Tuesday

Few things today....

The WHL and Shaw TV released their 2010-11 TV schedule yesterday. You can see the schedule here. To break it down, the number of times each team is being shown this year:


Calgary: 6
Kelowna: 5
Saskatoon: 5
Vancouver: 5
Edmonton: 4
Brandon: 3
Chilliwack: 3
Kamloops: 3
Medicine Hat: 3
Moose Jaw: 3
Regina: 3
Swift Current: 3
Everett: 2
Kootenay: 2
Lethbridge: 2
Portland: 2
Red Deer: 2
Prince Albert: 1
Prince George: 1
Seattle: 1
Tri-City: 1

You have to give them credit, they are showing a wide variety of teams - Spokane is the only team to not be shown at all. Overall the list is about what you'd expect though, with the higher population centers (higher Shaw customer bases) at the top of the list, and smaller centers getting fewer airings.

Second note, the regular season starts on Friday and the WHL site is still not complete. #1 on the problem list, for me anyway, is that I cannot view the schedule. Three days to season kickoff and fans have no way - on the league's official website - to see who is playing who. 

The stats and standings still do not work either....I know, there are no stats or standings yet. But based on how things have gone so far, I gotta say I'm not optimistic that they're magically going to start working on Friday night. 

Many of the rosters are there now, which is nice....but I'm wondering how Kootenay is going to compete this year with only three players on their roster. Chilliwack, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are not complete either, and many teams have an awful lot of players wearing number zero. And since the individual team websites seem to be using the same roster database, the rosters on the team sites are not complete and/or wrong as well. Come on, we're 72 hours from the season starting. This joke of a redesign has gone on long enough. Time to get this fixed now, already.

And another trade

Yet another overager on the move today now - Saskatoon has taken the first step towards relieving their glut of 20 year olds by sending forward Travis Toomey to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a 2011 4th round bantam pick.

My first thought is a 4th round pick seems a bit high considering that Toomey was probably well down the depth chart amongst Saskatoon's eight overage candidates, and the fact that Saskatoon isn't really dealing from a position of strength with so many players to move in the next four weeks. But whatever.....Toomey will bring some size and toughness and a few points to the Seattle lineup.

McKenzie column

As most of you know, former NHL coach Pat Burns is battling cancer, a battle that he acknowledged back in April he was going to lose.

This morning some media outlets (apparently spurred by some Twitter postings) reported that Burns had died. TSN's Bob McKenzie soon got a call from Burns to set the record straight, and wrote what turned into a pretty gosh darn nice tribute to Burns in his regular TSN column today. Check it out.

Guess that settles it

My questions about Jeff Bosch from the earlier post have been answered - the Warriors have dealt Bosch to the Kamloops Blazers for a 2011 6th round bantam pick.

Of course that creates more questions though. Bosch isn't going to be the backup goalie in Kamloops so either he's going to split time with incumbent Blazers starter Jon Groenheyde (which means 16 year old Troy Trombley goes back to midget), or it means Groenheyde is now on his way out of Kamloops.

Also, another WHL veteran walked the plank today too, as the Red Deer Rebels released 19 year old forward Steve Oursov. Oursov missed almost all of last season with a severe concussion and now it looks like he's not good enough to play for the Rebels as a 19 year old. I'd guess he's bound for the BCHL.

Curious trade

Interesting trade this morning, as the Everett Silvertips and Moose Jaw Warriors swap some overagers. Going to Moose Jaw is goaltender Thomas Heemskerk, and headed to Everett is defenceman Chad Suer.

Now, the Everett angle of this deal makes sense - they're going with Kent Simpson as their starting goalie this year and thus didn't need Heemskerk anymore. Getting an experienced WHL defenceman like Suer only helps make Simpson's life easier as well. So that part makes sense.

But why does Moose Jaw want Heemskerk? First, it's not even certain that he will return to the WHL from the San Jose Sharks organization. If he doesn't come back, then the Warriors have given away Suer for nothing. But even if he does return, the Warriors already have an overage goalie in Jeff Bosch, who did pretty well for them last year and is (was?) presumably their starter again this year. Obviously they won't keep two overage goalies so if they're keeping Heemskerk then that means the end of the line for Bosch in the Jaw. And the Warriors already had too many overagers (they still have six) so this move doesn't do anything to help them reduce that number.

More moves coming in Moose Jaw, that much seems certain....

Thursday moves

Couple notes this morning...

