A day late again, but the WHL has a 3rd head coaching vacancy this week after Craig Hartsburg resigned his position with the Everett Silvertips on Monday to pursue an NHL opportunity (he was hired later Monday by the Calgary Flames as "associate coach" to head man Brent Sutter).
Everett joins Moose Jaw and Seattle (who dismissed Dave Hunchak and Rob Sumner, respectively) as WHL teams looking for new coaches for next season.
Things usually start hopping on the coach-hiring front after the NHL playoffs end, around the time of the NHL entry draft and the CHL import draft, so we may not see any movement on any of these positions until that time, or even later. There's no rush for anyone to hire a coach right now, it's still early June and almost three months until training camp yet.
Speaking of the import draft - which goes June 29 - the CHL site has the draft order available. The OHL picks first this year, which will be the Barrie Colts. The QMJHL picks 2nd, which will be Rouyn-Noranda. The WHL's Hitmen pick 3rd.
In looking at the draft order, it jumps out to me that the OHL and QMJHL are a lot freer with trading their import picks than the WHL is. The first round features six traded QMJHL picks - that's a full 1/3 of all the QMJHL's first round picks that have changed hands already. The OHL has three traded first rounders and the WHL has only one - Seattle's pick which was sent to Prince Albert in the Ryan Button trade.
One last thing today - if all goes well (touch wood), I will begin posting those prospects reports later today. With a 30 vote lead, the first team will almost certainly be Red Deer.
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