen (Montreal), Tyler Myers (Buffalo), Luke Schenn (Toronto), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Shea Weber (Nashville)

Moose Jaw (14): Johnny Boychuk (Boston), Kyle Brodziak (Minnesota), Troy Brouwer (Washington), Brett Carson (Calgary), Keaton Ellerby (Florida), Deryk Engelland (Pittsburgh), Tomas Fleischmann (Florida), Travis Hamonic (NY Islanders), Blair Jones (Tampa Bay), Pavel Kubina (Tampa Bay), Brooks Laich (Washington), Frazer McLaren (San Jose), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Ryan Smyth (Edmonton)

Medicine Hat (13): Cam Barker (Edmonton), Jay Bouwmeester (Calgary), Jason Chimera (Washington), Derek Dorsett (Columbus), Tyler Ennis (Buffalo), Vernon Fiddler (Dallas), Darren Helm (Detroit), Joffrey Lupul (Toronto), Clarke MacArthur (Toronto), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Kris Russell (St. Louis), Michael Sauer (NY Rangers), David Schlemko (Phoenix)

Calgary (12): Karl Alzner (Washington), Johnny Boychuk (Boston), Brett Carson (Calgary), Justin Falk (Minnesota), T.J. Galiardi (Colorado), Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim), Darcy Hordichuk (Edmonton), Andrew Ladd (Winnipeg), Jeff Schultz (Washington), Jerred Smithson (Nashville), Brad Stuart (Detroit), Ryan White (Montreal)

Prince George (11): Blair Betts (Philadelphia), Eric Brewer (Tampa Bay), Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg), Zdeno Chara (Boston), Brett Connolly (Tampa Bay), Dan Hamhuis (Vancouver), Trent Hunter (Los Angeles), Chris Mason (Winnipeg), Devin Setoguchi (Minnesota), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Dana Tyrell (Tampa Bay)

Saskatoon (11): Stefan Elliott (Colorado), Martin Erat (Nashville), Colton Gillies (Minnesota), Mike Green (Washington), Darcy Hordichuk (Edmonton), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Warren Peters (Minnesota), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Cory Sarich (Calgary), Brayden Schenn (Philadelphia), Devin Setoguchi (Minnesota)

Brandon (10): Keith Aulie (Toronto), Dustin Byfuglien (Winnipeg), Jason Chimera (Washington), Erik Christensen (NY Rangers), Eric Fehr (Winnipeg), Travis Hamonic (NY Islanders), Josh Harding (Minnesota), Ryan Reaves (St. Louis), Brayden Schenn (Philadelphia), Jordin Tootoo (Nashville)

Kamloops (9): Erik Christensen (NY Rangers), Shane Doan (Phoenix), Devan Dubnyk (Edmonton), Keaton Ellerby (Florida), Jarome Iginla (Calgary), Colton Orr (Toronto), Robyn Regehr (Buffalo), Scottie Upshall (Florida), Kris Versteeg (Florida)

Vancouver (9): Jonathon Blum (Nashville), Mark Fistric (Dallas), Cody Franson (Toronto), Evander Kane (Winnipeg), Andrew Ladd (Winnipeg), Milan Lucic (Boston), Andrej Meszaros (Philadelphia), Michal Repik (Florida), Tomas Vincour (Dallas)

Spokane (7): Drayson Bowman (Carolina), Jared Cowen (Ottawa), Justin Falk (Minnesota), Michael Grabner (NY Islanders), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Jared Spurgeon (Minnesota), Ray Whitney (Phoenix)

Tri-City (7): Brian Boucher (Carolina), Scott Gomez (Montreal), Jason Labarbera (Phoenix), Daymond Langkow (Phoenix), Carey Price (Montreal), Sheldon Souray (Dallas), Clayton Stoner (Minnesota)

Lethbridge (6): Tomas Kopecky (Florida), Chris Phillips (Ottawa), Bryce Salvador (New Jersey), Luca Sbisa (Anaheim), Brent Seabrook (Chicago), Kris Versteeg (Florida)

Regina (6): Jordan Eberle (Edmonton), Josh Harding (Minnesota), Barret Jackman (St. Louis), Derek Morris (Phoenix), Colton Orr (Toronto), Brad Stuart (Detroit)

Swift Current (6): Colton Orr (Toronto), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Michal Rozsival (Phoenix), Zack Smith (Ottawa), Dale Weise (Vancouver), Ian White (Detroit)

Prince Albert (5): Kyle Chipchura (Phoenix), Scott Hartnell (Philadelphia), Steve MacIntyre (Pittsburgh), Chris Phillips (Ottawa), Nick Schultz (Minnesota)

Kootenay (4): Brayden McNabb (Buffalo), Roman Polak (St. Louis), Aaron Rome (Vancouver), Jarret Stoll (Los Angeles)

Seattle (4): Brooks Laich (Washington), Patrick Marleau (San Jose), Cory Sarich (Calgary), Nate Thompson (Tampa Bay)

Everett (2): Leland Irving (Calgary), Peter Mueller (Colorado)

Edmonton (1): Tomas Vincour (Dallas)

Victoria (1): Roman Horak (Calgary)

Couple notes:

 - Remember that these are FRANCHISE counts. So the Kootenay count includes players who may only have played with the Edmonton Ice, the Victoria count includes Chilliwack players, etc.

 - Players who played for more than one WHL team are credited to each franchise they played for - so one given NHLer may be counting in 2 or more WHL team totals. 

 - And lastly, this is a snapshot in time only. Obviously there are many other WHL alumni who are currently in the AHL and who may even have played games in the NHL this season, but they are not currently on NHL rosters TODAY and therefore they aren't counting in these totals. 

Couple notes on things that stood out to me....

Generally I think most WHL clubs' position on the list was not too surprising to me. Teams with a history of success (or at least success 5-15 years ago, when most current NHLers were junior-aged) are near the top while teams with less history of success (or just less history, period, in the cases of Edmonton and Victoria, etc) are near the bottom.

I found interesting, however, the fairly high placing of a team like Prince George, which is not a club which has had a great deal of success on the ice over the last 15 years - they've only been above .500 six times in the last 15 years. But yet they seem to be doing well at producing NHL-calibre talents. 

Then there's Everett who, despite a fairly successful product on the ice for most of their 8 years in the league, have only put 2 alumni onto current NHL rosters - and one of those actually only got called up 2 weeks ago. Yes, they have only been around for 8 years, not 30 or 40 like some of these teams. But compare them to Vancouver, who have only been around 10 years - just 2 more years than Everett - but who have managed 9 NHLers. 

Same goes for Kootenay - on the ice they have been one of the most consistently good franchises in the entire WHL for quite a while. But yet, only 4 NHLers.

Anyways, enjoy.....comments welcome as always of course....

Macs Midget tournament lineups

The folks who run the annual Macs midget tournament (one of the biggest AAA midget tournaments around) have released their team lineup for this year's tournament which, as always, runs December 26 through January 1 in Calgary.

This year's tournament will probably get overshadowed a little (or a lot) by the World Juniors which are also in Calgary and Edmonton at the same time. If you are interested in following your team's prospects in this year's Macs tourney though, the Macs website is linked earlier in this post and they'll have game summaries there as the tournament progresses.

And to help you know which prospects your team has in the tournament, here's the list of WHL prospects in this year's tournament, by midget team. I've given the player name, his position and birth year, the WHL team owning his rights, and how the team acquired the player's rights.

If I've missed a player or messed up some info on a player, corrections are most welcome of course....

Beardy's (Duck Lake, SK) Blackhawks:
Brett Boehm (F-94) - Calgary (listed player)
Brett Lewchuk (G-95) - Spokane (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Braden Oleksyn (F-96) - Calgary (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Elliott Peterson (F-95) - Calgary (2010 11th rd bantam pick)
Ryan Pilon (D-96) - Lethbridge (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Landon Robin (F-94) - Edmonton (trade with Vancouver)

Calgary Buffaloes:
John Edwardh (F-95) - Seattle (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Kyle Krabben (D-95) - Kootenay (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Tanner Macmaster (F-96) - Spokane (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Brycen Martin (D-96) - Swift Current (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Alex Mowbray (F-96) - Medicine Hat (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Brayden Point (F-96) - Moose Jaw (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Coleman Vollrath (G-95) - Victoria (2010 3rd rd bantam pick)
Andrew Weich (D-95) - Everett (2010 11th rd bantam pick)

Calgary Flames:
Jackson Elynuik (F-95) - Kootenay (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Kurt Hildebrand (F-95) - Spokane (listed player)
Jeremy Mcintosh (D-95) - Spokane (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Griffin Mumby (D-96) - Regina (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Sam Young (F-96) - Medicine Hat (listed player)

Calgary Northstars:
Clint Filbrandt (D-95) - Tri-City (2010 10th rd bantam pick)
Chad Labelle (F-95) - Medicine Hat (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Justin Myles (G-95) - Seattle (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Cade Owad (F-95) - Spokane (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Ben Thomas (D-96) - Calgary (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Riley Whittingham (F-95) - Spokane (2010 3rd rd bantam pick)
Bobby Zinken (D-95) - Swift Current (2010 4th rd bantam pick)

Calgary Royals:
Mitch Collett (F-95) - Brandon (2010 10th rd bantam pick)
Corey Dambrauskas (D-96) - Spokane (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Reid Duke (F-96) - Lethbridge (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Matthew Gelinas (F-95) - Swift Current (2010 8th rd bantam pick)