First, Vancouver has traded disgruntled 18 year old forward Brandon Scholten to the Prince George Cougars for a 2012 fifth round bantam pick. Scholten had declined to report to the Giants training camp and had asked for a trade.

Also, Regina has waived overage forward Cassidy Mappin, a move which probably brings a close to his WHL career. The Pats are now down to just one overager again.

Players are starting to trickle back from NHL rookie camps now, so look for more and more cuts to be made in the next few days.

Current roster breakdowns

Just for fun, a look at how the current training camp rosters break down by age for each team:

	16's	17's	18's	19's	20's
Brandon Wheat Kings	7	8	9	5	6
Calgary Hitmen	3	5	10	8	4
Chilliwack Bruins	6	5	9	4	4
Edmonton Oil Kings	4	9	7	5	3
Everett Silvertips	3	6	8	8	2
Kamloops Blazers	4	6	8	7	1
Kelowna Rockets	4	6	9	7	4
Kootenay Ice	6	7	8	6	4
Lethbridge Hurricanes	8	6	8	7	3
Medicine Hat Tigers	3	8	6	8	4
Moose Jaw Warriors	4	7	8	4	6
Portland Winterhawks	3	3	13	6	5
Prince Albert Raiders	2	7	6	8	3
Prince George Cougars	4	8	9	3	3
Red Deer Rebels	5	7	7	7	5
Regina Pats	3	5	12	8	3
Saskatoon Blades	6	10	5	5	8
Seattle Thunderbirds	2	7	10	6	1
Spokane Chiefs	2	9	8	8	3
Swift Current Broncos	1	9	6	7	4
Tri-City Americans	4	5	9	6	4
Vancouver Giants	3	8	9	5	2

(I left off any remaining 15 year olds as they are ineligible to play full time this season)

You can see that some teams are down to just 1 or 2 16 year olds already, which is certainly good news for the ones they have left on their rosters. There are also some teams with very unbalanced rosters - very deep in some age groups and very weak in others. Those are teams that ordinarily would bear watching for possible trades as they try to shore up weak age groups by moving players from stronger groups.

And the overage situations too....Saskatoon still has eight of them. They may lose some to the NHL yet but they are for sure one of the teams to watch in that trade department.

Monday notes

We are now just 11 days away from the start of the 2010-11 season. Time flies, doesn't it?

A few notes this morning....

If you're interested in following the progress of some WHLers and ex-WHLers at the eight-team Traverse City NHL rookie tournament, the site Red Wings Central has rosters, statistics, and standings.

I've received a few e-mails about the Great CHL Website Boondoggle, and it seems that perhaps the WHL and its teams are not very much to blame for the situation. It sounds like this is all being driven by Forces From Out East, and the WHL and its teams don't have much blame in the matter, except of course for the fact that they agreed to this CHL-wide project in the first place. I can't imagine that they had no choice in THAT decision.

Sounds like the website design is/was being done by a group in Ontario. Regardless of where they are, they are not competent for this job. If I did this kind of crap at MY job, I could probably start looking for work tomorrow.

Speaking of website redesigns, Gregg Drinnan has unveiled a spiffy new look for his blog today - check it out. Perhaps the WHL could hire Gregg to fix their problems.

And lastly, a final comment on the Red #23 situation in Portland. By now everyone has probably heard that it turns out that the mysterious "Red #23" in Portland's camp was actually a 17 year old Swiss player who Portland had no right to have in their camp. The WHL has investigated and has laid down a punishment on the Winterhawks, although the details of that punishment will be kept under wraps for some reason.

Let me say this though: As a fan of the WHL, I'm very disappointed in the Portland organization, and I am certain that I am not alone in that sentiment. Not just the fact that they broke the rules in the first place, but the attempts to cover it up afterwards instead of just owning up to a mistake. Any kind of perception of the league as a place of rule-bending and coverups and secrecy hurts EVERYONE in the league. It comes back to the same theme over and over again: professionalism. If you want to be perceived as professional, act like it. If you want to act bush league, don't be surprised when some people start to regard you that way.

Portland's franchise just came out of a forgettable era of bushleague-ism under its previous owners. I think everyone in the league saw the new start as a chance to erase that stigma, and last season's on-ice turnaround was a good step in that direction. Which is why it is so disappointing to see the new regime pulling this kind of shady crap....lets hope this is the last we have to see of this kind of thing.

New site issues

So....it's 72 hours after the go-live time for the WHL/CHL websites and I see they still don't have everything working properly. Many of the links on the WHL site still lead nowhere or (worse) display errors to users. And for some reason the Calgary Hitmen website has reverted to its old version.

