As was mentioned here the other day, the WHL has hired the New Jersey-based recruiting firm TurnkeyZRG to help in its search for a commissioner to replace Ron Robison, who is retiring after the 2023-24 season.
In the job description posted on TurnkeyZRG’s website, this statement appears:
“The Western Hockey League (WHL) is the best hockey development league in the world. Last month, the WHL had more top draft picks (including the #1 pick Connor Bedard) and more overall picks than any other league or country in the world.”
Uhh, well, actually . . . no. The OHL had 35 players selected, with 33 being taken from the WHL.
And then there’s the 16-team USHL. Yes, the USHL.
As Allan Mitchell of The Athletic wrote in a story posted on Friday: “If you 
include the U.S. National Development Team as part of the USHL, the number of players being drafted exceeds each of the Canadian junior leagues.”
The USNDT plays a full 62-game schedule in the USHL, which is why Mitchell included it in these numbers.
The USHL, including the USNDT, had 39 players selected in the NHL’s 2023 draft, with the OHL (35), WHL (33) and Sweden (22) next in line.
Furthermore, according to Mitchell, when the 2022-23 NHL season began, there were 193 USHL grads on team rosters, while there were 173 from the OHL and 115 from the WHL.
Mitchell makes the USHL’s case with a whole lot of numbers, then adds:
“I’ve spoken to NHL scouts about the quality of the USHL compared to the established Canadian junior leagues. The consensus opinion has the USHL trailing the Canadian leagues, although all admit the gap is closing.”
He also points out: “Most scouts have been around the game for a long time. The USHL was an upstart when many current scouts were early in their careers. The older generation of NHL scouts may believe the USHL still trails, but the growing evidence suggests this is no longer the case.”
Mitchell closes his piece with this:
“In this quick look at the leagues, USHL players are No. 1 in populating opening-night NHL rosters (2022-23), No. 1 in populating the 2023 NHL draft and No. 1 in the top three tiers of The Athletic’s top-100 players.
“The NHL industry is telling us the USHL’s time is coming.
“The numbers are telling us the USHL’s time is here.”
If nothing else, all of this is food for some kind of thought. Discuss among yourselves.
If you subscribe to The Athletic, the complete story is right here.
Things are tough financially in Norway where the country’s ice hockey federation has suspended all activities for its senior women’s and senior men’s national teams through December. The federation also has laid off five full-time employees. . . . Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that “the men’s U20 national team . . . will play at the WC in December.” . . . According to NRK, “The drastic cuts come just a few weeks after the (federation) confirmed a deficit of 9 million (kroner) in 2022. This was 3 million more than they had budgeted.” . . . The women’s national team is in China at the IIHF’s Division 1A championship and won’t be impacted until returning home. That is the IIHF’s last 2023 championship of its calendar.
Headline at The Onion — MLS Parents Complain Leo Messi Too Advanced For Sons’ League
Bob Baun was a hard-rock defenceman on the 1966-67 Toronto Maple Leafs, who won the Stanley Cup. You no doubt are aware that the franchise has yet to win another championship. . . . Steve Simmons of Postmedia points out that “the only regulars remaining from the ’67 Leafs, still around to share their stories, are those who were under the age of 30 in 1967 — Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Pulford, Ron Ellis, Pete Stemkowski, Mike Walton and Brian Conacher.”
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Simmons, again: “No surprise that Taylor Swift turned down the Super Bowl, which doesn’t pay much for its halftime entertainment. She probably couldn’t afford the pay cut.” . . . And she surely doesn’t need the exposure.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS:
Landon Watson, who left the Regina Pats earlier this month, has joined the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes as manager of hockey operations. Watson, who is from Neilburg, Sask., had been with the Pats through seven seasons; he was their director of hockey operations for two years. . . . The Pats have named Tristan Frei, who is from Regina, as Watson’s replacement. . . .
F Savin Virk, 16, has committed to attend Michigan State U. The Tri-City Americans selected the Surrey, B.C., native in the third round of the WHL’s 2022 draft. He played at Yale Hockey Academy in Abbotsford, B.C., for the past three seasons, putting up 26 goals and 21 assists in 29 games with the U18 team last season.