Cariboo (Prince George, BC) Cougars:
Michael Bell (F-96) - Victoria (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Ryan Forbes (F-95) - Kelowna (2010 11th rd bantam pick)
Ryan Gagnon (D-96) - Victoria (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Raymond Grewal (D-95) - Prince George (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Brett Harris (F-95) - Regina (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Jake LeBrun (F-95) - Vancouver (listed player)
Kenny Nordstrom (D-96) - Regina (2011 10th rd bantam pick)
Tyler Povelofskie (F-96) - Kelowna (listed player)

Edmonton South Side Athletic Club (SSAC):
Erik Donald (F-96) - Regina (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Aaron Irving (D-96) - Edmonton (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Nakeh Lamothe (F-95) - Spokane (2010 4th rd bantam pick)
Devin McAndrews (F-95) - Medicine Hat (listed player)
Bryar Ortynski (F-96) - Regina (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Jordan Papirny (G-96) - Brandon (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Zach Peterson (D-96) - Portland (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
John Quenneville (F-96) - Brandon (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Tristin Reimer (F-95) - Regina (listed player)
Riley Simpson (F-96) - Edmonton (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Ben Sowa (F-96) - Prince George (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Daniel Wedman (D-95) - Spokane (listed player)

Fort Saskatchewan Rangers:
McKenzie Busenius (D-95) - Saskatoon (2010 10th rd bantam pick)
Josh Sinatynski (F-95) - Swift Current (2010 4th rd bantam pick)
Dylan Stang (F-95) - Saskatoon (listed player)

Greater Vancouver Canadiens:
Arwin Atwal (D-95) - Vancouver (trade with Prince Albert)
Shaun Dosanjh (D-96) - Vancouver (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Shane Kumar (D-95) - Prince George (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Josh Murphy (F-96) - Seattle (listed player)
Tyler Sandhu (F-96) - Portland (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Christopher Tai (G-95) - Lethbridge (listed player)
Mitchell Walter (F-96) - Edmonton (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)

Leduc Oil Kings:
Brandon Hickey (D-96) - Tri-City (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Brennan Hunker (D-95) - Medicine Hat (2010 2nd rd bantam pick)
Cole MacDonald (D-95) - Everett (listed player)
Doug Morris (F-95) - Kootenay (listed player)
Kord Pankewicz (F-96) - Brandon (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Macklin Pichonsky (D-95) - Saskatoon (listed player)
Evan Polei (F-96) - Saskatoon (2011 11th rd bantam pick)
Jody Sick (F-95) - Prince Albert (listed player)
Jacob Williamson (F-95) - Red Deer (listed player)
Brett Zarowny (G-95) - Prince George (2010 3rd rd bantam pick)

Okanagan (Kelowna) Rockets:
Parker Bowles (F-95) - Tri-City (listed player)
Mackenzie Ferner (F-95) - Kamloops (2010 8th rd bantam pick)
Justin Marreck (F-96) - Tri-City (listed player)
Michael Mceachern (D-96) - Medicine Hat (2011 7th rd bantam pick)

Prince Albert Mintos:
Tanner Burgardt (G-95) - Regina (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Ryan Duret (F-96) - Calgary (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Jordan Harris (D-96) - Prince George (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Bryton Sayers (D-96) - Lethbridge (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Miles Warkentine (F-96) - Moose Jaw (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Lance Yaremchuk (F-96) - Prince Albert (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Cody Young (F-96) - Saskatoon (2011 12th rd bantam pick)

Red Deer Rebels:
Stefan Danielson (D-95) - Swift Current (listed player)
Kolton Dixon (D-95) - Victoria (listed player)
Scott Ferguson (F-95) - Red Deer (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Scott Feser (F-95) - Red Deer (2010 8th rd bantam pick)
Logan Fisher (F-95) - Victoria (listed player)
Kirk Johnson (D-95) - Moose Jaw (listed player)
Ty Mappin (F-96) - Everett (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Joel Topping (D-95) - Lethbridge (2010 2nd rd bantam pick)
Matt Zentner (G-95) - Prince Albert (2010 10th rd bantam pick)

Saskatoon Blazers:
Carter Amson (F-96) - Lethbridge (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Robert Cameron (D-95) - Edmonton (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Connor Gay (F-95) - Regina (listed player)
Brendan Hopkins (F-94) - Swift Current (listed player)
Wyatt Johnson (F-95) - Medicine Hat (listed player)
Conner Kortko (F-95) - Saskatoon (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Collin Shirley (F-96) - Kootenay (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Chris Thorimbert (F-95) - Lethbridge (2010 10th rd bantam pick)
Daniel Wapple (G-95) - Moose Jaw (2010 4th rd bantam pick)

Saskatoon Contacts:
Austin Calladine (F-95) - Calgary (2010 2nd rd bantam pick)
Rourke Chartier (F-96) - Kelowna (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Reid Gardiner (F-96) - Prince Albert (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Austin Glover (F-96) - Kelowna (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Ross Hnidy (D-96) - Saskatoon (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Dawson Leedahl (F-96) - Everett (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Vukie Mpofu (D-96) - Red Deer (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Nelson Nogier (D-96) - Saskatoon (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Kolten Olynek (F-96) - Lethbridge (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)
Rylan Parenteau (G-96) - Prince Albert (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Branden Scheidl (D-95) - Lethbridge (trade with Portland)
Rod Southam (F-96) - Red Deer (2011 6th rd bantam pick)
Carson Stadnyk (F-95) - Everett (2010 8th rd bantam pick)
Josh Uhrich (F-96) - Moose Jaw (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)

Two other members of the Contacts will not be at the Macs as they will be playing for Team Western at the World U-17 Challenge at the time instead:

Colby Harmsworth (D-95) - Calgary (2010 3rd rd bantam pick)
Mack Shields (G-95) - Calgary (2010 4th rd bantam pick)


Sherwood Park Kings:
Dallas Bergstrom (D-95) - Red Deer (listed player)
Ben Carroll (D-95) - Edmonton (listed player)
Taylor Cooper (F-95) - Brandon (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Tyler Fuhr (G-95) - Brandon (2010 4th rd bantam pick)
Cameron Gotaas (F-95) - Medicine Hat (2010 8th rd bantam pick)
Clayton Kirichenko (D-96) - Saskatoon (2011 7th rd bantam pick)
Trevor Martin (G-96) - Spokane (2011 9th rd bantam pick)
Tyler Morrison (D-95) - Vancouver (listed player)
Linden Penner (F-95) - Saskatoon (2010 10th rd bantam pick)
Brett Pollock (F-96) - Edmonton (2011 5th rd bantam pick)
Joseph Tombasco (D-96) - Medicine Hat (listed player)
Jesse Wood-Schatz (F-95) - Kootenay (2010 5th rd bantam pick)

St. Albert Raiders:
Sebastien Auray (F-95) - Prince Albert (2010 9th rd bantam pick)
Landon Bow (G-95) - Swift Current (2010 4th rd bantam pick)
Tyler Dea (D-95) - Prince Albert (2010 6th rd bantam pick)
Trace Elson (F-94) - Red Deer (listed player)
Thomas Foster (F-96) - Vancouver (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Kyler Hehn (F-95) - Brandon (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Wyatt Hoflin (G-95) - Kootenay (2010 2nd rd bantam pick)
Kevin Miller (F-94) - Prince Albert (listed player)
Tyler Mrkonjic (F-96) - Tri-City (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Ty Stanton (D-95) - Medicine Hat (2010 2nd rd bantam pick)

Tisdale Trojans:
J.J. Coleshaw (F-94) - Regina (listed player)
Rylan Freed (F-96) - Kamloops (2011 5th rd bantam pick)
Brayden Gelsinger (F-95) - Kamloops (listed player)
Wyatt Hinson (F-96) - Saskatoon (2011 10th rd bantam pick)
Ty McLean (F-95) - Regina (2010 5th rd bantam pick)
Jordan Ross (F-96) - Seattle (2011 9th rd bantam pick)

UFA (Strathmore, AB) Bisons:
Markson Bechtold (F-96) - Spokane (2011 3rd rd bantam pick)
Jake Dube (F-96) - Kootenay (2011 5th rd bantam pick)
Conner Bleackley (F-96) - Red Deer (2011 1st rd bantam pick)
Lenny Hackman (D-95) - Lethbridge (2010 9th rd bantam pick)
Tyler Haiste (D-94) - Swift Current (listed player)
Tyler Wong (F-96) - Lethbridge (2011 5th rd bantam pick)

Valley West Hawks:
Latrell Charleson (D-95) - Moose Jaw (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Mitch Friesen (F-96) - Kamloops (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Jordan Klimek (D-95) - Tri-City (listed player)
Spencer Meyer (D-96) - Prince Albert (2011 4th rd bantam pick)
Kyle Raymond (F-96) - Everett (2011 7th rd bantam pick)
Ryan Rensby (F-96) - Everett (2011 10th rd bantam pick)
Jerret Smith (D-95) - Seattle (listed player)

Vancouver Northeast Chiefs:
Victor Dombrovskiy (D-96) - Swift Current (2011 8th rd bantam pick)
Jace Hennig (F-95) - Calgary (listed player)
Adam Rockwood (F-95) - Medicine Hat (listed player)
Dalton Yorke (D-96) - Kelowna (listed player)

Vancouver Northwest Giants:
Joseph Carvalho (D-95) - Prince George (2010 4th rd bantam pick)
Brandon Delgrosso (F-96) - Moose Jaw (2011 9th rd bantam pick)
Braden Krogfoss (G-95) - Kamloops (2010 7th rd bantam pick)
Josh Thrower (D-96) - Calgary (2011 2nd rd bantam pick)

There will also be three teams at the tournament from outside of the WHL's drawing area: the York-Simcoe (Ontario) Express, plus KLH Chomutov from the Czech Republic and HK Severstal from Russia.

