Rockets' alumni game

As junior-hockey alumni games go, the Kelowna Rockets’ annual gathering was as good as it gets. Until next year, that is.

A standing-room only crowd of more than 1,000 bodies took in what was a star-studded affair, with several NHLers taking part in the non-contact, high-paced contest. Former Rockets now playing in the NHL who hit the ice on Sunday afternoon included Shea Weber (Nashville), Tyler Myers (Buffalo), Josh Gorges (Montreal), Luke Schenn (Toronto), Cody Almond (Minnesota), Jamie Benn (Dallas), Vern Fiddler (Phoenix), Troy Bodie (Anaheim) and Blake Comeau (New York Islanders).

Absent was Duncan Keith (Chicago), who had a busy weekend in his nearby hometown of Penticton, while several other former Rockets may have shots at landing jobs in the NHL this coming season, including smooth-skating 6-foot-6 defenceman Nolan Yonkman with Phoenix. Yonkman played five seasons in the WHL — four-and-a-half with Kelowna and a half-season with Brandon — before spending time shuttling between the Washington Capitals and their AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates. For the past four seasons, Yonkman has been playing in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals.

At alumni game’s end, Team Black, also known as Gav’s Gunners (head coach, Gavin Hamilton) beat Team White, aka Steamer’s Stallions (head coach, Neil ‘Steamer’ Schmidt). Final score: 9-5, with  proceeds going to the Kelowna General Hospital. Winning goalie: Kris Westblom. Taking the loss: Former 2004 Memorial Cup MVP Kelly Guard.

Photos, from top:

Team White forward Brandon McMillan, centre, looks for a centering pass while Team Black defenceman Clayton Barthel, right, tries to defend as the pair close in on goalie Kris Westblom.

Team Black forward Tyler Mosienko, left, and Team White defenceman Josh Gorges.

Team White goaltender Kelly Guard.

Team Black defenceman Tyler Myers.

Comeau called the annual gathering a lot of fun. As usual.

“It was pretty fast paced at the beginning, but I think the boys slowed down at the end,” he said with a laugh. “But, hey, it’s always fun to see old friends and it’s kinda cool the friendships we’ve all gained from playing here. So it’s fun to see everybody again.

“The alumni game is awesome. I can’t believe how many guys who played with the Rockets are now in the NHL, and there’s still a lot of young prospects. It’s a fun thing to be a part of, and I’m proud to say that I played here and I’m proud to say that I know all these guys as well as I do. It’s a lot of fun to be here in the summer time.

“One of the guys said we’d have a pretty good squad in the NHL if we took all the guys that lived and played here in Kelowna and put them together. It’s a big tribute to (president and general manager Bruce Hamilton) and Gavin and the franchise to the great job they’ve done. It’s fun to be a part of.”

One of Comeau’s teammates was Myers, who, like his NHL comrade, was sporting a big smile after the game — his first alumni contest. Mind you, the 6-foot-7 blue-liner has been wearing a permanent grin since making the jump from the WHL to the NHL and Buffalo’s roster last fall.

“The alumni game was a lot of fun,” said Myers, who now makes Kelowna his off-season home. “It was nice to get the win, but to get all the guys together again is pretty cool. It’s nice to have a lot of fun with everybody together.

“It was really amazing to see to see how many guys from this organization that have not only made it (to the NHL), but they want to come back to this city and this organization. I think it shows a great deal about the way things are run here.”

Of course, one can’t talk to Myers without bringing up his incredible season, a campaign where the rookie not only proved to be Buffalo’s best defenceman despite his young age, but also wound up being the NHL’s rookie of the year. Myers was one of four rookies to play all 82 games, and he also finished first amongst rookies with 137 blocked shots and was third in points with 48.

“It’s been a whirlwind for sure,” said Myers. “I really don’t even think I’ve processed it yet, to be honest. Maybe when next season starts, things will settle down and I’ll be able to think about it. But I’m looking to my sophomore year and it’s going to get tougher from here on out, so I’m going to have to work that much harder.”

One player who worked hard in earning a spot in the NHL was Almond. The 6-foot-1 forward started the season in the AHL with the Houston Aeros, where he logged seven goals and 18 points in 48 games, then spent the last part of the season in the big league with the Minnesota Wild (1 goal, 0 assists in 7 games).