I work in IT....I'm quite familiar with the development, testing, and rollout process. And from what I can see, it seems very clear to me that there was a totally inadequate level of testing done on this project before it was rolled out. 

I think all of us who do this for a living would agree that sometimes you still end up with some bugs even when things are tested properly, and for that reason I didn't want to criticize them right off the bat on Thursday morning. But, that was three days ago; now the season starts in less than two weeks and visitors to the WHL site are still unable to view stats, standings, rosters, or even the flippin' schedule. That is completely unacceptable IMO. So it didn't work when you rolled it out. Fine. So fix it. If you can't fix it in 72 hours I'd have to say you (A) didn't test this anywhere close to enough and maybe even not at all, or (B) aren't trying very damn hard. Half the WHL site hasn't worked since the get-go and NONE of it has been fixed.

Oh - and for the most part, the 22 team sites have all been very good with the switchover. A few bugs, but generally all good. It's only the main WHL site that has the problems. 

Thursday notes

Few notes this morning....

First, the new "CHL Network" of websites was launched last night. New sites are up for all 60 CHL teams, plus the WHL, OHL, QMJHL, and CHL sites as well.

It's 8 am MDT here and half the links on the WHL site's navigation bar do not direct the user anywhere, and asking for the stats or standings gives me a nice code dump:

All 20 team sites seem to be working though, although I did not investigate any of them beyond checking whether a site came up and whether it matched the CHL's template....

And a couple injury notes from yesterday, regarding a couple of the WHL's bigger stars:

Brandon forward Brayden Schenn apparently suffered a knee injury of some sort Tuesday at Brandon's training camp. It is serious enough that the Los Angeles Kings are flying Schenn in to have the Kings' doctors take a look at him. If he's going to miss any significant amount of time, that could put an end to any chance of him sticking with the Kings this season and will likely land him back in the WHL for sure. Without the injury you'd have to figure he has a decent shot at playing in the NHL this year.

And Kelowna defenceman Tyson Barrie has suffered a partially torn hamstring muscle, will be out around six weeks and will definitely have to miss the Colorado Avalanche rookie camp. Depending on how quickly the injury heals, he may be able to attend their main training camp as well but you have to figure this has dealt a blow to any chance he had of making the Avalanche this year as a 19 year old. That probably wasn't a huge chance to begin with but with him being out for a while now, he's not going to be in peak condition even if he is able to make the main camp.

Tuesday notes

Few things this morning...

Interesting trade yesterday as the Saskatoon Blades shipped 18 year old forward Charles Inglis to the Prince George Cougars for a 2011 2nd round bantam pick. Inglis was the 4th overall pick in the 2007 draft but hasn't quite developed into the player the Blades hoped he would be. Coupled with some off-ice issues that finally got him sent home from Blades camp a few days earlier, it looks like he ran Blades G.M. Lorne Molleken out of patience.

This is probably one of those deals where there will be a clear winner and loser apparent in time. Either Inglis is going to clean up his act with a fresh start and become the player he could be (in which case a 2nd round pick for him looks pretty good), or he's going to continue down his current path and make this a trade the Cougars will wish they hadn't made. If P.G. has another poor year this year, that 2nd round pick is going to be awfully close to a first rounder in the draft order.

Still with Prince George, veteran defenceman Kurt Torbohm elected to leave the team yesterday. Torbohm supposedly is undecided on whether to continue his hockey career; in either case his decision drops the Cougars down to the required three overagers, meaning the three that remain are probably safe at this point.

Another veteran was cut yesterday, Seattle releasing 18 year old forward Brennan Tutt. Tutt barely played as a rookie last year before suffering a serious elbow injury that required surgery and ended his season. Not many veterans cut from WHL camps so far this season but as we get closer to the season starting and the tough decisions have to be made, there will be more....

Lastly, the new-look WHL websites are supposed to be unveiled tomorrow. As I understand it, this is going to be a CHL-wide thing, with all team sites from the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL following a common template for a similar look and feel.

Hitmen intrasquad notes

Hitmen intrasquad game went last night as team "White" beat team "Black" 10-7. I was going to type out my own version of the summary (which was likely incorrect anyway) but the Hitmen website has saved me the trouble. Read it here.

Only stat not mentioned in the website summary is that there was one fight, veterans Cody Sylvester and Justin Kirsch squaring off in the 2nd period. Sylvester landed the only punch, a solid right to the side of Kirsch's face that sent Kirsch to his knees and ended the fight. Kind of a needless fight really since neither of those guys is battling for a spot on the team.