Just to put this the kind of talent in this tournament in perspective, the following current WHLers played in the Macs just last year: Austin Adam, Daniel Asham, Anthony Ast, Kohl Bauml, Cole Benson, Madison Bowey, Travis Brown, Mason Burr, Kyle Burroughs, Connor Chartier, Greg Chase, Dakota Conroy, Scott Cooke, Daniel Cotton, Trevor Cox, Jaedon Descheneau, Kayle Doetzel, Braiden Doucette, Tanner Eberle, Macoy Erkamps, Jarrett Fontaine, Devon Fordyce, Alex Forsberg, Jason Fram, Mason Geertsen, Riley Guenther, Shayne Gwinner, Justin Hamonic, Carter Hansen, Luke Harrison, Jayden Hart, Jared Hauf, Dillon Heatherington, Darian Henry, Jackson Houck, Jeff Hubic, Tristan Jarry, Tyler King-Cunningham, Morgan Klimchuk, Tanner Kovacs, Brett Kulak, Sawyer Lange, Jesse Lees, Taylor Leier, Craig Leverton, Tyler Lewington, Trent Lofthouse, Luke Mahura, Marc McCoy, Sam Mckechnie, Jay Merkley, Cory Millette, Tanner Moar, Mitchell Moroz, Josh Morrissey, Ayrton Nikkel, Blake Orban, Nicolas Petan, Bolton Pouliot, Carter Proft, Jared Rathjen, Sam Reinhart, Ashton Sautner, Jordan Tkatch, Adam Todd, Spencer Tremblay, Cole Ully, Austin Vetterl, Spencer Wand, Jamal Watson, Cole Wedman, Torrin White, Chase Witala, Jaimen Yakubowski......and I'm sure I missed a few.

Players in the tournament this year, by WHL club:

Lethbridge: 11
Medicine Hat: 11
Spokane: 11
Saskatoon: 11
Regina: 10
Prince Albert: 9
Swift Current: 9
Calgary: 8
Red Deer: 8
Brandon: 7
Edmonton: 7
Everett: 7
Moose Jaw: 7
Kootenay: 7
Prince George: 6
Tri-City: 6
Kamloops: 5
Kelowna: 5
Seattle: 5
Vancouver: 5
Victoria: 5
Portland: 2

Canadian World Junior team picked

Team Canada made its final cuts from the 35 players remaining in camp this morning. Gone are six more WHLers: goaltender Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat), defencemen Joe Morrow (Portland) and Alex Petrovic (Red Deer), and forwards Brett Bulmer (Kelowna), Ty Rattie (Portand) and Brad Ross (Portland).

The final roster can be found here. Of the 22 players, 10 are from the OHL, five from the WHL, four from the QMJHL, one from the NCAA, and two from the NHL. (The two NHL players are one each originally from the WHL and OHL)

The five WHLers on the team are:

F Quinton Howden (Moose Jaw)
F Brendan Gallagher (Vancouver)
D Ryan Murray (Everett)
D Mark Pysyk (Edmonton)
F Mark Stone (Brandon)


And of course F Brett Connolly is a Prince George Cougar grad on loan to Canada from the NHL. The NCAA player, F Jaden Schwartz, is also a WHL prospect (Tri-City) though he has never played in the WHL and probably won't.

Fleury vs. Hickey

Montreal Gazette columnist Pat Hickey touched off a firestorm yesterday when he penned a piece in his newspaper which was critical of some comments that Theoren Fleury has made recently regarding the Canadian justice system's light treatment of Graham James. You really should read what Hickey wrote for yourself, but paraphrasing the most controversial thing Hickey wrote, he called Fleury an "enabler" for allowing James to be the coach and G.M. of the Calgary Hitmen during the time that Fleury was part-owner of the team.

Seeing James around the Hitmen players in 1995-96 so bothered Sheldon Kennedy that it was a major reason that Kennedy went to the police. Hickey seems to feel that because Fleury did not also go to the police, that his inactions make Fleury an "enabler".

Fleury's response to Hickey's column was to call for Hickey to be fired. Other voices have joined in on that call, and I understand that Hickey and the Gazette have been deluged with letters, e-mails, and comments, not much of it in support of Hickey.

I certainly understand Hickey's sentiments. It is difficult to understand why any right-thinking person in Fleury's position would do nothing and allow James to remain in charge of teenage boys when he KNOWS what James does to some teenage boys. But here's the catch: Fleury was a sexual abuse victim with the serious emotional turmoil in his life that often comes with that victimization. While it's easy for me (or Hickey) to say that Fleury should not have allowed James to be involved with the Hitmen, we are not sexual abuse victims. We do not have the slightest clue how Fleury felt, or why he did or didn't do anything back then. I think Fleury is entitled to the benefit of the doubt.

To put this another way, think of the cases of the men who were sexually abused as boys by members of the Catholic Church but who didn't come forward for many years. Are those men "enablers" for doing nothing for years while new victims were being abused? Or is someone who was abused by a schoolteacher an "enabler" if they wait 20 years to come forward while their abuser keeps teaching children? I wonder if Hickey would write an article calling these people "enablers" as well? I doubt it. 

Should Hickey be fired for his column, as some people (including Fleury) have suggested? No, of course not. Should he retract his "enabler" statement and apologize? Absolutely.

Your thoughts?

Canada cuts

Team Canada made seven cuts from its 42 player WJC tryout roster this morning, and those sevens cuts spelled bad news for five WHLers.

Gone from the camp are forwards Michael Ferland (Brandon), Mark NcNeill (Prince Albert) and Max Reinhart (Kootenay), plus defencemen Matt Dumba (Red Deer) and Brendan Kichton (Spokane). There are still 11 WHLers among the 35 players remaining in camp.

The final 13 cuts are expected to be made tomorrow morning following an exhibition game tonight against a team of players from the University of Calgary and University of Lethbridge. Lot of ex-WHLers on those two university teams as well, BTW.

With Dumba's departure, Canada will now be made up only of 18 & 19 year old players. Dumba was the only 17 year old in the camp.

Rebels goaltending change

The Red Deer Rebels suffered a significant blow today as it turns out that #1 goaltender, import Patrik Bartosak, will not be out for just the 2-6 weeks with an "upper body injury" as first thought. Instead, Bartosak is headed for surgery and is done for the season. The team does not seem to have confirmed this officially, but on his Twitter account Bartosak said he is done for the year.

The Rebels have replaced Bartosak as their #1 goalie by adding former Tiger and Warrior goaltender Devan Dubyk - as you might recall, Dubyk was the backup for the Tigers for the last two years before being released during training camp. The Warriors picked him up but also released him after a couple of games. Now he is back in the WHL with the Rebels.

There's a catch though - Dubyk is an overager, and the Rebels already had three - defencemen Justin Weller and Aaron Borejko and forward Josh Cowen. So, one of those three guys is going to lose his spot on the Rebels in a trickle-down effect here.

Cowen and Borejko are currently injured so for right now I assume the Rebels have placed one of the two on the injured list and thus avoid having to release anyone right away. But when all four guys are healthy, somebody is going to have to go.

Players away after Christmas (updated)

By my count, there are now as many as 56 WHL roster players who stand to be away from their WHL clubs for a stretch of time in December/January:

Brandon:
Alessio Bertaggia (Switzerland - WJC) (*)
Ayrton Nikkel (Pacific - U-17)
Mark Stone (Canada - WJC)

Calgary:
Greg Chase (Pacific - U-17)
Victor Rask (Sweden - WJC)

Edmonton:
Mason Geertsen (Pacific - U-17)
Martin Gernat (Slovakia - WJC) (*)
Tristan Jarry (Pacific - U-17)
Curtis Lazar (Pacific - U-17)
Kristians Pelss (Latvia - WJC)
Mark Pysyk (Canada - WJC)

Everett:
Vladimir Dolnik (Slovakia - WJC) (*)
Austin Lotz (Western - U-17)
Ryan Murray (Canada - WJC)

Kamloops:
Marek Hrbas (Czech Republic - WJC)
Matt Needham (Pacific - U-17)

Kelowna:
Tyson Baillie (Pacific - U-17)
Madison Bowey (Western - U-17)
Jesse Lees (Pacific - U-17)
Filip Vasko (Slovakia - WJC) (*)

Kootenay:
Jaedon Descheneau (Pacific - U-17)
Jonathan Martin (Western - U-17)
Sam Reinhart (Pacific - U-17)
Spencer Wand (Western - U-17)

Lethbridge:
Macoy Erkamps (Pacific - U-17)
Craig Leverton (Western - U-17)
Jay Merkley (Pacific - U-17)

Medicine Hat:
Emerson Etem (USA - WJC) (*)

Moose Jaw:
Carter Hansen (Western - U-17)
Quinton Howden (Canada - WJC)
Torrin White (Pacific - U-17)

Portland:
Sven Bartschi (Switzerland - WJC) (*)
Nicolas Petan (Pacific - U-17)

Prince Albert:
Jonas Knutsen (Norway - WJC b-pool)
Josh Morrissey (Pacific - U-17)

Prince George:
Jarrett Fontaine (Western - U-17)
Alex Forsberg (Western - U-17)
Martin Marincin (Slovakia - WJC) (*)
Jordan Tkatch (Western - U-17)
Chase Witala (Pacific - U-17)

Red Deer:
Kayle Doetzel (Western - U-17)
Cory Millette (Western - U-17)

Regina:
Kyle Burroughs (Pacific - U-17)
Morgan Klimchuk (Pacific - U-17)

Saskatoon:
Andrey Makarov (Russia - WJC)
Nick Zajac (Western - U-17)

Seattle:
Marcel Noebels (Germany - WJC b-pool)
Dave Sutter (Switzerland - WJC) (*)

Spokane:
Dominik Uher (Czech Republic - WJC)

Tri-City:
Eric Comrie (Pacific - U-17)

Vancouver:
Anthony Ast (Pacific - U-17)
Brendan Gallagher (Canada - WJC)
Jackson Houck (Pacific - U-17)
David Musil (Czech Republic - WJC)
Marek Tvrdon (Slovakia - WJC) (*)

Victoria:
Keegan Kanzig (Pacific - U-17)

 (*) represents a player whose participation in the tournament is still subject to making the team in a selection camp.