“It was an interesting year, but it’s been a lot of fun,” said Almond, who wore green Wild gear for the alumni game but had an Aeros equipment bag. “I had a tough start to the season, with a few injuries — which was odd because I’ve been pretty injury-free my whole life. So it was some bad luck, but I worked hard and I think it was a character year for me, and then I got the call to go up.

“I got to stick with Minnesota for the end of the year, so I think it was a good experience. I learned a lot and it gave me a lot of confidence for next year.”

On playing in the NHL, Almond said “it was a dream come true. Every game’s a blast to play in . . . the environment, the travel, the lifestyle, it’s really something else. It’s a lot of fun.”

On the alumni game, Almond said “it’s always a lot of fun. You start with the golf tournament, which brings a lot of the guys back into town, so it’s nice to see everybody again.”

Rockets alumni weekend

The Kelowna Rockets will be holding their 10th annual alumni gathering this week, with their usual golf tournament and charity hockey game.

The golf tournament, to take place at The Harvest Golf Club, will run Thursday, with a 1 p.m. shotgun start, while the hockey game takes place at the Mission Sports Complex at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Doors for the ninth-annual hockey game (the first alumni weekend was a golf tournament only) will open one hour earlier. Tickets, $10 for adults and $5 for kids plus HST, can be purchased at all Scotiabank branches in Kelowna and at Mission Sports Complex.

In the gathering's 10-year history, more than $100,000 has been donated to the Kelowna General Hospital. Proceeds from this year's weekend will go to the orthopedic ward of KGH. The Rockets have pledged to raise $200,000 over the next five years to the orthopedic ward.

In all, 34 alumni will take part, including NHLers Duncan Keith, Shea Weber, Tyler Myers, Josh Gorges, Vern Fiddler, Jamie Benn, Blake Comeau, Luke Schenn, Scott Hannan and Cody Almond plus Kelly Guard, Kris Mallette, Brett Palin, Kristofer Westblom, Cam Paddock, Tyler Mosienko, Tyler Spurgeon and Justin Keller.

Seattle Thunderbirds

By Doyle Potenteau

After a season with few victories, 2010-11 promises to be a much different campaign for the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Russ Farwell, however, isn’t holding his breath when it comes to promises. Having been there, done that, Seattle’s general manager knows only one thing can propel a team to success: Hard work.

““We’ll have to gel, and it’ll depend on what we do, but I think we’ll take a step forward,” said Farwell, whose Thunderbirds closed out 2009-10 with a losing record of 19-41-75, good for just 50 points, the fourth lowest in the 22-team league.

Seattle’s dip was somewhat expected, though. In junior hockey, a team can only string together so many winning seasons before being forced to rebuild. In Seattle’s case, the T-Birds were coming off five consecutive seasons with wins ranging from 35 to 43. For 2009-10, the T-Birds bit the rebuild bullet, and, now, will have a more experienced team for the next two to three seasons.

Last season, the team’s season-long roster featured 31 players, including the traditional three 20-year-olds plus only one 19-year-old. The bulk of Seattle’s roster was in its 16- and 17-year-olds, with 10 players born in 1992 and eight in ’93. The T-Birds also had eight 18-year-olds (1991), who will now be in their 19-year-old seasons.

All in all, a young team that’s getting older.

“We played a lot of those kids so much (in the season),” said Farwell. “We’re one of those teams that for us to be significantly better, it’s not a miracle but it’s a matter of everyone having had a good summer, having added that needed strength and maturity.

“In reality, though, everybody doesn’t (have a good summer) all the time. You hope they do, but you’re always surprised . . . some guys overdo what you expect and some don’t. So we need to wait and see what we have, but I like our incoming kids.

“We know (1994-born right-winger Branden) Troock played well for us when he was here, and he’s a good prospect. We also have a couple of other kids and we’re not going to carry as many 16-year-olds as last season, but, of the two I project playing, I think they’re both capable of playing. So we’re going to be an older team, but we’re not going to be old by any stretch of the imagination.

“We think we’re going to take a step and who knows? But I know this: We’re going to improve our size, so we’ll be harder to play against, too. There’s a lot of things that we’re optimistic about, but time will tell. We were out of the playoffs and now we have something to prove.”

Looking back at WHL history, for the league’s first 30 years, there was always a gap between the elite and the rest. During the past decade, though, thanks to improved coaching and digital help in breaking down the game to infinite detail, that gap has noticeably shrunk. With that in mind, success is now determined by little things, like having healthy summers.

