Finally!!!!! Hockey has come back to WINN-IPEG!!!!

A great announcement from Manitoba as NHL Hockey in Winnipeg is back!!!!

The official announcement came down this morning and if you're Canadian Hockey fan I hope you watched it.

It's funny the ever resilient NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was late for the conference he said he was in a teleconference but I think he was crying with a powder blue Atlanta Thrashers Ilya Kovalchuk jersey admitting defeat finally the good people of Winnipeg and Canada for that matter have knocked him down a "PEG",

Now if we can get Phoenix to Quebec City we'd be in business. I wonder if Gary shows up for the season opener in the MTS Centre and doesn't get tarred and feathered it would be a sight.

Now my involvement with this I am planning unless under usual circumstances will be riding shotgun with Branden Crowe down the Trans Canada Highway to the MTS Centre for the NHL Season Opener in Winnipeg, Branden a Manitoban himself has been gitty as a school girl all day and actually woke me up this morning when he was making breakfast full of excitement got love the moxie on this kid.

All I have to say is thank-you True North Sports Entertainment for bringing a team back where it belongs and to Gary Bettman.... well you probably know I'll let the the Winnipeg faith answer this one. "Who's Your Daddy??

Will the Winnipeg franchise be the Jets? or something new we'll find out soon enough. Either way it's a great day for hockey!!!

Zach Johnson Commits to Minot State

One of the SJHL's nicest and toughest players this past season is heading south to continue his hockey career.

Former Mustangs Zach Johnson will be a member of the Minot State University Beavers this fall after committing to the club a couple of weeks ago.

 For the Beavers they've picked up a a great kid with an come to work attitude and brings a positive outlook into the dressing room and probably one of the hardest working players out there in Junior A.

There's many stories about this kid in the gym he's freak as far as I can see compared to my workouts.... speaking of which I really need to get back in there.

Without further adieu the newest member of the Minot State Beavers.

 Zach Johnson Interview by gdp74

Johnson or Johnny as he was known with the Mustangs had a short SJHL Career but the made the most of it, I wish you all the best Zach in the coming years with the Beavers, couldn't have happened to a better player and hey hopefully we'll talk to you again when the college season begins.

Here's Johnson's Stats from the past season

Regular Season

54 GP, 4 G, 6A, 10 PTS, 94 PIMS

Playoffs

8 GP, 1 G, 8 PIMS

Knock em out Champ!!!

On other notes could the NHL be in Winnipeg and Gary Bettman admits failure tomorrow??? There's a doings a foot in Winnipeg that may say it is. Check out Branden Crowe's blog he's got you covered.

www.bjcrowe.wordpress.com

SJHL Names New President

We now know who will be running the show for the SJHL at least for the next little while here's the media release from today's announcement.


The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is proud to announce the appointment of Bill Chow as the league’s new president.


The 52 year old Chow, who comes from Prince Albert, has worked with the Prince Albert Police Service for the past 29 years. He also has hockey experience having served as a scout in the Western Hockey League for the past 25 years, most recently with the Spokane Chiefs for 10 years.


“I am very excited at taking on this prestigious position,” Chow said. “The SJHL is a tremendous brand of hockey and it’s my intention to work with the 12 member teams to ensure that our League continues to be an innovator and the best junior “A” league in all of Canada. It will be a big year this season with two of our teams moving into brand new arenas and another team hosting the RBC Cup.”


SJHL board of governors chair Rick Shultz is pleased to have Chow on board.
“We had many great candidates apply for the job, but in the end, the board and myself felt Bill had the best vision for the league.” Shultz said. “He recognized the challenges the league has going into the future, and as a board, we believe he had the best ideas to resolve the problems we face. We also feel his time with the Prince Albert Police Service will make him more than capable to deal with our member teams and other hockey-related bodies across Canada and expand the reputation the SJHL currently holds.”


Chow has signed a three year contract and takes over immediately from outgoing president Laury Ryan, who announced his resignation from the position after eight years on the job earlier this year.


President Chow will be at the league meetings in Nipawin on June 2nd till the 4th should interesting to see what comes up.

Breaking Down the Depth Charts

Now the SJHL Season is a long way away, Schedule hasn't been made yet all I know is that there will be league meetings in Nipawin in June, apparent rumor has it that Estevan's new rink will host the showcase, hopefully I'll get to do that again it was a blast last year and we still don't know who the President will be!!!

So what will we talk about today? Depth Charts for all three of our SJHL Teams right now.

Humboldt Broncos

This is obviously going to be a good team with them hosting the RBC Cup and they've made the deals to make them contender to not be in the RBC not like Camrose did by not winning their league but still there.