The only team not affected by potential absences is Swift Current.

If all these players made their respective national teams (which of course wont happen, but we're playing "what-if" here), that's close to three full rosters of the WHL's best players who will be gone from the league for a week (U-17 Challenge players) to four weeks (WJC players). That's 12% of the players in the league!

UPDATE: I have removed the WHL players cut by Team Canada from the list above.

Two players added to Canadian WJC roster

A big boost for Canada's World Junior team this morning as two of the eight NHLers who are eligible for the team were released to play in the tournament by their NHL teams. Joining the Canadian camp (and all but certainly guaranteed spots on the team) are forwards Brett Connolly of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Devante Smith-Pelly of the Anaheim Ducks.

It's obviously going to make the Canadian team better to get back two players who are currently good enough to be holding down jobs in the NHL. (Connolly is also a veteran of last year's Canadian team, bringing the number of such players on the roster up to four.) There are still six other Canadian 18 or 19 year olds in the NHL who are eligible to play on the team but who have not been released and are not expected to be: Sean Couturier (Philadelphia Flyers), Erik Gudbranson (Florida Panthers), Ryan Johansen (Columbus Blue Jackets), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton Oilers), Tyler Seguin (Boston Bruins) and Jeff Skinner (Carolina Hurricanes).

From the WHL perspective, if you're the Prince George Cougars or a fan of theirs, the release of Connolly to play at the WJCs might give you a glimmer of hope of seeing him back in the WHL later. The fact that Tampa feels that he is expendable enough to loan to the Canadian junior team for a month means there's a possibility that come the end of the tournament in early January, that the Lightning might think the best step for Connolly's development is to finish the season in junior. So if you're a Cougar fan who wants Connolly back in your lineup, now would be a good time for you to root for the Lightning to get hot - because the better they play without him, the more likely they are to conclude that they can do without him for the rest of the season.

Of course, given Prince George's low position in the standings, it is far more likely that, if Connolly DOES return to the WHL, he'll immediately be flipped to a contender at the January trade deadline. But we're getting very far ahead of ourselves already.....

Graham James pleads guilty

Convicted sexual predator Graham James is due to appear in a Winnipeg court today to enter a plea on the charges that he sexually abused former WHLer and NHLer Theo Fleury while coaching Fleury in junior hockey in the early 1980's.

In a post on his blog this morning, Fleury has a statement which appears to indicate that he has been informed that James will plead guilty to the charges, and that James will do so as part of a plea bargain agreement which will result in him being sentenced to 14 months in jail.

14 months? That's it? If this is true, the typically weak Canadian justice system fails another sexual assault victim, and another high-profile one at that. Keeping in mind that inmates become eligible for parole in Canada after serving just one third of their sentence, James could conceivably spend only four and a half months actually in a jail cell for what he did to Theo Fleury.

USA, Sweden World Junior rosters

Two more bits of World Junior-related news with WHL connections.

First, Sweden has released their 23 player roster for the tournament. There is one WHLer on the team, forward Victor Rask of the Calgary Hitmen. Three other players playing in the CHL are also on the team, all from the OHL.

Rosters are only allowed to be 22 players so the Swedes will have to take one name off that list before the tournament begins on Boxing Day. Since they have three goalies listed, it seems safe to assume they will be dropping one of the goalies.

Second, USA Hockey has released a 29 player shortlist for their WJC entry. They will need to pare seven names off that list to get to their final roster - though the 29 players includes one goalie who is already listed as the "emergency backup" and a defenceman who is currently in the NHL, so it seems they may actually only have 27 players to consider right now.

One WHLer on the shortlist, Medicine Hat forward Emerson Etem, whose spot on the team should be a lock since he's a returning player from last year. Oh yeah, and because he's kinda good too. That always helps.

There are also five other players on the list whose rights are owned by WHL teams, even though they aren't currently playing in the WHL: Nick Bjugstad (Everett), Justin Faulk (Tri-City), Derek Forbort (Everett), Seth Jones (Everett) and Jason Zucker (Seattle)

World Junior camp roster released

Hockey Canada released the roster of players this morning who have been invited to try out for the Canadian entry at this year's World Junior Championships, which start Boxing Day in Edmonton and Calgary this year.

Full invitee list can be found here. The invitee list includes 16 WHLers this year:

Goaltenders:

Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat)

Defencemen:
Matt Dumba (Red Deer)
Brenden Kichton (Spokane)
Joseph Morrow (Portland)
Ryan Murray (Everett)
Alex Petrovic (Red Deer)
Mark Pysyk (Edmonton)

Forwards:
Brett Bulmer (Kelowna)
Michael Ferland (Brandon)
Brendan Gallagher (Vancouver)
Quinton Howden (Moose Jaw)
Mark McNeill (Prince Albert)
Max Reinhart (Kootenay)
Ty Rattie (Portland)
Brad Ross (Portland)
Mark Stone (Brandon)

Two NCAA players are invited as well, including one who is a WHL prospect - 19 year old Jaden Schwartz from Colorado College is a Tri-City Americans list player.

Red Deer's Dumba is the only 17 year old invited this year. As this is usually an 18/19 year old tournament, Dumba is probably facing an uphill battle to make the team....but you never know.

Maxwell traded

The Everett Silvertips have found a new home for disgruntled overage forward Tyler Maxwell, trading him this morning to the Edmonton Oil Kings in exchange for a 2012 3rd round bantam pick and the rights to '95 defenceman prospect Griffin Foulk.

The trade gives the Oil Kings four overagers, so they will have to ASAP trade or release one of their existing three - forwards Jordan Peddle, Rhett Rachinski, and Josh Lazowski.

World U-17 Challenge Rosters

The four WHL-region provincial hockey associations released the rosters today for the two teams, Team Pacific (British Columbia & Alberta players) and Team Western (Saskatchewan and Manitoba players) who will compete at the World U-17 Challenge after Christmas in Windsor, Ontario.

As always, the two rosters are a collection of top WHL 16 year olds and top WHL prospects. The rosters, with current club and/or WHL affiliation....

Team Pacific:

Forwards:
Anthony Ast (Vancouver Giants)
Tyson Baillie (Kelowna Rockets)
Greg Chase (Calgary Hitmen)
Jaedon Descheneau (Kootenay Ice)
Jackson Houck (Vancouver Giants)
Morgan Klimchuk (Regina Pats)
Curtis Lazar (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Jay Merkley (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Matt Needham (Kamloops Blazers)
Nicolas Petan (Portland Winterhawks)
Sam Reinhart (Kootenay Ice)
Torrin White (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Chase Witala (Prince George Cougars)

Defencemen:
Kyle Burroughs (Regina Pats)
Macoy Erkamps (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Mason Geertsen (Edmonton Oil Kings)
Keegan Kanzig (Victoria Royals)
Jesse Lees (Kelowna Rockets)
Josh Morrissey (Prince Albert Raiders)
Ayrton Nikkel (Brandon Wheat Kings)

Goaltenders:
Eric Comrie (Tri-City Americans)
Tristan Jarry (Edmonton Oil Kings)


And Team Western:

Forwards:
Denis Bosc (Steinbach Pistons (MJHL) - WHL property of Swift Current)
Jarrett Fontaine (Prince George Cougars)
Alex Forsberg (Prince George Cougars)
Carter Hansen (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Kurt Keats (Winnipeg Blues (MJHL) - WHL property of Moose Jaw Warriors)
Remi Laurencelle (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Craig Leverton (Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Geordie Maguire (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Everett Silvertips)
Jonathan Martin (Kootenay Ice)
Cory Millette (Red Deer Rebels)
Christian Stockl (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Saskatoon Blades)
Jordan Tkatch (Prince George Cougars)
Nick Zajac (Saskatoon Blades)

Defencemen:
Madison Bowey (Kelowna Rockets)
Kayle Doetzel (Red Deer Rebels)
Colby Harmsworth (Saskatoon Contacts (SMHL) - WHL property of Calgary Hitmen)
Kevin Pochuk (Winnipeg Wild (MMHL) - WHL property of Red Deer Rebels)
Paul Stoykewych (Winnipeg Blues (MJHL) - WHL property of Portland Winterhawks)
Spencer Wand (Kootenay Ice)
Colby Williams (Regina Pat Canadians (SMHL) - WHL property of Regina Pats)

Goaltenders:
Austin Lotz (Everett Silvertips)
Mack Shields (Saskatoon Contacts (SMHL) - WHL property of Calgary Hitmen)

WHL clubs with the most players in the tournament are:

Kootenay Ice: 4

Lethbridge Hurricanes: 4

Prince George Cougars: 4

Calgary Hitmen: 3

Edmonton Oil Kings: 3

Kelowna Rockets: 3

Moose Jaw Warriors: 3

Red Deer Rebels: 3

Regina Pats: 3

Everett Silvertips: 2

Portland Winterhawks: 2

Saskatoon Blades: 2

Vancouver Giants: 2

Brandon Wheat Kings: 1

Kamloops Blazers: 1

Prince Albert Raiders: 1

Swift Current Broncos: 1

Tri-City Americans: 1

Victoria Royals: 1

Medicine Hat, Seattle, and Spokane do not have any players or prospects on this year's teams.