Then again, there’s always a wildcard scenario, such as the Portland Winterhawks, who were terrible for so long and wound up stockpiling good bantam draft picks. Today, after putting a stop to three horrific seasons (2006-07, 17 wins; 2007-08, 11 wins, 2008-09, 19 wins; 2009-10, 44 wins), pundits are predicting Portland to be the Western Conference’s top team. For the most part, though, it’s little things and hard work that’ll determine how well a team does.

“It’s hard to predict,” said Farwell. “Momentum helps and getting a good team and playing well causes that separation, but you can’t do it on depth charts and talent. It’s not easy to predict because everyone’s the same.

“Portland is a step different because they have so many drafted guys and so much depth in every spot that they are clearly the predicted team. But for everyone else, it just depends.”

As for relocating to the ShoWare Centre in Kent, Wash., from downtown Seattle and KeyArena, Farwell said it’s been a boon. At the Key, the Thunderbirds were relegated second-citizen status behind the now relocated Seattle SuperSonics. All in all, the Key is a nice building, but intentionally not suited for hockey at all. More on the Key’s hockey aspects here and here.

“It’s been real good,” he said. “We love our setup, we love our situation, we love the relationship we have with the city and our building. We had a dip on the ice last season, but we thought our attendance held up real well and we’d like to make a significant step forward. I think the city has embraced us, but we’re still kind of a new product here and we need some success to get a real following.

“In an ideal world, we’d get that situation where we lined up with Everett in the playoffs. We’ve never, ever played Everett in a playoff game. In all the years, since Everett joined the league in 2003, Seattle and Everett have never played a playoff game, and that’s what build rivalries. We need a playoff series and we need a rivalry.

“There are places to improve, but we’re pretty happy with our situation because we have a lease that gives us a competitive chance. We have a facility and set-up that puts us on a par with everyone else, and now it’s a matter of running the team properly, which we’re happy to do, because for so long we were fighting to survive.

“It was a fight all the time to keep our team alive. So we went with those young guys and played them last year because, at some time, you have to retool, and that’s what we did. You asked me how is it in Kent? And we like our situation.”

Seattle is also pretty happy with goaltender Calvin Pickard. The 6-foot-1 ’keeper from Winnipeg, Man., finished the season with the league’s sixth-best save percentage at .914. Notably, of the WHL’s top-20 goalies, Pickard logged more minutes than anybody (3,688) while also facing the most amount of shots (2,207). He also had a goals-against average of 3.09. Second in minutes and shots was James Reid of the Spokane Chiefs (3,514 minutes; 1,76 shots; .920 save percentage, 2.41 GAA).

Heading into the NHL’s 2010 entry draft, Pickard was pegged as North America’s top goalie, but wound up being the No. 3 goalie taken, having been selected in the second round, 49th overall to the Colorado Avalanche. The top goalie selected was Jack Campbell of the U.S. National Development Team, at 11th overall to the Dallas Stars. Everett netminder Kent Simpson was the fourth (second round, 58th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks).

Seattle selected Pickard in the second round of the WHL’s 2007 bantam draft, taking him 38th overall. The T-Birds’ first pick, at 16th, was defenceman Erik Fleming.

“Our scouts really ranked him high and we had him ranked as the best goalie,” Farwell said of Pickard. “I think he was the second or third goalie taken in the draft, but we had him high on our list. He then had a good camp for us as a 15-year-old that we just started counting on him. I don’t think he gave up a goal in camp.

“So he’s done everything we hoped he would. He’s such a solid, solid kid and he definitely is the cornerstone of our team. We can’t see him get the same number of shots again this year, so we have to improve in that category and we will. But he’s such a solid guy that even if he gives up a goal, he’s going to get back on his horse and be there again.

“As long as our team competes, we’re going to have a chance.”

Golfing season

Living and working in Kelowna, as in any other North American city, has its advantages and disadvantages.

One advantage are the constantly hot summers, a large lake and a plethora of golf courses in and around the Okanagan Valley. With those three items being in the foreground, it's little wonder then why so many professional hockey players live in Kelowna during the off-season. Though there's no official count, the NHLers who live here estimate the pro crowd at 40-plus.

Among them: Former Kelowna Rockets Chuck Kobasew, Shea Weber, Josh Gorges, born and raised in Kelowna, and Blake Comeau amongst the many plus NHL stars Jarome Iginla and Dany Heatley to name a few.

