Three more Eastern teams have released their schedules, bringing the total number of Eastern scheds out now to six of the eleven teams. The new ones are Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, and Swift Current.
The WHL's statement on Portland never materialized yesterday, apparently because some of the parties affected by the statement were travelling. The release will instead be sometime today.
UPDATE: the release is out. Basically, the news is that the Portland owners have agreed to reinstate Ken Hodge as the team's G.M. and to give him full control over hockey operations. The league has also recieved "further assurances that the Portland WHL franchise will operate in a manner acceptable to the WHL", whatever that is supposed to mean. Presumably it means "try not to suck so badly anymore" but it's a little short on the specifics of how that should be accomplished. I hope it also means "please pay your bills so your players won't have to hold a bottle drive to buy sticks this year".
Having Hodge return as the G.M. is not a bad step. I know there's a school of thought out there that the game has passed Hodge by, and there might be some truth to that. But it's infinitely better than having a couple guys with questionable hockey backgrounds making the important player decisions. Even if you think Hodge's player assessment skills are a bit past their due date, he DOES know how to run a hockey team properly and that's what you want in that spot.
Anyway, barring any more major news today, this will be my last blog post for probably about 10 days. Yes, it's vacation time for me. I'll be back at the start of July, just in time for the NHL free agency craziness.
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