And one other note - every year Team Western seems to have some non-WHL-roster players on their team, while Team Pacific seems to always be 100% WHL roster players. This year is no different. For some fun trivia though, there are 25 WHL rostered 16 year olds who did NOT make the U-17 teams; five of those are American (thus not eligible for Team Pacific or Team Western) and the other 20 are all from B.C. or Alberta.

In other words, Team Western picked every single eligible 16 year old from WHL rosters. They HAD to fill out their roster with players from the midget leagues.

WHL loses the Nuge

To the surprise of mill......err....nobody, the Edmonton Oilers made official today that #1 overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will NOT be returned to the Red Deer Rebels.

This is a blow to the Rebels, who with Nugent-Hopkins in their lineup may have been the team to beat in the WHL's Eastern Conference. Without him, they're probably just one of several teams with a chance there now. It's also obviously a blow to the Canadian World Junior team, where Nugent-Hopkins joins the list of elite talents who never suited up for Canada at that tournament.

And of course WHL fans in general get deprived of watching the best two years of this amazing player's junior career, so we all lose on that. But watching him with the Oilers so far, it's really hard to make an argument that he doesn't belong there - and that's one of the major purposes of the WHL, after all - to prepare kids for the NHL. He's ready to move on.

More on Neepawa

More news on the Neepawa Natives hazing incident this morning...

First, the assistant coach who was reportedly in the dressing room during the hazing quit his position with the team last night. I think this is a positive move, because having him around the seven players he failed to stand up for is not a good move for anyone. I question though why the team itself didn't dismiss him immediately after the league issued its report on the incident.

Second, the team says the player who lodged the complaint will be traded to another MJHL team, at his request. The team and the league are working on facilitating the move as quickly as possible, which indeed is probably the best thing for all parties involved.

Third, in the same article, a University of Manitoba law professor gives a good analysis of whether or not what happened was the criminal offence of sexual assault. I know my first reaction upon hearing what was inflicted upon these players was "how is this NOT sexual assault?", and I'm sure many others asked the same question. Because then you really have to ask yourself whether a 1 - 5 game suspension from the MJHL is adequate punishment for something which gets other people 1 - 5 years in the slammer. But the professor points out that the players involved may have "consented" to what was done to them by not refusing to take part.

In any case, the police are investigating and I sincerely hope that if they feel they can make a case against any of the players involved, that they do lay charges. Having some offenders sent to jail for this stuff would send a very powerful warning against this kind of behavior happening again in the future somewhere.

And lastly, but definitely not least, it seems the local Neepawa community is sticking up for the victims - starting with the local radio station announcing that it will refuse to carry advertising for the team AND refuse to even mention the team on its airwaves until the team publicly apologizes to the victimized players and dismisses the two involved coaches. Obviously one of the coaches has already quit, so that second request is halfway completed.

The news in that last paragraph is awesome to hear, because IMO the actions of the team do not show they are taking this incident seriously enough. Making the victim apologize to the team for lodging a complaint??? Not dismissing the assistant coach ASAP??? Why are the ringleaders of the hazing still on the team, are these the kind of people the team wants representing them??? So many questions about how the team has handled this, so it's nice to see the community - essentially the team's own supporters - are going to help hold people accountable.

And one more note - I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to Neate Sager's blog for all the links to the articles I linked above.....he has some good analysis of the whole incident there on his blog if you want to pop over and read it.

UPDATE: the MJHL announced this morning that they are re-opening their investigation into the incident, due to "several players recanting their earlier testimony". We'll see what comes of this....

Hazing back in the headlines

Hazing in hockey is back in the headlines this week after an incident in late September involving seven rookie members of the Manitoba Jr A Neepawa Natives resulted in one of the players lodging a complaint against the team.

The MJHL launched an investigation of the incident, and upon the conclusion of the investigation the league suspended 16 players on the team (basically every member of the team except for the victimized players) for between 1 to 5 games apiece, fined the team $5,000 and suspended the head coach for 2 games (though he was apparently unaware the hazing was going on) and an assistant coach (who was in the room) for 5 games.

More details of exactly what transpired can be found in this CBC article, and this Winnipeg Free Press piece.
It's not pretty.

Hazing has long been a "dirty little secret" associated with team sports at all kinds of levels - the kind of thing that  happened behind closed doors and was seldom spoken about. Once again though, we're forced to confront this kind of depravity that sometimes goes on.

I think most folks would agree that some level of harmless, light-hearted fun is a good thing in building team cohesion. But there is a line across which it's no longer harmless and light-hearted; I think intuitively we all know where that line is. NHL teams frequently hold "rookie dinners" where the team goes to a restaurant for an extravagant meal, which the team's rookies get stuck with the bill for. Some Major League Baseball teams have a tradition of having their rookies wear some kind of silly costume during a travel day. These are probably good examples of harmless and light-hearted. The kind of degradation, complete with homoerotic undertones, that we see in the Neepawa incident is not. And this is 2011, not 1951 - everyone involved in that incident knew it was unacceptable behavior but did it anyway. And this needs to be punished appropriately - to drive home the point, yet again, that this is unacceptable.

So is the MJHL's punishment severe enough? What do you think?

And another deal

No sooner do I finish the post about the Cgy-MJ deal, than there is another one announced: Seattle sends 19 year old defenceman Erik Fleming to Swift Current for a conditional 2012 bantam pick. I'm going to guess that the pick depends on how much Fleming plays for the Broncos.

Fleming was Seattle's first round bantam pick at one time but obviously hasn't quite lived up to that promise. Here he'll get a fresh start with the Broncos.

Warriors/Hitmen swap

Calgary and Moose Jaw make a 2-for-2 (plus a pick) trade this afternoon: the Hitmen send overage forward Kenton Miller and 19 year old forward Justin Kirsch to the Warriors, and in return the Warriors send overage defenceman Collin Bowman, 18 year old forward Joey Kornelsen, and a 2012 4th round bantam pick to the Hitmen.

I'm a little unsure about this deal from the Warriors standpoint. They had a glut of defencemen and had to move one, I get that - and Bowman is a great fit in Calgary, who really need a puck moving, powerplay QB kind of guy on their defence. But Kenton Miller is a pretty average overager (remember Calgary got him for free on waivers in the summer) who probably wouldn't crack the overage trios on a number of teams in the league. So the only key player the Warriors are getting in the deal is Kirsch - who could probably score 30 goals each of this season and next.

For that the Warriors gave up a pretty good defenceman in Bowman, a 4th round pick, AND Kornelsen - who is a former 2nd round bantam pick who seems on the cusp of realizing some of that potential?

Overage swap

Medicine Hat and Prince Albert have swapped overagers this morning, with the Tigers sending forward Kellan Tochkin to Prince Albert and the Raiders sending defenceman James Bettauer and a 2013 6th round pick to the Tigers.

Connor retires

Bit of a twist to that Giants-Raiders trade from Monday - Austin Connor has elected to retire from hockey rather than report to the Giants.

As a result, Prince Albert has given Vancouver a 2013 4th round bantam pick as compensation. That deal is now Tyler Hart and Teal Burns from Vancouver to Prince Albert for Arvin Atwal and a 2013 4th round pick.

More trades

Three more trades yesterday:

 - the biggest deal saw Vancouver send 19 year old defenceman Tyler Hart and 19 year old forward Teal Burns to the Prince Albert Raiders in return for 19 year old forward Austin Connor and 16 year old defenceman Arvin Atwal.

 - Red Deer traded 17 year old defenceman Lucas Grayson to Everett for a 2012 4th round bantam pick.

 - Regina sent 19 year old forward Campbell Elynuik to Prince George for a conditional 6th round pick in 2012. I imagine the condition requires Elynuik to remain in the WHL past a certain point this year.

Notes on these deals:

 - the first deal is Vancouver getting bigger and tougher. Connor is a big boy with some pugilistic experience who is going to Vancouver to look out for some of their smaller players. For the Raiders, Hart and Burns add depth to their team although neither is going to be a top line player.

 - second deal is Red Deer clearing their glut of defencemen. Everett benefits by getting a promising young defencemen at a reasonable price.

 - Elynuik deal is his 2nd trade this season, he was earlier moved from Everett to Regina. Didn't fit in in Regina I guess - I believe there was some concern among the coaches there over some foolish penalties Elynuik was taking. Maybe they got tired of waiting for a 19 year old to get their message.

One other move too, the Raiders have released 17 year old import defenceman Kristaps Bazevics and added 18 year old import forward Michal Hlinka. Hlinka played 45 games in the WHL last year for Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, and was released by the Raiders prior to the import draft in order to make room for the selection of Bazevics. Obviously they're not thrilled with that exchange (they've only dressed Bazevics in 2 of their 12 games this year) and are able to reverse it now since nobody else has picked up Hlinka in the interim.

Hurricanes fans: buy a program

Four trades in the WHL yesterday, including three involving the Lethbridge Hurricanes as the 'Canes conducted a mini-makeover just one month into the season.

First, the Hurricanes dealt '92 defenceman Derek Ryckman to the Tri-City Americans for a 2012 4th round bantam pick.

They followed that up by trading '92 goaltender Brandon Anderson and their 2012 3rd and 6th round bantam picks to the Brandon Wheat Kings in exchange for '93 goaltender Liam Liston and '93 defenceman Spencer Galbraith.