And that brings us to a massive golf gathering today and Tuesday, the annual Sandman/Harvest Celebrity Golf Classic at The Harvest Golf Club. The field will feature 36 teams of five-player groups, with most, but not all groups, featuring an NHL player. Monies raised go towards  medically, emotionally, physically and financially disadvantaged children living in the Okanagan Valley.  Last year, the two-day event raised $164,200.

The annual event was started in 1996 by former NHLer and Vancouver Canuck Greg Adams, Since then, Kobasew has taken over as the main celebrity component. He isn't, however, the only big-name draw at the fund-raiser. This year's tournament includes the following mix of NHL and WHL: 

Shane Doan, Iginla, Tyler Myers, Weber, Jordin Tootoo, Adams, Johnny Boychuk, Andrew Ference, Cody Franson, Scottie Upshell, Ken Hitchcock, Brett McLean, Brett Festerling, Vern Fiddler, Brent Gilchrist, Comeau, Wade Redden, Dixon Ward, Bruce Hamilton and Scott Bonner.

In the summer of 2007, one family who benefitted from the Classic’s cause was Suhayl and Melissa Sayeed, a West Kelowna couple who needed financial help when their son, Rome, was born with a heart defect in June, 2006. Eventually, Rome needed an organ transplant.

The working couple said they put their lives on hold until Rome received a heart transplant in Edmonton six months later.

“I had to take a leave of absence from work,” Suhayl, then 27, said at the time. “There really wasn’t a set time where we could say we’d be back at work because waiting for a heart transplant, you have to wait for a donor.

“The stress, the waiting, it was pretty tough. First, we had to get over the initial shock of something’s wrong with the baby. Two, then we had to figure out what needs to happen. Three, then reality checks in with the mortgage and bills having to be paid. The (Golf Classic) definitely helped us through the financial stress, and I know they’re helping other families.”

For more on the golf tournament, click here.

Tomorrow, an interview with Seattle Thunderbirds general manager Russ Farwell.

Kootenay Ice: Small-market success

It’s hard to argue against success. And yet, it seems Jeff Chynoweth is never satisfied with status quo.

Over the last decade, the Kootenay Ice, guided by Chynoweth, the team’s president and general manager, have become one of the WHL’s success stories, posting winning season after winning season. That success, however, is somewhat muted because the Ice are located in one of the league’s two smallest markets — Cranbrook B.C., population 20,000. With limited media resources, stories naturally don’t massively flow out of the East Kootenays like they do in other bigger markets.

Make no mistake, though: Kootenay is a winning franchise, and, to boot, they have pretty nice uniforms as well. Since 2000-01, the Ice have averaged 41.2 wins a season. Automatically, that’s 84 points, which translates into not just a playoff spot, but a solid one, one that earns early home-ice advantage.

For comparison, the rival Calgary Hitmen have averaged 40.9 wins a season, and that stat was helped by an incredible 59-win season in 2008-09 and a 52-win campaign in 2009-10. Out west, the Kelowna Rockets have averaged 39.9 wins a season over that same stretch, while the Vancouver Giants are at 38.3 heading into their 10th season.

Kootenay’s record since 2000:

2000-01: 45-17-4-6, 100 pts., 2nd in Central Division

2001-02: 38-27-7-0, 83 pts., 2nd in B.C. Division

2002-03: 36-25-6-5, 83 pts., 3rd in B.C. Division

2003-04: 32-30-7-3, 74 pts., 4th in B.C. Division

2004-05: 47-15-7-3, 104 pts., 1st in B.C. Division

2005-06: 45-23-1-3, 94 pts., 3rd in B.C. Division

2006-07: 49-17-3-3, 104 pts., 2nd in Central Division

2007-08: 42-22-5-3, 92 pts., 4th in Central Division

2008-09: 35-29-2-6, 78 pts., 3rd in Central Division

2009-10: 43-24-3-2, 91 pts., 2nd in Central Division

But what his teams have done in the past is water under the bridge for the highly competitive Chynoweth. All that matters is what’s ahead, and, from early judging, the Ice look headed for another 40-plus win season. Why, some WHL media pundits are predicting Kootenay, with 19 players eligible to return, along with the Moose Jaw Warriors, to be one of the Eastern Conference’s front-runners this season.