Some thoughts on what I saw....

Goaltending:

The backup battle is perhaps getting a little clearer. 16 year old Brodie Burdeny had a game he'd probably rather forget (6 goals on 20 shots in 30 minutes), while 18 year old Matt Hrynkiw played behind the same team and gave up just 1 goal on 14 shots in 30 minutes. I wasn't there on Sunday but I still haven't seen Burdeny have a good game, whereas Hrynkiw has been very good every time I've seen him.

Mack Shields struggled a bit but he's also only 15 and probably facing shooters of this calibre for the first time at this camp. I do like Shields' size though, he's a really big kid who fills the net. If you use your imagination a little (yesterday, a lot) you can picture some physical resemblance to Martin Jones as a 15 year old.

19 year olds Michael Snider and Juraj Holly did not play in the intrasquad. Exhibition games will decide more but I think it's a 3-way battle for two spots, between Snider, Holly, and Hrynkiw.

Defence:

Carter Berg is a lock. This kid can play, a year in Jr A did him well after struggling as a 16 year old with Chilliwack. And I thought Alex Roach looked very good again too, he should be on the team as well. I still don't see much in Justin Slobozian....every time I noticed him it was because he was out of position or fighting the puck. Seems like some other watchers liked him better though. I didn't see much of Keaton Lubin but what I did, he sure does look like a polished player....good pick for a 3rd rounder for sure. Kyle Schmidt continues to be a case of not-quite-enough IMO....I wonder if Schmidt's window of opportunity is closing quickly. I actually kind of liked Eric Baldwin a little bit too but maybe not enough to get a spot on the team.

Right now I'm guesstimating that Berg, Roach, and Lubin make the team in addition to the 5 returning vets.

Forwards:

18 year old Trevor Cheek was probably the best rookie prospect in the game. He has wheels and can really shoot the puck....he's also a signed player so he's a lock for the team. 18 year old John Lawrence should stick with the team for good this time after making it through half a season last year. Corey Scott looked decent but he's also 19 and to make the team at that age he has to be able to play in the top 9 forwards....is he able to do that? I'm not so sure. I also liked 18 year old Brandon Brossoit, he has had some moments too....so did 18 year old Justin Faux. Neil Landry was not as noticeable this time as I thought he was on Saturday. Only problem here is that in a rebuilding year like Calgary is in, you don't want to take too many of these older rookies, you need to give your kids some spots too. So if Cheek and Lawrence are on the team, is there any room left for Scott/Brossoit/Faux/Landry? Maybe one of them?

A trio of the 17 year old prospects - Hartley, Skilliter, and Santini - all were....OK. Maybe not quite enough, and they look like they've been passed by some of the 16 year olds in their development. Probably one of those guys makes the team though. I liked Skilliter the best of the bunch. Joel Schreyer was not bad either, and I liked Presley Kirkness as well, he was one of the few guys who was consistently physical. Probably not enough from either of them to beat out listed prospects though.

For the 16 year olds, Robert Trzonkowski and Chase Clayton had good games and I think they are both locks. I also liked Luke Gordon and Calder Brooks; all four of those 16 year olds were probably better than Hartley/Skilliter/Santini. I don't see them keeping more than 3 or 4 16 year olds total though so with Lubin, Clayton, and Trzonkowski being the leaders in that area, perhaps another year of midget or Jr A will do Gordon and Brooks well.

So, 7 open spots. I've got Cheek, Lawrence, Trzonkowski, and Clayton for sure. Probably one or two of the 18/19 year olds, and one or two of the three 17 year olds, and that's 7.

Red #23 is...

....15 year old Mike Nolan. Well, that's who it is at the Hitmen's camp, anyway. :)

I spent much of today at the first day of the Hitmen's training camp. Roster has been added to the rosters post, for anyone interested. A few notes....

- Ian Schultz and Michael Stone are there and scrimmaged although obviously they'll be leaving soon and not coming back.

- Rigby Burgart and Misha Fisenko did not report, so they're out of the overage picture. Burgart was probably never in that picture (which is probably why he didn't bother coming to camp) but Fisenko would have been a nice option as a two-spotter, seeing as how they only have one import in camp. The other import options, Erik Haula and Dmitri Jaskin, are not there either....no surprises there though.

- Kyle Aschim is there but is not expected to be ready to play until mid-October due to a shoulder injury. So, the Hitmen will be able to keep him around and not count him amongst their overagers until he's ready to play....then they'll have two weeks to settle on three.

