The upheaval is not over in Kamloops. Greg Hawgood is the coach for the rest of this season - and the rest of this season only, as team owner Tom Gagliardi stated yesterday. Hawgood will be replaced next summer, and appears to have only been hired in the first place because he was convenient (he lives in Kamloops) and because he has ties to some members of the ownership group through their playing days. He has no coaching experience. Is this any way to run a team? Why not take an extra week or two and find the best-qualified coach, who can then start shaping the team for the next several years NOW, rather than waiting until next summer to really start going in a new direction?
Secondly, there will be no G.M. hired until next summer as well - which is why Hawgood wasn't given the vote of confidence as coach past this year. Presumably the job of hiring the new coach would be given to whoever becomes the new G.M., which is entirely reasonable. But for the remainder of this season, it's unclear who is at the controls as far as making trades, the May bantam draft, and other key G.M. responsibilities are concerned.
The Reekie situation in Everett is over, at least from the Everett side of things. The Silvertips were unable to trade him and put him on waivers instead. Interesting note in the article though that Tips G.M. Doug Soetart did have a trade worked out for Reekie before he came down with mono; that would indicate that at least one G.M. in the league did like him enough to want to give up something for him. Whether that team (which has probably addressed their goaltending another way since then) is still interested, I guess we'll see. I have a gut feeling that Reekie will end up in the OHL though.
Lots of coverage of the three big trades yesterday.....here's links to several different takes on the deals, from the local papers covering the teams involved. Lethbridge Herald, Moose Jaw Times-Herald #1, Moose Jaw Times-Herald #2, Portland Tribune, Portland Oregonian #1, Portland Oregonian #2, Regina Leader-Post. Yes, the two Portland papers deemed these events worthy of articles - even if the Tribune's article as well as Oregonian article #2 (actually a blog post) are largely cut-and-paste jobs of the team press release, right down to the error in calling Jason Grecica a defenceman acquired from Lethbridge instead of a forward acquired from Moose Jaw.
Implied in the Warriors comments about the acquisition of Frazer McLaren: nobody is going to elbow Riley Holzapfel in the head again.
As Red Deer visits the Lower Mainland this weekend, former NHL star Ray Ferraro is looking forward to catching up with his son Landon, and the Giants are looking forward to renewing acquaintances with former teammate J.D. Watt.
Former Spokane Chief star Derek Ryan is following a somewhat untraditional path in his life after the WHL: he is attending the University of Alberta. What's so unusual about that? Well, Ryan is an American and thus has some additional challenges in being a student at U of A. Like double the tuition of his Canadian teammates, for example. And the weak exchange rate for the U.S. dollar. Almost makes you wonder why he didn't go to a state university south of the border, where financially things would be easier for him....but maybe he really wants to play hockey for one of the CIS's most consistently powerful teams.
3 comments:
I wonder if the Chiefs are still paying for Ryan's education. The limitation on education reimbursements has been that they will only cover it if you attend in your home state or province.
My understanding is that they pay you the cost of tuition and books at the state or government-subsidized university or college closest to your home.
So, the Chiefs would be paying whatever the cost is at whatever state university is closest to Spokane. Anything above that is Ryan's to pay.
Not sure if you were there Alan, but Ellerby had one of the worst games I've ever seen of a WHLer in his debut last night. His passes were either on the opponent's tape or 150 feet for icing. To cap it off he took a selfish and dumb penalty which resulted in a Calgary PP goal. Hopefully it's just the opening night jitters and lack of familiarity, but he looked more like a 10th round pick than a 10th overall pick.
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