Then in their third deal of the day, they sent '93 defenceman Reid Jackson and a 2012 5th round bantam pick to the Prince George Cougars in exchange for '92 forward Nick Buonassisi.

The fourth deal, which somehow did not include Lethbridge, might have been the biggest deal of the day in the long term: Saskatoon traded overage forward Darian Dziurzynski to Brandon in exchange for a 2012 2nd round bantam pick, a 2013 2nd round bantam pick, and a 2014 3rd round bantam pick.

Now some thoughts on these deals....

First, the Dziurzynski deal. I admit my first thought when I heard this one was "three high picks for Darian Dziurzynski???". But then when you think about it some more, it's maybe not quite so bad because after all, Dziurzynski is one of the best combinations of skill and toughness in the WHL right now. He can beat you with a goal and he can beat you with his fists too. So you have to expect to pay a price for a guy like that. But even with all that said, the price seems very high - two 2nd round picks and a 3rd round pick. We all laughed when a deal like this happened in reverse last year - Schenn from Brandon to Saskatoon for a boatload of prospects and picks. Obviously Dziurzynski is no Schenn and that's why the haul is smaller but it's still IMO way too much to be giving up for Dziurzynski. It's not unusual to pay a 2nd or 3rd round pick for a good quality overager in the league but two 2nds and a 3rd?

Definitely for the Blades, this deal goes a long way towards offsetting the painful long-term impact of the Schenn deal. They gave up their first round picks in 2010, 2011, and 2012 in that deal but now they just got back two of Brandon's 2nd round picks - and at least they now have two 2nd round picks in 2012 even though they don't have a first.

The other big deal also involved Brandon and saw them pick up goaltender Brandon Anderson, who I figured several weeks ago was probably on his way out of Lethbridge after the Damian Ketlo acquisition. This is kind of an intriguing deal though because it doesn't really resolve either team's goaltending situations IMO. Lethbridge's problem was that they had three goalies. Well, they still have three goalies now and Liston is going to want to play more than he did in Brandon and not back up Ketlo. And can't forget Tanner Kovacs is still there as well. As for Brandon, they had a decent tandem going on there with Corbin Boes starting and Liston backing him up. Anderson is an upgrade on Liston but Anderson isn't going to Brandon to be the backup which means he's going to take a lot of Boes' starts. How does Boes feel about that after getting off to a good start?

I like the acquisition of Galbraith by the Hurricanes though. He's a feisty kid, maybe TOO feisty and needs to tone it down a bit, but he can be an effective player in the league.

For Lethbridge though.....three deals see them move out two d-men and a goalie and a bunch of picks and get back a d-man, a goalie and a forward. However, I don't see them being any better today than they were yesterday. They gave up the best goalie (Anderson) and the best defenceman (Ryckman) in the deals IMO so unless Buonassisi is the answer to their problems.....which I don't think he is.....then I'm not sure why all these deals were made.

Incidentally, even after all their trades the Canes still have Tayler Balog even though he's sitting at home and not playing anywhere. At one time Balog was considered a pretty good prospect and was a key player in the first Carter Ashton deal. Point a game player in midget last year as a 16 year old....what's the holdup here, play him or trade him?

2013 Memorial Cup goes to.....

And the host city of the 2013 Memorial Cup is......Saskatoon!

Pats-Hurricanes trade

Lethbridge resolved their overage situation today by dealing forward Matt Marantz to the Regina Pats for a 2013 4th round bantam pick. Regina had an open overage spot and so were able to make this deal without having to move out anyone else.

Marantz was only a Hurricane for two weeks, having been acquired from Spokane for a 2012 4th round pick back in late September.

I have to confess to some head-scratching about what Lethbridge is doing with their overagers here. Why even acquire Marantz - creating the overage logjam in the first place - if you weren't sure he could be one of your three guys? They brought him in for two weeks, sat out another overager they gave up a good pick for - goalie Damian Ketlo - for six games so that Marantz could play, then trade him away again.

What if nobody had wanted to trade for Marantz? Then tomorrow the Canes would have released him and gotten nothing for that 4th round pick, while the Pats could have claimed him for free.

Meanwhile, they are now using an overage spot on a goalie who hasn't played in over two weeks and who would seem, on paper anyway, to be a backup to 19 year old Brandon Anderson. And there's still a 17 year old 3rd goalie in the picture too, Tanner Kovacs.

These Hurricanes moves are just not making a lot of sense to me.

Wednesday notes

Today's the day: late this afternoon the WHL will announce which of three teams: Kelowna, Red Deer, and Saskatoon - has been chosen to host the 2013 Memorial Cup. In time-honored tradition, that team will immediately begin trading their 19 year olds and adding good 17 & 18 year old players in order to ensure they have a top team next year.

OK, maybe the changes won't start quite so soon. But there's no doubt that knowing who is hosting the Memorial Cup changes some teams' approaches to both next season and this current season. Obviously the biggest effect is on the team hosting the Cup, which now has to make every effort to ensure they have a team worthy of being in the tournament when the big date arrives. But it also affects other teams in the league - as a simple example, if you're a team in the opposite conference from the host team, it potentially just got 25% easier to qualify to play in the tournament.

Of course nobody builds a team with "lose in the WHL final to the Memorial Cup hosts and get the back door entry into the Cup" as their goal. But it's a nice consolation prize if you can't win the league title. Something worth pursuing for sure.

For what it's worth, my money is on Red Deer or Saskatoon to win the hosting privileges. Kelowna hosted the Cup just 8 years ago and I think that is far too recent to be awarding them the Cup again - not when there's 10-15 other deserving teams in the league that have not hosted it in that time.

If I had to pick one.....I'd bet on Red Deer getting it.

Also, tomorrow is the league roster deadline and two teams - Lethbridge and Swift Current - are still over the three overager limit and will have to make a move in the next 24+ hours. Saskatoon also has too many overagers but since one of theirs (Darian Dziurzynski) recently returned from the pros, the Blades will get an extension on the deadline, up to two weeks from the date Dziurzynski came back to them.

Roster rundowns

Next Thursday, October 13, is overage deadline day in the WHL. All teams must be down to three (or fewer) overage players that day, as well as be down to 25 (or fewer) total players on their active roster.

With that in mind, here's a quick look at the status of all the teams and what moves they may have to make in the next week:

Brandon: 24 total players and only 2 overagers, they're fine. They can even add another overager if they want without having to adjust anything else.

Calgary: the Hitmen have 26 players and 5 overagers on their roster. Something will have to be done with the two extra overagers, which of course will also bring the total roster down to 24. Complicating matters is that one overager, defenceman Ben Wilson, is still on an AHL tryout with Lake Erie; I believe he doesn't count towards Calgary's roster until (if) he returns from the pros, at which time they will have two weeks to make a move. Calgary's other overager-odd-man-out would appear likely to be goaltender Mike Snider, as the team is still carrying three goaltenders. Releasing/trading Snider would resolve that issue.

Edmonton: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here. 25 number includes Travis Ewanyk, who is on long-term injured list.

Everett: 26 skaters and 3 overagers, although I believe forward Manraj Hayer is on the long-term injured list and does not count towards the roster right now. So technically they have 25 and they're fine.

Kamloops: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed.

Kelowna: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here. 25 includes Jason Siebert, who is on long-term injured list.

Kootenay: have 23 skaters and 3 overagers, so they're good

Lethbridge: 27 skaters and 4 overagers, and that's with injured overage forward Austin Fyten and suspended forward Tayler Balog already subtracted from the roster. If you want to count Balog, it's 28. Clearly there are several moves coming from the windy city in the next week - at least 1 overager and 1 or 2 other players have to move out.

Medicine Hat: 24 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here.

Moose Jaw: 26 skaters, so at least one skater will have to be moved out unless Quinton Howdon's injury is sufficient that he gets placed on the injured list.

Portland: 27 skaters, but two (Johansen and Niederreiter) are in the NHL and don't count until they return (IF they return), plus Pearce Eviston is on the injured list and doesn't count either. So they're actually A-OK. They also only have two overagers on the roster now that Riley Boychuk appears to be not coming back, so they can add another overager if they choose.

Prince Albert: 24 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here.

Prince George: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here. The 25 includes Brett Connolly, who is in the NHL and doesn't actually count though, so they have 24.

Red Deer: 26 skaters but Nugent-Hopkins is in the NHL and doesn't count. They're fine.

Regina: 24 skaters and only 2 overagers, so they could add another overager. They may also be waiting/hoping for Garrett Mitchell to be returned from Washington's AHL camp to fill that overage spot though.

Saskatoon: 25 skaters, but 4 overagers. The Blades will have to move out one of their four overage forwards in the next week. Could possibly still get Curtis Hamilton back from the AHL as well which would give them another overager, though they would then have 2 weeks to sort it out.

Seattle: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here.

Spokane: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here.

Swift Current: 25 skaters, but four are overagers. With new goalie Jon Groenheyde seemingly safe, the Broncos will be moving one of their three overage forwards this week, I would think.

Tri-City: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here.

Vancouver: have 27 skaters BUT Connor Redmond is on long-term injured list and I think Neil Manning may be on it now too as his injury status is now "one month+", so those two probably don't count and bring the Giants down to 25.

Victoria: 25 skaters and 3 overagers, no moves needed here. Could still get Curt Gogol back from the AHL too though he is signed.

For all the teams that don't have to make moves, that's not to say they won't, of course. Most teams do not carry 25 (or even 24) players throughout the season so there will still be some cuts from many of those teams. They just don't have that deadline right now.

Fyten out

Bad news from the Lethbridge Hurricanes today, as it turns out overage forward Austin Fyten will need surgery on his injured knee and will be out of the lineup for at least six months.