- top '94 defencemen prospect Keaton Lubin is also there but also hurt. No idea about his status.

- the two Kalalshnikov brothers on the roster are not imports, despite their Russian names. The family moved to Canada last year, so they count as regular North American players.

- some older free agent players with previous WHL experience are trying out: defenceman Justin Slobozian played 46 games for the Regina Pats over the last three years; forward Brandon Brossoit played a couple games for Lethbridge in 08-09; forward Corey Scott played 78 games for Moose Jaw the last two years; forward Neil Landry has previously been the property of the Kamloops Blazers, and forward Justin Faux was the property of the Prince George Cougars for a couple years. Neither Landry nor Faux have ever played a WHL game though, I don't think.

I am surprised that there are not more older "2nd chance" type players here though. You would think this would be a dream opportunity for 18/19 year olds who were let go from other WHL teams in the past - a quality organization like the Hitmen, with plenty of openings. But perhaps the Hitmen opted not to flood their camp with those kind of players either, in order to give their youngsters a chance.

I saw the first three of the four games today....overall I would have to say that the younger players mostly disappointed me. I did not see a single 15 or 16 year old player who really stood out from the pack. Nobody who made me say, "wow, there's a future WHL star right there". In the past there has always been one or two of those....but I won't worry about it, I'm sure there are some future stars there. They just didn't jump out at us today.

The returning veteran Hitmen players were all good, especially Foucault, Beach, Fiddler, and Schultz up front, and Stone, Wilson, and Mackenzie on the back end. But this is to be expected, isn't it. It's nice to see those players dominating because it gives you a standard to compare the other players to....nobody was close to their standards.

I did like Brossoit, he was the best of the older tryout players. Faux was not bad either, and Landry had a few good moments. Scott didn't do anything and I thought Slobozian looked unmotivated. He got let go from Red Deer's camp earlier this week amid questions about his conditioning, so perhaps it wasn't a lack of motivation as much as a lack of fresh legs.

The goaltending battle....well, Snider and Holly are the best two there, that's for sure. Matt Hrynkiw did look good in the one game I saw him though. Burdeny got lit up bad in his game.

Need to see more of Hrynkiw but right now, I wouldn't rule out the Hitmen going with the two 19 year old goalies.

Thursday thoughts

All team training camps are underway as of today....few things to mention there:

• the goalie battle is over in Kamloops, at least for now. With Taran Kozun leaving camp of his own choice yesterday, the Blazers are down to incumbent Jon Groenheyde and 16 year old Troy Trombley as their goaltenders in camp. 

• the goalie battle is also mostly over in Red Deer, where yesterday's cuts leave the team with only overage incumbents Darcy Kuemper and Kraymer Barnstable, and 16 year old Bolton Pouliot. Since the Rebels are not going to be carrying two overage goalies this year, it looks like Pouliot has won the backup job behind whichever of the overagers the team keeps.

• Swift Current already got down to just two goalies, incumbent Mark Friesen and 17 year old Austin Smith. And the thinking in Prince Albert seems to be that 16 year old Brendan Fiebelkorn is only in camp for the experience, which means that Jamie Tucker and rookie 17 year old Eric Williams are going to be the netminding battery there.

I've updated most of the team rosters (below) recently, so they should mostly be fairly accurate. Still no rosters for Chilliwack, Kelowna, or Portland. None for Brandon, Calgary, Kootenay, or Lethbridge either but they all just started their rookie camps so we'll cut them some slack yet.

Going off a bit here now....one thing that keeps rattling around in my brain is the great "Red #23" mystery from Portland's camp. For those who don't know what that was, it seems there was a player in their camp earlier this week who wasn't listed on the roster sheets they provided to fans. He put on quite a show and fans started wondering if it was the elusive Rocco Grimaldi, reporting to the Hawks. The team responded by saying No, it wasn't Grimaldi, just a player who was accidentally left off the roster sheet. Fair enough.

But, I don't think the question has been answered yet: who IS the player then? Everyone else in Portland's camp had their names made public on the sheets, so what's the issue with identifying this player? Was his name Bob Bell? Or Conor McRae?

We've beaten this horse many times but the issue isn't going away.....the WHL should conduct business professionally, in the open. This hush-hush secrecy that a few (emphasis on few) teams throw over their camps benefits no one. I don't believe for a minute that in this day and age any of these teams are doing anything shady but why would you not want to avoid at all costs even the slightest appearance that you are?