Forwards

Marshall          Breitkreuz         Cholfi

Kindersley Pick    Zbitniff        Glowa

Gaspar            Johnson           Landry

Pisio               Szucki           Antkowiak


Defense

Backhouse    Roach

Sproule         Wharton

Hudema        Ballas


 Goalies

Matt Hrynkiw

???????

It's going to be tough to make this team and these are not lines by any means and this doesn't factor the Sudbury pick for Dean Brockman but it looks pretty good enough said.


Nipawin Hawks

Forwards


Duysk          Litchenwald        Paslawski

Waskewitch   Peeke                Johnson

Tash                 Reichert           Cole

Szerlip              Jean                Holland

Gourley            Zerr


Defense

Datoff       Clark

Jensen       S. Bollefer

E. Bollefer  Roden

Jorgensen

Goalies

Hoffman

Klein

Tough roster to crack as well it was easy though in January because the Hawks were walking wounded for the most part of 2011, With that Doug Johnson has a lot of list kids at his disposal will they push someone out could be an interesting camp for Nipawin and can they not get a sophomore slump from Big Eli. The D-core might need sometime to work together I like Jesse Roden and Jeff Datoff they could have big years on D and Jeff Clark could fly under the radar.

Melfort Mustangs

Forwards

Wihak         Trendyle        Mault

Bradshaw    Badura         Henry-Norton

Lenard       Belchamber    Vanblaircom

Legare       ?????             ???????


Defense

Kipling        M. Berg

C. Berg       Lange

Stephansson  Borstmeyer

Goalies

Ehnisz

Hudon

Switzer

This roster took some searching for, yes it's going to be a rebuilding year for the Mustangs and Gavin Holcomb, It was going to be a rebuilding year if they won the league, Can this team compete enough to get that survivor series spot? It's going to be tough. There's a lot of question marks with this depth chart, Will players like Belchamber, Vanblaircom, Lange, Switzer come out of Triple A this year?

Will Tyler Borstmeyer not make the Regina Pats? Can this team score with no Aschim or Mireau in the Line up? Can Kyle Trendyle and Spencer Mault break out? Is Adam Wihak healthy enough to have a good year all of these questions will be answered, one thing is for sure and that's Jesse Ehnisz, He had the best GAA in the league even though it didn't say he played enough games but he was a great goalie in January and February if Ehnisz has a good year this team has a chance to do something.

E-mail me at gino.depaoli@cjvr.com or Tweet me @gdp74

I'm Out

GDP

Trades, Trades and More Trades

It's been a while since I've been on here but a lot has happened since.

The Portage Terriers beat La Ronge to win the Anavet Cup, Pembrooke wins the RBC Cup, Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing and they haven't disappointed and finally my wise older sister tied the knot on April 30th it was a great wedding to be at and I'm not gonna lie I kind of shed a tear at the ceremony and of course we ate and ate and drank it was a great time and I guess the pressure is on me now being the last of my family without the ring on the finger ha!

Well onto Sports again things are starting to finalize for the Humboldt Broncos as they try to do what many host teams for RBC haven't in the past.... Win as the host venue Weyburn was the last host to win it, hmmm an SJHL team won it last as a host interesting.

Clarke Breitkreuz and Robbie Cholfi are now Humboldt Broncos from the Buzzeo/Boyer trade, that announcement was made earlier then Dean Brockman wanted to but I think Don Chesney wanted to get it out of the way so he could start building his team for the 2011-12 season.

Ryan Marshall of the Swan Valley Stampeders is now a Bronco to complete the Nick Keller trade as well he played with Breitkreuz at the World Junior A Challenge and recently the Broncos got Matthew Backhouse from the Dauphin Kings to complete the Riley Gillies deal.

Dean has a couple more trades to finalize before he's done or does anything else he has futures from Kindersley and Sudbury for the Spencer Braaten and Kenton Valliant deals. I have no idea what will come from Sudbury my network isn't that strong... Yet but from Kindersley it could be interesting the rumors say Taylor Duzan which would be a sick pick-up kind of a Logan Herauf type player but faster as Daniel Fink says he's a ninja on skates. Or will Andrew Herle of PA be cut and moved to Junior A he had 17 points last season so chances could be good.

There is one other option for the Broncos in that trade with the Klippers and take straight cash to buy a goaltender from somewhere because they need one Matt Hrynkiw will be the guy just not this year.

As for the Melfort Mustangs they completed the Brayden Metz and Cody Hanson deals and going the other way Jesse Mireau, Sean Aschim and Lee Christensen go with Levi Cable to Melville but as Jamie Fiesel said it was a 4 for 4 trade so Mustang fans chill this isn't a bad deal as Gavin Holcomb will have Lane Schiedl from the Regina Pats maybe depending what happens there and also Taylor Fauchoux who is a journeyman in the BCHL and AJHL so I'm thinking Taylor will play with the Mustangs this season.