So, on Monday, DubNation contacted Chynoweth about how he views the upcoming 2010-11 season.

“We have potential, and when I say that, when you return the sheer number of players, you hope you have potential,” said Chynoweth. “But, as I said two years ago, when we made the playoffs as the second-youngest team in the league at that time, we need players to continue with their incline and improvement and maturation level, and, hopefully, they can continue to get better.

“We’ve got holes, just like any other team does, but, potentially, we have some pretty good players who should have some pretty good years.”

One of those holes is a head coach. In late May, former bench boss Mark Holick left the Ice to become head coach of the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Syracuse is the Anaheim Ducks’ top farm team.

“It’s a pro job,” Holick told the Kootenay News-Advertiser after spending three winning seasons with the Ice (.604 winning percentage). “It’s a great move career-wise for myself and my family. It gives me the chance to work with an NHL club.”

Chynoweth said he hasn’t hired anyone yet and he’s still in the process of rifling through resumes, though he expects a decision to be made by early August.

Regardless of when Kootenay hires a new coach, said person will be under automatic pressure to win. When it comes to the Eastern Conference this coming season, pundits are predicting a shakeup, with the top three teams from last season (Calgary, 107 pts.; Brandon, 104 pts.; Saskatoon, 99 pts.) being shuffled to mid-pack.

“Well, you say that (Calgary will get reshuffled) every year, and every year, (Calgary) continually produces,” said Chynoweth. “I think that Calgary is pretty special with the success they’ve had since (GM) Kelly Kisio took over. I don’t know . . . Brandon will be strong, depending on what happens if they get (Brayden) Schenn and (Scott) Glennie back (from the NHL).

“Everybody’s in first place now, everybody likes their team. A month into the season, they’ll be people not hitting the panic button, but wondering ‘Geez, how can we make our team better?’ We’re no different. We’ve got question marks in goal. We have four 20-year-olds, and if we end up keeping the three 20-year-old forwards to go with (19-year-old goaltender) Nathan Lieuwen as our No. 1 guy, well, Nathan has to prove himself as the No. 1 guy.

“On the flip side, if we keep (20-year-old goalie) Todd Matthews as our No. 1, we’re going to have to move a forward or we’re going to need more offensive scoring.”

Looking further ahead, it’s only a matter of time before the Ice get stung by the NHL draft.

Following the NHL’s lockout season of 2005 and the implementation of a salary cap, NHL teams have increasingly added 18-year-old players to their rosters. Case in point would be Luke Schenn, who was selected fifth overall in June of 2008 by Toronto, then wound up making the Maple Leafs’ roster that fall. This past June, the Portland Winterhawks had two players taken in the top five, forwards Ryan Johansen at fourth overall (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Nino Niederreiter at fifth overall (New York Islanders). Whether those two play another WHL game is anyone’s guess.

“Well, I’ve only had one player, goaltender Dan Blackburn, not come back, and it was a huge void, but it worked out pretty well,” said Chynoweth. In 2001, Blackburn was taken 10th overall by the New York Rangers, and made the NHL that fall. That season, the Ice went on to win the Memorial Cup without their No. 1 goalie.

“But we had to go make a trade for B.J. Boxma and the Kelowna Rockets have gone through it with (losing) two premiere defencemen. I mean premiere guys, and there’s not enough of those guys around. It’s great that we want to develop players, but boy-oh-boy, it sure is a big void as the trickle-down effect goes.”

ICE CHIPS: The Ice had three players selected in June’s NHL draft: C Max Reinhart (Calgary Flames, third round, 64th overall), D Joey Leach (Calgary Flames, third round, 73rd overall) and Drew Czerwonka (Edmonton Oilers, sixth round, 166th overall) plus a prospect who played tier two last season, Brendan O’Donnell (Tampa Bay Lightning, sixth round, 156th overall).

Tigers bid adieu to Desjardins

WHL press release: Tigers’ head coach heading to NHL’s Dallas Stars

July 13, 2010 

Medicine Hat, Alta. — The Medicine Hat Tigers announced today that Willie Desjardins will join the coaching staff of the NHL’s Dallas Stars as an associate coach to Marc Crawford.

“Our entire organization is very happy for Will,” said Tigers’ president and governor Darrell Maser. “No one is more deserving of this opportunity than Willie. It speaks to the quality of coach and person he is to make the transition directly form major junior hockey to the NHL.