There are teams in this league - and very successful ones, I might add - who email me (and I'm a nobody, not even an actual media person!) rosters and updates directly, without even being asked. And then there's some who guard the identities of the players in their camps the way the identities of the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices are guarded. Why the polar opposite approaches to things?

Wednesday notes

Couple things today....

First, the 2010-11 WHL season kicks off tonight with the first preseason games. Swift Current visits Moose Jaw, and Saskatoon visits Prince Albert. Expect to see very few vets dressed for anyone in either game.

Training camp is also underway now for all but two teams, and those two teams get at it tomorrow. I've got current camp rosters for 14 teams below, and I guessed at the rosters for three others. Portland says they'll release a roster later today, and the other four teams are just getting started so there's nothing for them yet. We beat this horse to death this time last year, but I am once again disappointed that some teams (including a couple who didn't do it last year either) choose not to inform their fans of what's going on at camp. Traffic on this blog is up more than 50% in the last two days since I posted the rosters. Fans want to know this stuff and the teams that don't think this is important are snubbing their fans. What's the big secret? When the vast majority of teams see no problems with releasing rosters and cuts, I don't get why the rest don't do the same.

One other bit of news - the WHL will hold two outdoor games this year but today they announced another "special" game, which will thankfully be played indoors. The Kamloops Blazers and Vancouver Giants are going to play a regular season game February 12 in Whitehorse, Yukon. The game will be a Kamloops home game as it replaces the home game previously scheduled for Kamloops on that date. The average low temperature in Whitehorse in February is -19 C (-2 F), so this is definitely an indoor game....the game will be shown on CBC in Canada, as part of the network's annual "Hockey Day In Canada" festivites which also includes showing three NHL games....so they're showing four live hockey games that day.

The WHL has previously played preseason games in Yellowknife, NWT before, so this will not be the most northerly WHL game ever....but it will be the most northerly regular season game for sure.

NCAA - CHL thaw coming?

Some of you may have noticed I added a new blog to my links section the other day - Neate Sager's junior hockey blog for Yahoo Sports. If you're not reading it regularly already, you should start - he has a good roundup of CHL related stuff there.

And his blog is where I got informed about this piece this morning. An interesting read, focusing on the ongoing battle between the NCAA and CHL for top prospects. Of particular interest is the suggestion by College Hockey, Inc. (which represents the NCAA's interests in this fight) head Paul Kelly that the two sides may be prepared to try and work out an agreement that would reduce the tug-of-war over players.

Anything that makes the decision-making process easier on 15, 16, 17 year old kids cannot be a bad thing. I wonder though, what is in it for the CHL to deal with the NCAA when the "poaching" process is a one-way street that favors the CHL - the CHL can poach players from the NCAA all it wants. The NCAA's own rules prevent it from doing the same to CHL players. Unless the NCAA is prepared to budge on its position that the CHL represents professional hockey and CHL players are therefore ineligible to play NCAA hockey, I'm not sure what the NCAA has to offer players by way of a compromise.

One comment from Kelly stands out too: "I don't think the CHL should be drafting 14-15-16-year-old kids. But do I see that changing? That isn't going to happen."

I wonder, was he able to keep a straight face when saying that? Remember, he represents an organization that allows this. And this. And this. There's a saying about people who live in glass houses.

Chiefs announcement

The Spokane Chiefs will hold a press conference tomorrow at Avista Stadium in Spokane to announce "a special event".

They're holding a press conference at the local baseball stadium....gee, what could this announcement involve?

Minor trade

Spokane has acquired depth defenceman Bruin McDonald from the Prince George Cougars for a conditional 2011 6th round bantam draft pick.

I know what you're thinking....my first reaction too was, "somebody wanted a player not named Connolly or Forsberg off the Cougars' 09-10 roster? Really?".

I'm guessing the the conditions on the pick are that McDonald has to be able to stay in the Chiefs lineup past a certain date. The 18 year old McDonald has played 107 games for the Cougars over the last three seasons, including 6 games as a 15 year old in 07-08.

