Coach news

You've probably heard this elsewhere already, but Everett is going to name their new head coach this afternoon and it has been confirmed by a couple media outlets that the new man is former NHLer and NHL head coach Craig Hartsburg.

The Tips certainly landed a guy with an impressive resume for the junior level. He has coached Chicago, Anaheim, and Ottawa at the NHL level, as well as the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the OHL and two gold medals with Canada at the World Juniors.

In another coaching note, Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock - also a former WHL coach with Moose Jaw and Spokane - has been named the head coach of the 2010 Canadian mens Olympic hockey team.

And a third coaching note, the Calgary Flames have a press conference this afternoon at which they are expected to name Brent Sutter their new head coach. Obviously this will mean Sutter won't be spending as much time with the Rebels this season as we might have thought after he quit his job with the Devils. He'll surely see more of the Rebels this year than he did the last two years, but he's still going to have that NHL workload and travel schedule which will keep him away from the Rebels a fair bit too.

One other possible WHL coaching implication of the Sutter hiring is that current Hitmen head coach Dave Lowry has been mentioned as a likely candidate to become one of Sutter's assistant coaches with the Flames. It is already known that former Kootenay Ice coach Ryan McGill will be an assistant with the Flames next year after spending the last few seasons coaching the Flames' AHL club.

And, with all that coaching news out of the way, a quick blog note here; I will be on holidays for ten days starting on Friday, so there will very likely be no blog posts in that time. That includes the NHL draft and the CHL import draft.