“Dallas has made an excellent choice for their organization.”

During his eight seasons with the Tigers, Desjardins lead the club to two Memorial Cup appearances (2004, ’07). The Tigers also captured four consecutive Eastern Conference titles, from 2003-04 to 2006-07, while under Desjardin’s tutelage. For his efforts, Desjardins was named the WHL and CHL Coach of the Year in 2005-06.

“He has been the cornerstone of this franchise for eight years and certainly is the best coach this organization has seen,” said Maser.

Desjardins appeared behind the Tigers’ bench in 559 games, posting a record of 323-176-60 for a .631 winning percentage. He leads all former Tigers coaches in games and wins while being the longest serving coach in franchise history.

The 53-year-old native of Climax, Sask., served as head coach for the Canadian national junior team at the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championship, and as an assistant coach to Pat Quinn the previous year. He also was named as a coach for the Subway Super Series — an all-star series vs. Russian Selects — for the past three seasons. He was an assistant coach in 2007 and head coach in 2008 and ’09.

“At this time, we would like to thank Willie and his family for all they have done, not only for this franchise but also for the community of Medicine Hat. It has been an honour to have had the opportunity to work with Willie,” said Maser.

Said Desjardins: “Not many people in their lifetime get the experience I had while in Medicine Hat. It was from the city. I don’t feel this was just another city to play hockey. It is the city to play hockey. I had such exceptional player to work with. They were a big impact on me. It was all about character and what they wanted to accomplish.

“Then you go to our staff and the people I got to work with everyday. The coaches, Shaun and Krugs, J.F., Scottie, Mikki and Sticks made it was such a great environment to come to the rink. The guys was committed to winning and committed to working as a team. It made the situation unique.

“Then you come to the ownership of the Tigers, which is outstanding. You won’t find better ownership in the league. Darrell and Brent understand the game real well and are really committed to winning. I had other opportunities to leave in the past, and they were the reason I stayed because this was such a good place to work. If I didn’t enjoy working here it would have been easy to leave. Winning begins at the top and they were the ones that got it going and I was just part of it.”

Truitt off to AHL

WHL press release: Warriors' Jeff Truitt heading to AHL

July 13, 2010

Moose Jaw, Sask. — Moose Jaw Warriors director of hockey operations Jeff Truitt has signed on as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League, the affiliate team for the Phoenix Coyotes. 

Truitt joined the Warriors last spring, hired as the first director of hockey operations. Truitt has been involved in the WHL for eight years. Three of those years, Jeff was the Head Coach of the Kelowna Rockets. Prior to his time in Kelowna, Jeff spent two years in Lethbridge. Truitt also coached in the AHL with the Springfield Falcons. 

“Phoenix got in touch with me and after a weekend of talk, the opportunity that was given to me was something I could not pass up,” said Truitt. “This was not a move I was planning, yet when an opportunity like this presents itself you have to pursue it,” added Truitt. “I have very mixed emotions about leaving the Warriors, I feel I helped move this organization in the right direction and pushed it to a higher level,” commented Truitt. “In this league things happen very fast, every individual hopes to reach the highest level and this position will allow me to move in that direction,” added Jeff. 

Truitt will remain with the Warriors until the end of the month, at which time the Warriors will begin the process of looking for the next director of hockey operations. Warriors president Chad Taylor says Jeff will be missed by the Warriors organization.

“We congratulate Jeff on his new position in the AHL and wish him the best in his future hockey endeavours,” said Taylor. “We will be looking at suitable candidates immediately and are confident we will promptly find a replacement.”

Summer holidays

It must be summer.

How can we at DubNation tell, apart from the obvious weather signals, such as hot temperatures and crowded beaches? From the large number of WHL general managers who are on vacation.

In time-honoured tradition, July is the month GMs and coaches take a break from the almost year-long grind that is junior hockey, with the result being a slow news month. But when they eventually do return from vacation, not only will they be facing full voicemail and e-mail inboxes, but also a plethora of questions from the media concerning their respective teams. Questions like:

After the team had eight players selected at the NHL’s 2010 Entry Draft in June, how much pressure will the Portland Winterhawks be facing this season, not to just win, but to field a contender?

Are the rumours true concerning Scott Bonner possibly leaving the Vancouver Giants for a job with the Edmonton Oilers and Willie Desjardins of the Medicine Hat Tigers for the Dallas Stars?