QMJHL distance traveled

Might as well complete the entire CHL on this now - here's the distance traveled by the QMJHL teams:

		km	miles
1	Cape Breton	29855	18551
2	Rouyn-Noranda	27111	16846
3	Halifax	24600	15286
4	Val-d'Or	23813	14797
5	P.E.I.	23719	14738
6	Acadie-Bathurst	22825	14183
7	Lewiston	22288	13849
8	Saint John	22214	13803
9	Gatineau	21572	13404
10	Moncton	21309	13241
11	Shawinigan	21014	13057
12	Québec	20933	13007
13	Montréal	20478	12724
14	Victoriaville	20334	12635
15	Baie-Comeau	20070	12471
16	Rimouski	20008	12432
17	Drummondville	19982	12416
18	Chicoutimi	19644	12206

Overall the QMJHL clocks in exactly where I expected they would - most of the teams in the QMJHL travel more than any OHL teams but less than most WHL teams. Couple big exceptions though, most notably Cape Breton, who have the distinction of being the most-traveled team in the entire CHL. Yes, they travel 39 more kilometers than Prince George does. And Rouyn-Noranda would be in the WHL's top four as well if they played in that league with that mileage. 

Of course these numbers are not written in stone and there are undoubtedly going to be some mistakes made on my part when trying to figure out whether a team stays over in a hotel after a game or returns home, etc, etc. So they are just estimates.....but I used the same approach for all three leagues so if I made mistakes, hopefully I made them equally everywhere.

One thing I did notice about the QMJHL schedules was that, like the OHL, they are very efficient with their road trips. Most teams in the QMJHL do not take the kind of 4 or 5 game road trips we see almost every team in the WHL take once or twice a year. Yes, some QMJHL teams do - but even when they do, it seems to be a Wednesday, Friday-Saturday-Sunday trip and then back home. You see WHL teams spend 8 or 9 days on the road to play 4 or 5 games sometimes. So, the OHL and QMJHL seem to be more efficient in their road trips but perhaps the smaller distances makes that easier.

I gave the longest and shortest distances in the WHL and OHL in earlier posts, so I'd best do it for the "Q" as well: longest driving distance between two cities in the QMJHL is (no surprise) Cape Breton to Rouyn-Noranda, which comes in at 2086 km. Shortest distance is Drummondville to Victoriaville, at 62 km. All distances, for all three leagues, come from Mapquest.

So, to wrap this up and rank the entire CHL.....I've taken the total km and divided it by the number of road games each team plays (to account for the fact that the WHL plays a 72 game schedule while the other two leagues play 68 games) and calculated the average driving distance per road game per team:

	team	league	km	games	avg km/game
1	Cape Breton	QMJHL	29855	34	878.1
2	Prince George	WHL	29816	36	828.2
3	Rouyn-Noranda	QMJHL	27111	34	797.4
4	Brandon	WHL	28548	36	793.0
5	Kootenay	WHL	28124	36	781.2
6	Edmonton	WHL	26931	36	748.1
7	Spokane	WHL	26856	36	746.0
8	Prince Albert	WHL	26785	36	744.0
9	Halifax	QMJHL	24600	34	723.5
10	Swift Current	WHL	25757	36	715.5
11	Tri-City	WHL	25602	36	711.2
12	Portland	WHL	25451	36	707.0
13	Kamloops	WHL	25393	36	705.4
14	Val-d'Or	QMJHL	23813	34	700.4
15	P.E.I.	QMJHL	23719	34	697.6
16	Lethbridge	WHL	24957	36	693.3
17	Medicine Hat	WHL	24825	36	689.6
18	Red Deer	WHL	24465	36	679.6
19	Saskatoon	WHL	24441	36	678.9
20	Acadie-Bathurst	QMJHL	22825	34	671.3
21	Regina	WHL	24111	36	669.7
22	Lewiston	QMJHL	22288	34	655.5
23	Saint John	QMJHL	22214	34	653.4
24	Vancouver	WHL	23096	36	641.5
25	Calgary	WHL	22941	36	637.3
26	Gatineau	QMJHL	21572	34	634.5
27	Moncton	QMJHL	21309	34	626.7
28	Everett	WHL	22447	36	623.5
29	Moose Jaw	WHL	22425	36	622.9
30	Kelowna	WHL	22346	36	620.7
31	Shawinigan	QMJHL	21014	34	618.1
32	Québec	QMJHL	20933	34	615.7
33	Seattle	WHL	21913	36	608.7
34	Montréal	QMJHL	20478	34	602.3
35	Victoriaville	QMJHL	20334	34	598.1
36	Baie-Comeau	QMJHL	20070	34	590.3
37	Rimouski	QMJHL	20008	34	588.5
38	Drummondville	QMJHL	19982	34	587.7
39	Chicoutimi	QMJHL	19644	34	577.8
40	Sault Ste Marie	OHL	19491	34	573.3
41	Ottawa	OHL	18579	34	546.4
42	Chilliwack	WHL	19231	36	534.2
43	Sudbury	OHL	17302	34	508.9
44	Erie	OHL	17089	34	502.6
45	Saginaw	OHL	16370	34	481.5
46	Plymouth	OHL	16325	34	480.1
47	Windsor	OHL	16198	34	476.4
48	Sarnia	OHL	15672	34	460.9
49	Kingston	OHL	15614	34	459.2
50	Belleville	OHL	14923	34	438.9
51	Niagara	OHL	14486	34	426.1
52	London	OHL	14437	34	424.6
53	Kitchener	OHL	14281	34	420.0
54	Guelph	OHL	13961	34	410.6
55	Owen Sound	OHL	13947	34	410.2
56	Oshawa	OHL	13491	34	396.8
57	Barrie	OHL	13387	34	393.7
58	Peterborough	OHL	13214	34	388.6
59	Brampton	OHL	12503	34	367.7
60	Mississauga	OHL	11784	34	346.6

