F Juraj BezĂșch (Lethbridge, 2011-12) has signed a one-year contract with KoĆĄice (Slovakia, Extraliga). This season, with Hradec KrĂĄlove (Czech Republic, Extraliga), he had three goals and four assists in 30 games. On loan to Slavia Prague (Czech Republic, 1. Liga), he had two goals and two assists in three games, and on loan to Dukla Jihlava (Czech Republic, 1. Liga), he had one goal and two assists in seven games. . . .
F Curtis Valk (Medicine Hat, 2009-14) has signed a two-year contract extension with Barys Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan, KHL). This season, he had nine goals and 18 assists in 50 games. He averaged 19:17 time on ice, the most of all forwards on the team. . . .
G Juha Metsola (Lethbridge, 2007-09) has signed a three-year contract extension with Salavat Yulaev Ufa (Russia, KHL). This season, in 48 games, he was 25-20-1, 2.02, .934, with four shutouts and one assist. He was the KHLâs goaltender of the month for October and April. He also was the KHL’s goaltender of the week in during the quarterfinals and semifinals. . . .
F Chris Collins (Chilliwack, Saskatoon, 2007-12) has signed a one-year contract with Villach (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). This season, with the Kalamazoo Wings (ECHL), he had 28 goals and 37 assists in 60 games. He led the Wings in goals and points. On loan to the Manitoba Moose (AHL), he had two goals in nine games. . . . Collins was named the ECHLâs rookie of the year and to the ECHLâs all-rookie team. . . .
D Neil Manning (Vancouver, 2006-12) has signed a one-year contract with Angers (France, Ligue Magnus). This season, with the Rockford Ice Hogs (AHL), he was pointless in three games. He had two goals and 15 assists in 30 games with the Indy Fuel (ECHL), and seven assists in 13 games with the Kassel Huskies (Germany, DEL2). . . . Angersâ head coach is Brennan Sonne (Everett, Red Deer, Edmonton, 2005-08), who will be entering his third season as head coach after three years as an assistant coach with Everett. . . .
F Marcin Kolusz (Vancouver, 2003-04) has signed a one-year contract extension with Podhale Nowy Targ (Poland, PHL). He had three goals and 13 assists in 16 games. . . .
F Alexander Kuvayev (Lethbridge, Vancouver, 2010-12) has signed a one-year contract with Buran Voronezh (Russia, Vysshaya Liga). This season, with Yermak Angarsk (Russia, Vysshaya Liga), he had one goal and one assist in eight games; two goals and two assists in 17 games with Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan, Vysshaya Liga); and no points in three games with Lada Togliatti (Russia, Vysshaya Liga).
Jeff Pearlman is a prominent writer who has produced some terrific football- and baseball-based books. His most-recent work, Football for a Buck, was subtitled The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL. In a word, it is awesome. If you have ever wondered about the role a guy named Donald Trump played in the death of the USFL, well, Pearlmanâs book has it all.
But the best thing Pearlman has ever written appeared Wednesday on his blog and carried this headline: My wife donated one of her kidneys to a stranger this morning.
If you have ever wondered what a personâs thought process is as they begin to think about being a kidney donor, or if you have ever wondered what someone goes through along the way to being a donor, you will want to read this.
Heck, even if you have never wondered about either of those things take the time to give this a read.
In the end, itâs about life and the gift of life.
The story is right here.
If you were wondering why Rogers Sportsnet, which owns the television rights to all CHL games, didnât show any games in the WHL final, it seems you arenât alone.
Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants, isnât at all enamoured with 
Sportsnet, either.
The Giants just finished playing in the WHL final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup. They took the Prince Albert Raiders to Game 7 before dropping a 3-2 OT decision in the Saskatchewan city on Monday night.
However, Sportsnet, which holds the rights through the 2025-26 season, didnât televise any games in the final. In fact, Sportsnet didnât show any games after bringing us the first three games of a second-round series between the Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.
On Tuesday, Toigo appeared with Donnie and The Moj on TSN 1040 Radio in Vancouver.
âIt was terrible. Absolutely terrible,â Toigo said of Game 7 not being televised. âSportsnet . . . itâs a terrible deal for the league. We should have gone with TSN.â
At the time Sportsnet landed the CHL rights, it also cut a long-term deal for the NHL rights.
â(Sportsnet) had all that NHL content . . . the capacity to promote our games wasnât there,â Toigo continued. âWe should have realized that.
âTSN didnât have any NHL content. What theyâve done with the World Juniors, they would have just folded us into that kind of presentation. It would have been a better way to go.