With a very good goalie in Calvin Pickard and a young, hard-working guys, just how good will the Seattle Thunderbirds be this season? With Tri-City and Spokane expected to take roster hits, is second place in U.S. Division standings?

Out east, the Moose Jaw Warriors should return a pretty good lineup, though the loss of centre Jason Bast to graduation will hurt. How good will the Warriors be? Enough to challenge for first place overall in what should be a wide-open Eastern Conference?

Tomorrow, an interview with Kootenay Ice general manager Jeff Chynoweth, who has, for the past decade, assembled what can only be called a winning franchise.

NHL draft after-glow

More than a week has passed since the NHL's 2010 Entry Draft in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 25-26, but the Portland Winterhawks are still celebrating what was a wild and successful weekend.

While Taylor Hall garnered the lion's share of glory for having being selected first overall by the Edmonton Oilers, the real success story from the weekend belonged to Portland, with no less than eight Winterhawks having been drafted. Yes, eight. Not three, not five or even seven, but eight. That's a lot.

And for the record, the record for most players selected from one WHL team at one draft is 10, with the honour going to the Brandon Wheat Kings in 1979. That year, 10 players were selected from Brandon's roster through six rounds, a record that'll surely never be matched again.

Courtesy of HockeyDB, here is that draft. Looking back, especially at the first-round selections, that year produced a bumper crop of players.

Second on the list are the Kamloops Blazers in 1994, having had nine players selected in one draft. Then there's a logjam for third place with eight players selected. No less than four teams have had eight players selected: Saskatoon (1973), Regina (1974, '83), Seattle ('97) and, the big winner, Portland ('78, '80, '82, 2010).

Kudos to Rob Vanstone of The Regina Leader-Post for compiling the above statistics.

But back to the future, and here are the eight Winterhawks who were selected:

First Round: 4th overall, C Ryan Johansen, Columbus; 5th, LW Nino Niederreiter, New York Islanders.
Second Round: 43. LW Brad Ross, Toronto.
Third Round: 78. D Taylor Aronson, Nashville.
Fifth Round: 137. D Troy Rutkowski, Colorado; 139. RW Luke Walker, Colorado.
Seventh Round: 191. G Mac Carruth, Chicago; 208. LW Riley Boychuk, Buffalo.

Here is a story by The Columbian, here is another by Oregon Live, while here and here are two releases done by the Winterhawks.

In turn, this got DubNation to thinking that it'd be nice to hear what GM Mike Johnstone thinks of his team's draft success. So we're going to try to get in touch with him and do just that. In addition, this got us to thinking 'Why don't we do this on a regular basis?' So, once a week, we'll get in touch with a WHL general manager for some questions and answers.

Enjoying the sunshine

Cougars' draft pick

Well, after a week off to enjoy some sunshine, the national holiday and family time, it's back to work for us here at DubNation.

This being summer, hockey news has slowed to a trickle. Still, reporters at newspapers around the league are bringing us articles on a regular basis.

In Prince George, for example, Jason Peters of The Citizen wrote about the Cougars' first-overall pick in the Canadian Hockey League draft in late June, that being 18-year-old defenceman Martin Marincin. At the NHL's 2010 entry draft, Marincin was selected in the second round, 46th overall, by the Los Angeles Kings. Marincin weighs in at 6-foot-4 and 1 87 pounds, played for Slovakia at the 2010 world junior championship and also represented his country at the recent Under-18 worlds in Belarus.

“I like that he kind of fits into our age group, I like that he’s big, I like that he skates well, I like that he can move the puck and he’s a high pick so he brings some credibility with him,” Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson told Peters.

Marincin does have offensive skills but he may make his biggest contributions inside his own blue-line. Last Western Hockey League season, the Cats gave up the most goals in the league by far (327) so the extra help he’ll offer will certainly be welcome.

“I think he’s more of a shutdown guy right now but I think the offensive upside is certainly there,” Thompson said. “It’s going to take him a little while to adjust, but with where he’s at in the international experience that he’s had, I think he’s going to be one of our top guys.

“We look forward to having him and I think he’s going to eat up a lot of minutes for us.”

Uniforms

A sports fan can't help but also fall in love or hate their team's uniforms, or those of the opposition.

Below are two links to uniforms. One is a story by ESPN, the other is a link to a website called Uni Watch. 

Now, remember: Get out there and enjoy the sunshine! Winter will be here soon enough.