When you look at those numbers at the top of the list and you realize that the Cape Bretons and the Prince Georges of the league are driving more than 800 km on average to play each road game....I think it gives us fans another perspective on the level of dedication these players have to the game. These guys are averaging 8 or 9 hours - at least - of bus travel for every three hour road game they play. That's commitment.

Distance traveled: WHL vs OHL

After my post yesterday about the distance traveled by WHL teams each season, a reader suggested that I calculate the distance traveled by the OHL teams and compare it to the WHL. Something I haven't done before, and I thought it made for an interesting idea. So, here we are.

No past years to compare it to, but here's the 2010-11 OHL projected travel distances:

		km	miles
1	Sault Ste Marie	19491	12114
2	Ottawa	18579	11547
3	Sudbury	17302	10753
4	Erie	17089	10621
5	Saginaw	16370	10174
6	Plymouth	16325	10146
7	Windsor	16198	10067
8	Sarnia	15672	9740
9	Kingston	15614	9704
10	Belleville	14923	9275
11	Niagara	14486	9003
12	London	14437	8973
13	Kitchener	14281	8876
14	Guelph	13961	8677
15	Owen Sound	13947	8668
16	Oshawa	13491	8385
17	Barrie	13387	8320
18	Peterborough	13214	8213
19	Brampton	12503	7771
20	Mississauga	11784	7324

As you can see by comparing this chart to the WHL one below, OHL teams have it a LOT easier than the WHL teams do. Which should be no surprise really, given that the entire OHL is contained within one province (and mostly within one small chunk of that province too) and three U.S. cities which are all fairly close to the Ontario border.

We need to keep in mind that the OHL teams only play 68 games instead of the WHL's 72, so they have 2 less road games to travel to, which bumps their numbers down slightly when comparing. But even if you add 5% or so to the OHL totals to account for those missing 2 games, only one OHL team - Sault Ste Marie, the most "remote" outpost in the league, has a travel schedule which is worse than the cushiest the WHL has to offer. And the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors travel only 11,784 km this season.....in the WHL, we call that "a weekend".

This isn't intended to be a bash-the-OHL post though.....the travel is what it is. I'm just showing the degree of the disparity in what the leagues go through. If I have time, I'll even do the QMJHL in the next few days too. I suspect the "Q" is probably going to rank somewhere in between the WHL and OHL - their teams are more spread out than the OHL's but not quite as much as the WHL's.

Couple other things.....

 - WHL fans can be dismissive of the shorter driving distances in the OHL but we do need to consider that some of these "shorter" drives actually take longer than the mileage would suggest, due to highways in Southern Ontario being considerably busier than the TransCanada is going through Saskatchewan. It may only be a 150 km trip but if your bus is only averaging 50 km/h, that takes three hours.

 - I've never really analyzed an OHL schedule before, and I was very surprised to see that there are actually very few road trips of longer than 3 games, for any team. I guess this is a luxury afforded by shorter distances of travel, even for inter-conference games. A typical "long" OHL road trip appears to be a weekend 3-in-3 and even then the total distance traveled may be only slightly more than what the Prince George Cougars do for a Wednesday one-off trip to Kamloops and back.

 - Longest driving distance between two cities in the OHL is between Sault Ste Marie and Erie, which clocks in at 969 km. In the WHL, it's Brandon to Portland, which is 2444 km.

 - Shortest distance in the OHL is Brampton to Mississauga, which measures (try not to laugh) 6.4 km between the two arenas. After a bad game the visiting coach could make the players walk home and nobody would complain it was abuse. The shortest distance in the WHL is Regina to Moose Jaw, which comes in at 71 km, followed very closely by Everett to Seattle at 74 km.