âBut it is what it is.â
As for Game 7, Toigo said: âThe ratings for Sportsnet to have this game in a market this size would have been off the charts. I donât know whoâs making those decisions but they certainly arenât very good.â
Bruce Hamilton, the owner of the Kelowna Rockets and the chairman of the WHLâs board of governors, wasnât nearly as critical.
âThey make their decisions,â Hamilton told David Trifunov, writing for the Kelowna Daily Courier.
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Kelly McCrimmon, the owner of the Brandon Wheat Kings, will be presented with an 
honourary diploma in Business Administration by Assiniboine Community College. The Brandon-based college will make the presentation during its graduation ceremony on June 13. . . . McCrimmon has been a player, coach and general manager with the Wheat Kings, as well as the franchiseâs owner. He also spent four years at the U of Michigan â yes, he played hockey for the Wolverines after playing in the WHL â and later, while working with the Wheat Kings, earned an MBA from Queenâs U in Kingston, Ont. . . . He now is the assistant GM with the NHLâs Vegas Golden Knights; he will take over as GM on Sept. 1. . . . McCrimmon also will be inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame this year.
The Portland Winterhawks have signed F Jonah Bevington, who will turn 16 on Sept. 7. The Winterhawks selected him in the fifth round of the WHLâs 2018 bantam draft. . . . This season, Bevington had 13 goals and 13 assists in 29 games with the OHA Edmonton Elite 15s. . . . A native of Yellowknife, NWT, Bevington now is an Edmonton resident.
Former WHLer Giffen Nyren, 30, has been granted bail and has returned to Kelowna from a psychiatric facility in Port Coquitlam. . . . While in Kelowna, doctors will continue to do a mental assessment on Nyren, a defenceman who played in the WHL with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Kamloops Blazers and Calgary Hitmen. . . . Nyren was arrested in Kelowna on April 28 after a baby was grabbed from its mother in a downtown Kelowna park. The man eventually let the baby go, then shed his clothes and jumped into Okanagan Lake. Shortly after, he was arrested. . . . Nyren also has been charged with wilfully resisting or obstructing a police officer. . . . His next court appearance has been scheduled for June 13 in Kelowna.
The AJHLâs Calgary Canucks have signed Brad Moran to a three-year contract extension as general manager and heâd coach. Moran has been the Canucksâ head coach since Nov. 27 when he replaced Darryl Olsen. Moran had been in his first season as an assistant coach when he stepped up to head coach. . . . Moran, 40, is a native of Abbotsford, B.C. He played five seasons (1995-2000) with the WHLâs Calgary Hitmen, putting up 450 points, including 204 goals, in 357 regular-season games.
The Manchester, N.H., Monarchs, an ECHL team affiliated with the NHLâs Los Angeles Kings, are finished. The Monarchs had been in Manchester, in the AHL or ECHL, for 18 years. . . . âItâs just clear to us minor league is not viable in Manchester at the ECHL level,â Brian Cheek, the Monarchsâ chief executive, told Mark Hayward of the New Hampshire Union Leader. . . . The Monarchs were the Kingsâ AHL affiliate until NHL teams began putting those teams in California. The Kingsâ AHL affiliate now is the Ontario Reign. . . . Haywardâs story is right here.
Jon Rosen of lakingsinsider.com has lots more right here.
that was when the first major deal was made in the lead-up to Jan. 10.
him to they roster. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Hanas, from Strathmore, Alta., had been playing with the AJHLâs Drumheller Dragons. An alternate captain, he had five goals and 12 assists, along with 85 penalty minutes, in 30 games. Last season, in 49 games, he had seven goals, six assists and 168 PiM.
who didnât return to the WHLâs Kootenay Ice after the Christmas break. . . . The Vees acquired his rights from the Alberta Valley Bulldogs for future considerations. . . . Smart, a first-round pick by the Kelowna Rockets in the 2014 WHL bantam draft, played 216 regular-season WHL games, splitting time between the Rockets, Regina Pats and the Ice. . . . âJonathan decided to leave the Kootenay Ice to be closer to home for personal reasons,â Fred Harbinson, the Veeâs president, GM and head coach, said in a news release. âAt that point we acquired his rights from Alberni who had listed him a few weeks prior. Jonathan has a smooth skill set and adds experience to our backend with over 200 WHL games under his belt.â . . . Smart could make his Penticton debut on Friday against the visiting Powell River Kings.
departments made by a handful of teams.
Rangeland Derby at the Stampede on Saturday night.
TAKING NOTE 