As for the Nipawin Hawks they have completed the Brent Rememda and Jonathan Ceci trades as the Black and Gold get Justin Waskewitch from the Bruins, I love this deal Waskewitch as Doug Johnson said is a point per game guy, he plays with and edge and I think on the power play with two players with absolute bullets in Tyler Paslawski and now Waskewitch great pick-up.

Also getting one of Yorkton's top list guys in Alex Laird from the Swift Current Legionnaires, you know this kid will get some time up with the big club unless he plays as a 17 year, Hawks captain Tanner Dusyk did.

I'll have an interview with Lee Christensen up in a little bit.

Mustangs Name New President

I'm writing this in my hotel room in Saskatoon as I fly out to Calgary tomorrow for holidays and my sister's wedding. I'm also watching the Canucks get thumped by Chicago this playoff round hasn't disappointed. Family I'll be home soon.

As for the Mustangs the Coach watch continues, we may have a shortlist by late Monday and early Tuesday, This came down before the announcement of Estevan's new coach. 

Here's the release from the team.

"Effective today, the Melfort Mustangs Junior Hockey Association announces that Sean Isberg has been elected  president of the association by the Board of Directors.

The board would like to acknowledge the contribution of Barry Jung to the association.  Barry has dedicated 14 years of volunteering to the association, and announced earlier his intention to step down at the end of this season. Barry will remain a member of the board of directors till the annual meeting in June, 2011.

The decision to name a new president was made as the association is at a critical time of change.  Moving forward into the new season, the board will be hiring a new coach and replacing staff positions which were vacated.  As a result the board felt it a prudent move to have the new president in place to provide leadership and guidance through this period of transition.

“I am honoured to accept the position of President for the Association, and look forward to working with the board in building the franchise for the coming season’, stated Sean Isberg.  “Our focus as a board now will be on the hiring decisions and closing the books on the past season.  I encourage all members of the association to come to our annual meeting later in June for which we should be announcing a date shortly”, added Sean Isberg."

New Coach In Estevan

There's a new bench boss in Estevan and it's not a Larry Wintoneak or Darrell Mann.

Here's the release from the SJHL Website.

"The executive of the Estevan Bruins Junior A Hockey Club is proud to announce Keith Cassidy has been

hired as the team’s new head coach and general manager.

Keith comes to Estevan with a remarkable track record of success in his young coaching career. In five

seasons with both the Selkirk Steelers and Winnipeg Saints of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, Keith

guided his club to the league final on four occasions and captured the championship in 2007 with the

Steelers. That year the club also competed in the Royal Bank Cup after defeating the Humboldt Broncos in

a hard fought seven game ANAVET Cup series. Keith also cracked the 40 win plateau on three different

occasions and led his teams to first place in their division four times. He last coached in the 2009-2010

season when he took the Saints to the league final before taking a year off from coaching to tend to his

advertising specialty business in Winnipeg.

Bruins’ President Jeff Pierson says the executive is excited to add a coach of Keith’s calibre to the

organization. Pierson noted the club received over 40 applications but the executive felt that Keith’s prior

success as well as his reputation for player development and getting the most out of his teams made him a

perfect fit for the franchise as it prepares to make the move into Spectra Place next season.

“We received a lot of quality applications but as we went along in the process and got to know Keith it

became clear he embodied everything we were seeking in a head coach,” said Pierson. “We said from the

outset we were seeking someone with a proven track record of success and the ability to develop players

and, as anyone can see by looking at Keith’s record and the success he has had with young lineups, he fits

the bill on both counts. We also felt his business background made Keith well suited to take over the

general manager duties which is also an important aspect of the job.”

The Bruins organization would like to welcome Keith to the Energy City and is looking forward to him

taking over both the head coach and GM roles in the very near future. An introductory press conference

will be held upon Keith’s arrival in Estevan. Further details will be provided when available."

Coaching Record GP W L T OTL PTS Standing

04 – 05 Selkirk Steelers 63 34 23 4 2 74 1st Division

05 – 06 Manitoba Bison (CIS) 28 12 13 3 0 27 2nd Division

06 – 07 Selkirk Steelers 63 49 9 4 1 103 1st League

07 – 08 Selkirk Steelers 62 44 12 0 6 94 1st League

08 – 09 Selkirk Steelers 62 45 17 0 0 90 2nd League

09 – 10 Winnipeg Saints 62 36 19 0 7 79 1st Division