Six months takes us to early April, which means that he won't be able to return until probably the 2nd round of the playoffs at the earliest, and therefore it is quite likely that Fyten's WHL career is over. Unfortunate for him for sure.

With the loss of Fyten, Lethbridge now has only four overagers on their roster and not five.

Musical goalies

Two trades in the WHL this morning, both involving goaltenders. One trade yesterday, also involving a goaltender. And two veteran goaltenders released yesterday too. It's been a busy 24 hours for the members of the fraternity of masked men.

First yesterday's deal: Everett sent 19 year old goaltender Luke Siemens to Moose Jaw in exchange for 18 year old forward Matt Grant, and Moose Jaw's 2012 and 2013 3rd round bantam picks. Grant is currently in the BCHL this year after spending last season in Moose Jaw; it is not known whether he will be joining Everett right away or at all.

Following the trade, Moose Jaw released overage goaltender Devan Dubyk plus last year's backup goalie, 18 year old Brandon Stone - meaning they're going with Siemens and 17 year old rookie Spencer Tremblay now.

Today's first deal saw Edmonton trade overage goaltender Jon Groenheyde to Swift Current for overage forward Jordan Peddle.

And the 2nd deal today, a big one, sees Vancouver trade 18 year old defenceman Zach Hodder (who went home last week to await a trade) plus overage forward Michael Burns and a 2013 4th round pick, to Saskatoon for overage goaltender Adam Morrison and 17 year old forward Levi Bews.

Some thoughts on all these moves:

 - Everett had two 19 year old goalies and something had to give there, so the move of Siemens is not a surprise. And even if Grant never plays for them, they did pretty well in getting two 3rd round picks for a 19 year old who has never been a #1 goalie before and has only 1300 minutes in the league.

 - For Moose Jaw, obviously they think Siemens is the answer to their goalie situation, since they promptly got rid of the only other two goalies on their roster with any WHL experience.

 - Edmonton had to move Groenheyde since their goalie of the future (and present) is 18 year old Laurent Brossoit. Getting Peddle gives them another veteran up front to help out while Travis Ewanyk is out with his injury.

 - for Swift Current, picking up Groenheyde addresses their starting goaltender position which was left wide open when import goalie Steffan Soberg bolted back home late in camp. Either 18 year old Austin Smith or 17 year old Steven Myland just lost their spot in the league though but that's the business.

 - Swift still has four overagers though so moving out Peddle didn't solve that problem. Assuming Groenheyde is safe there, one of Taylor Vause, Brad Hoban, or Dillon Wagner is still to be moved out in the next 10 days.

 - for Vancouver, getting Morrison resolves their goaltending situation. Funny enough, they were also left in the lurch by problems with an import goalie not reporting. Question in Vancouver now is which of 18 year old Brendan Jensen or 16 year old Jackson Whistle gets cut to make room in the crease for Morrison. Whistle has decent numbers so far this year while Jensen's numbers are horrible, but on the other hand, Whistle might be better off playing many more minutes in midget. We'll see what they do there.

 - for Saskatoon, getting Hodder gives them more depth on defence, where they were a little lacking in experienced guys. Moving Morrison though means that the Blades currently only have one goaltender on the roster, so I would look for them to recall 17 year old Adam Todd ASAP from the BCHL, unless they have something else in the works to add another goalie.

Friday notes

Few notes today...

Four prospective WHL overagers - Matt Mackenzie and Brendan Shinnimin of Tri-City, Riley Boychuk of Portland, and Darian Dziurzynski of Saskatoon - have been assigned to their respective NHL teams' AHL affiliates, even though they have not yet signed pro contracts. They will need to sign contracts before the AHL season starts if they are to play in the AHL this season rather than return to the WHL, so fans of their WHL clubs should probably not start to worry too much just yet. But obviously they are impressing the NHL clubs enough that the NHL guys want to get a longer look and see whether they might be ready for the AHL calibre.

Another prospective overager, Kootenay defenceman James Martin, did sign a contract yesterday with the Calgary Flames, whose camp he is attending on a tryout. Obviously he impressed them quite a bit. The Flames also signed another WHLer on a tryout, Red Deer forward Turner Elson. Elson is only 19 though so the Flames promptly returned him to the Rebels for this season. Martin, on the other hand, got assigned to Calgary's AHL affiliate and thus is probably lost to the Ice. This is a blow to the Ice, who were probably counting on having Martin anchoring their blueline when they traded fellow overager Hayden Rintoul in July.

And another overager, Medicine Hat import defenceman Sebastien Owuya, was returned to the WHL from the Winnipeg Jets yesterday. The Tigers, however, have decided to go with defenceman Patrik Parkkonen and forward Adam Rehak as their two imports and so Owuya has been waived. He was unclaimed on WHL waivers so now I guess he just waits to find a place to play. As a "two-spot" player, he is in tough to find a spot in the WHL, where most everyone has a full complement of imports and overagers already. Perhaps the OHL or QMJHL have teams with openings.....

And last bit of news, Vancouver defenceman Zach Hodder has left the Giants and gone home to await a trade. Hodder was Vancouver's first round pick in the 2008 bantam draft but the Giants have a logjam of defencemen on their roster and need to move out a couple. Obviously the decision has been made that Hodder is one of the guys who is going to be moved. He should have some decent value on the trade market.

The season has arrived

It's finally here - the 2011-12 WHL regular season gets underway tonight with the Brandon Wheat Kings paying a visit to the Moose Jaw Warriors. The game, which will also be the first game in Moose Jaw's long-awaited new rink, can be seen (in Canada anyway) on Shaw TV.

10 more teams will start their seasons tomorrow night, while all the rest get underway on Saturday.

By my count, there are currently 13 players still at NHL camps who are expected back in the WHL at some point this year:

Kelowna: Brett Bulmer (Minnesota)
Moose Jaw: Collin Bowman (NY Rangers-AHL), Dylan McIlrath (NY Rangers)

Portland: Riley Boychuk (Buffalo-AHL), Ryan Johansen (Columbus), Joe Morrow (Pittsburgh), Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders)

Prince Albert: Jonathan Parker (Buffalo-AHL)

Prince George: Brett Connolly (Tampa Bay)

Red Deer: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton)

Spokane: Darren Kramer (Ottawa)

Tri-City: Matt MacKenzie (Buffalo-AHL)

Vancouver: Brendan Gallagher (Montreal)

Note: by "expected back", I mean that the player is either A) 19 or younger, or B) is 20 but has not signed a pro contract. Obviously the true level of "expected back"-ness of a Niederreiter or an Etem or a Johansen is somewhat in question.

Rockets, Pats trade

I think we all suspected a deal like this might happen: Regina has dealt 18 year old defenceman Myles Bell to the Kelowna Rockets for 19 year old defenceman Colton Jobke, a 2012 2nd round bantam pick, and a 2013 5th round bantam pick.

It has not been announced when Bell will join the Rockets, as he recovers from his injuries suffered in an off-season car accident.

UPDATE: the Rockets say Bell will join them immediately and is expected to play this weekend. I was thinking the deal was a little risky for the Rockets since Bell had the injury and didn't attend Pats training camp - not to mention his other issues that he has going on. But if he's ready to play, then at least from the hockey point of view this deal makes sense on both sides. From the other points of view.....there's going to be some strong feelings amongst some fans about seeing him back on the ice.

Overager trade

Trade this morning in the WHL as Prince Albert has sent overage forward Charles Wells to the Portland Winterhawks in exchange for a 2013 4th round bantam pick.

Wells will be a familiar face to U.S. division fans, since he spent the first 3.5 seasons of his career in Seattle before being moved to Prince Albert at the trade deadline this past January.

For the Hawks, the trade gives them three overagers on their roster as Wells joins defenceman William Wrenn and forward Riley Boychuk. The Hawks also have several other 20 year olds away at pro camps who theoretically COULD return (forward Oliver Gabriel and defenceman Taylor Aronson chief among them) but as those players all have pro contracts, it's probably more likely that they turn pro. And the acquisition of Wells would seem to confirm that the Hawks brass believes those players are not coming back either - since if any of them do, the Hawks will now have to trade or cut one.

For the Raiders, the trade gets them down to four overagers - defenceman James Bettauer and forwards Brandon Herrod, Justin Maylan and Jonathan Parker.

Shaw schedule released

Shaw and the WHL released their 2011-12 "WHL on Shaw" TV broadcast schedule this morning. You can see the complete schedule here.

One thing that stands out to me is the variety of teams we are seeing this year. In past years it certainly seemed like we saw certain "big market" teams a lot more than other teams. But this year, every single team in the league is being shown at least once.

The breakdown of the number of times each team in the league is being shown this year:

Vancouver: 6

Edmonton: 5

Kelowna: 5

Kamloops: 4

Lethbridge: 4

Moose Jaw: 4

Saskatoon: 4

Victoria: 4

Brandon: 3

Calgary: 3

Medicine Hat: 3

Prince Albert: 3

Red Deer: 3

Kootenay: 2

Prince George: 2

Regina: 2

Tri-City: 2

Everett: 1

Portland: 1

Seattle: 1

Spokane: 1

Swift Current: 1

Two more trades

Two more trades made this afternoon:

 - Calgary sends 18 year old defenceman Kyle Schmidt to Saskatoon for a 2013 4th round bantam pick

 - Tri-City sends 18 year old forward Max Moline to Lethbridge for a conditional 2012 5th round bantam pick.

The Schmidt deal is Calgary moving out a player from a logjam of 18/19 year old defencemen as there probably wasn't enough ice time to keep everyone happy. Saskatoon had only 6 d-men on their roster and can use the increased depth.

The Moline deal, being a conditional pick, is probably dependant on Moline sticking with the Hurricanes.

Thursday notes

Couple bits and pieces today...

First, there was a trade this morning between Prince Albert and Spokane. The Raiders have sent 18 year old rookie goaltender Luke Lee-Knight and a 2012 5th round bantam pick to the Chiefs, in return for 19 year old defenceman Tyler Vanscourt.

The Chiefs promptly released 19 year old goaltender Jacob Edwards, who was trying out for the backup spot. 18 year old Zach Rakochny also remains in the Spokane net situation behind incumbent Mac Engel, but since the team just gave up a veteran defenceman for Lee-Knight, it seems likely that Rakochny will suffer the same fate as Edwards eventually.

The other bit of news is some more developments with the Steffan Soberg situation in Swift Current. Whereas is was reported earlier in the week that Soberg had returned home to Norway due to "personal problems" and was likely to return, it now appears that Soberg simply doesn't want to play in North America this year and is very unlikely to return. You can find an excellent English translation of comments Soberg made to a Norwegian newspaper on this Swedish hockey blog. It seems pretty clear that he doesn't want to move so far away from home quite yet.

So, the Broncos have a decision to make now. They own Soberg's playing rights, having paid the transfer fee to his previous club. So they are within their rights to force him to come back to the WHL or else sit out. But at the same time, do you want a guy on your team who doesn't want to be there, poisoning the atmosphere?

It's a tough blow to the Broncos, essentially losing the #6 overall import pick without a thing to show for it. But I think in the end they'll have to cut their losses and transfer Soberg back to a European club.

Soberg leaves Broncos

A bit of a blow to the Swift Current Broncos today as it appears that import goaltender Steffan Soberg may not play in the WHL this year after all. According to Shawn Mullin`s blog, Soberg has apparently returned home to Norway to deal with personal matters rather than attend the Washington Capitals rookie camp as expected - and it is not known whether he will return to North America to play this year.

As Mullin says, it`s none of our business what Soberg`s problems are. But his departure does leave the Broncos a little shorthanded in the goaltending department with only 18 year old Austin Smith (who has all of 370 minutes` WHL experience) and 17 year old rookie Steven Myland left in net. The Broncos had been counting on Soberg - who they made the 6th overall pick in the import draft in June - to provide them with a number 1 goaltender this year.

And for what its worth, the Broncos were NOT the Eastern division team I reference below in the Anderson speculation. But I suppose they could be in the running for an experienced goalie now too....

Canes-Pats trade

Lethbridge has acquired overage goaltender Damian Ketlo from the Regina Pats this afternoon for a conditional 2012 5th round bantam pick.

Its an interesting deal since an overage goaltender is not exactly something Lethbridge needed - their incumbert starter, 19 year old Brandon Anderson, is a capable starting goalie in the WHL and is a signed prospect of the Washington Capitals.

It seems fairly safe to say the Hurricanes are not going with an Anderson-Ketlo tandem this year since both those guys will be gone after the year and they would be left with no returning goaltenders. So in my opinion, this deal means that another deal is in the works which will move Anderson to another team. I do believe there`s a certain team in the Eastern division which could be very interested in this deal.

Acquiring Ketlo also means the Hurricanes will have to part ways - eventually - with one of their existing three overagers - forwards Austin Fyten, Cam Braes, and Brody Sutter. So, one of those three will be wearing a different uniform in four weeks`time.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash

Terrible tragedy in the hockey world this morning as a plane carrying the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl has crashed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl. 42 people were on the plane and there are only 2 survivors known at this point.

From a WHL perspective, the coach of Lokomotiv is former WHLer and NHLer Brad McCrimmon, who is being reported by Russian news agencies to be among those who died. His brother is Kelly McCrimmon, the owner, president, & general manager of the Brandon Wheat Kings. The McCrimmon family has been a big part of the WHL for over 30 years; take a moment out of your day to send some prayers their way.

Amongst other players on the team that North American fans might know: former NHLers Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, Alexander Karpovtsev (who was an assistant coach to McCrimmon), Igor Korolev (also an assistant coach), Josef Vasicek, and Karel Rachunek. I don't see any former WHLers (except McCrimmon of course) on the roster but I could be missing a name or two.

This has to rank as one of the worst tragedies in team sport history. Just terrible....

The fighting question

In the wakes of the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak this summer, the "does fighting belong in hockey" debate has started up again. Gregg Drinnan has a column today featuring a letter from a hockey mom who is also a medical professional, expressing concern about the effects of fighting and concussions on players. Veteran sportswriter Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post has a column today as well, in which he takes the position that fighting should be removed from the sport. And Neate Seger of Yahoo Sports Canada has a piece as well (quoting from the Drinnan and Vanstone articles, among others).

My opinion? I don't think fighting needs to be removed from hockey. What does need to be removed, however, are the players for whom fighting is their dominant skill. Every team at every level of hockey (excluding leagues which don't permit fighting obviously) has a player or three on their roster who would not be there if fighting were not permitted. They are usually the most frequent fighters, and if we're concerned about concussions and other injuries which result from fighting, then these are the players who are most vulnerable to those injuries.

I like a good tilt as much as many other fans do. But I like my fights to arise on the spur-of-the-moment from a situation in the game - a questionable hit, running over somebody's goaltender, that sort of thing. And those fights usually involve players who can play the game too - not the guy who has been on the end of the bench for the last ten minutes waiting for such a situation so he can go out and extract some revenge. Those are planned, staged fights, not spur-of-the-moment, reactionary ones. Ditto for the fights off faceoffs, at the start of periods, or at the end of one-sided games which "send a message". Those are planned fights which usually involve players who don't get enough ice time to be affected by any "message" the other team might be trying to send anyway.

So my position is, keep fighting legal, but lose the "enforcers" and the staged fights. How can this be accomplished though, that's the trickier part.....but if there's a will, there's a way.

Your thoughts? (This should be good for some comments....)

Friday notes

Camps are underway for every team now and in fact most teams are already down to 30-some players. Often that number includes a couple 15 year olds - who you know will go home in the next few days since they can't play this year - and maybe a few too many overagers as well (which has to be dealt with by October 10), so if you take those two groups out, for a lot of teams they are probably within 10 cuts of their final roster and maybe even within 5 cuts.

Of course, those are the toughest 5-10 cuts since there often isn't a big difference between the kids who get to stay and begin their WHL careers and the kids who have to try again next year or perhaps give up on the WHL dream.

Preseason helps teams make those cuts - and while the first two preseason games were played earlier this week, the exhibition season really gets hopping this weekend. Between tonight and Monday, there will be 19 preseason games played, featuring 19 of the league's 22 teams. Only Brandon, Kootenay, and Lethbridge don't play this weekend, probably because all three of them started their camps a little later than everyone else.

Two of the league's three preseason tournaments take place this weekend as well - the five team (Everett, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Tri-City) tournament in Everett and the six team (Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Prince George, Red Deer, Swift Current) tournament in Edmonton.

And speaking of preseason and tournaments, there are a number of NHL rookie tournaments which get going in a week or so (all the tournaments seem to run in September 9 - 14 area) which will see dozens of players from the WHL clubs head out for tryouts. Within a day or two after that, the NHL training camps will open and dozens more WHLers will head out to those camps. The vast majority of them will eventually return to the WHL before the first week of October of course, but in their absence that means more ice time in preseason (and perhaps early regular season) games for the young players trying to make the WHL.

No matter what team you cheer for, it's going to be a busy next few weeks here for WHL fans.....

Wade Belak found dead

The horrible, horrible summer for NHL tough guys continues apparently, with the news that the recently-retired Wade Belak was found dead in a Toronto condo/hotel complex today.

That makes three deaths this offseason - first Derek Boogaard, then Rick Rypien just 16 days ago, and now Belak. All current (or very recently former, in Belak's case) NHL enforcers, and coincidentally also all former WHLers.

And every one a tragedy.

Exhibition games on WHL site

I know a lot of fans were extremely critical of the WHL and the way the website changes were conducted last fall. I was one of them.

So, time to give the WHL credit for doing something right: they finally have real-time scoring of exhibition games available on the site. Up until now, information on exhibition games has been sketchy at best - fans never really knew who was playing or even who got goals, etc, unless they were actually at the game.

Well, starting with last night's game between Swift Current and Moose Jaw, the WHL has real-time scoring summaries for exhibition games just like they do for regular season and playoff games. And even better, it looks like these stats will be available in the same report options that we have for regular season and playoff games as well - top scorers, top goaltenders, team-by-team scoring stats, etc.

This is a very valuable addition to the serious fan's arsenal of data as we track the progress of our teams and their prospects through the preseason. So, good on the league for getting this done.

Rosters note

Quick note to all those who are here looking for updated camp rosters - I'm swamped with work at the moment and so it might take a few hours or a day for me to get things updated on the blog.

I'll get there, I promise......just taking a little longer is all.....

Chiefs/Hitmen trade

A trade went down in the league this morning, Spokane sending 18 year old forward Brady Brassart to the Calgary Hitmen in exchange for a conditional bantam draft pick. The pick will be either Calgary's 2012 4th round pick or their 2013 3rd round pick, at Spokane's option. Presumably Spokane will choose which pick they want shortly before the 2012 draft.

Brassart gives the Hitmen something they only had one of before - a '93 forward. He adds to the ever-increasing group of veteran forwards on the Hitmen (13 now), so it is becoming clear that several of last year's Hitmen veterans are going to be fighting for their jobs when camp starts in 10 days.