THINKING OUT LOUD — The QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts played their first exhibition game of the new season on Thursday night. That was only 74 days after they won the Memorial Cup in Kamloops. That’s right . . . 74 days, which, if my math is correct, isn’t even three months. . . . I tried to watch the NFL exhibition game between the visiting Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night. I really did. But the Seahawks’ broadcast crew couldn’t even pretend there were two teams on the field. Embarrassing! . . . On Sunday, I turned on the MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and the Braves in Atlanta. And there was the Braves’ play-by-play man sounding like Buck Martinez — “Get out of here ball.” . . . It’s really too bad that more broadcast teams can’t emulate Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who do Giants’ games, or Dick Bremer and Justin Moreau, who handle a lot of Minnesota Twins’ games. You know who they work for, but they don’t feel the urge to shout it to the heavens. . . . Let’s be honest here. You were watching the B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders playing in Regina on Sunday and you went into the second half wondering how the home team was going to blow it, weren’t you?
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their way?
team spends 162 regular-season games defining roles and a manager blows it all up during a playoff game. Why?
group sexual assault involving World Junior players was necessary, but there were serious problems with how that fund was administered, CBC News has learned,” writes Ashley Burke of CBC News. “CBC News has viewed and verified parts of a 100-page-plus preliminary report written by retired Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell that recommends sweeping changes. The report found Hockey Canada didn’t have policies and procedures in place to govern use of its reserve funds, didn’t fully disclose its funds in financial records, and broke the rules by failing to notify members of large payouts.”
number of Vancouver Giants players apparently having tested positive and forcing the postponement of at least one game. . . . The Seattle Thunderbirds were scheduled to play the Giants in Langley, B.C., on Sunday, but that game will be rescheduled. . . . This was the WHL’s first postponement since a Jan. 29 game that was to have had the Brandon Wheat Kings in Prince Albert was scuttled because the Raiders weren’t able to dress 14 healthy players. . . . The Giants had dropped a 3-2 decision to the visiting Kamloops Blazers on Friday and then were beaten 7-2 by the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Saturday. . . . Vancouver is scheduled to visit the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday and then meet the Cougars in Prince George on Friday and Saturday nights.
Wednesday by the death of Don Moores, the WHL franchise’s president, chief operating officer and alternate governor. . . . Moores, 65, died at the Kamloops Golf and Country Club. He collapsed on the third hole — he had started on the back nine, so was playing his 12th hole of the day — at around noon. According to Environment Canada, the temperature in Kamloops at noon was 39.1C with a humidex of 42C. . . . Earl Seitz of CFJC-TV in Kamloops reported that Moores died of a heart attack. . . . Alec Hubert, the golf club’s general manager, told Marty Hastings of Kamloops This Week that he and others got to the third hole with cold water and medical equipment. “We went out there and did the best we could,” Hubert said. . . . He added that Moore had stopped at the clubhouse after nine holes and “grabbed a sandwich” and that all appeared to be fine. . . . A native of Kamloops, Moores played for the WHL’s Kamloops Chiefs (1973-76) and later was an assistant coach with the Blazers (1985-90). . . . Moores was introduced as the club president on June 30, 2016, exactly five years prior to his death. . . . As word of Moore’s death spread, the hockey world and fans flooded social media with messages of condolences for Moores’ family and for the Blazers. . . . Hastings’ complete story is 
year contract extension. The news release announcing the signing didn’t indicate the length of the extension. . . . Mallette, 42, joined the Rockets as an assistant coach prior to the 2014-15 season. . . . He was named head coach on March 2, 2020, after a short stint as the interim head coach following the firing of Adam Foote. Because of the pandemic, Mallette has on 25 games as a head coach under his belt, going 15-7-3. . . . He is a former WHL defenceman, having played with the Rockets and Moose Jaw Warriors (1997-2000).
import draft on Wednesday and they took F Niko Huuhtanen of Finland second overall. Huuhtanen turned 18 on Saturday. . . . A 6-foot-1, 200-pound right winger, he played for Tappara’s U20 team in Finland last season, putting up 20 goals and 14 assists in 37 games. He also played at the IIHF U-18 World championship, scoring two goals and adding three assists in seven games. . . . Huuhtanen is eligible for the NHL’s 2021 draft. NHL Central Scouting rated him 49th among European skaters. . . . Interestingly, Huuhtanen signed a two-year contract with Tappara on May 19. That deal runs through 2022-23. Tappara plays in Liiga, the country’s top pro league. . . . In an Everett news release, Dennis Williams, the Silvertips’ interim general manager and head coach, said: “We’re excited to have him, and he’s excited to become a Silvertip.” . . . The news release didn’t mention Huuhtanen’s contractual status with Tappara. . . . You are able to find the complete import draft 
final approval has been received from the health authorities in each provincial and state jurisdiction and it is anticipated the approvals will be received soon.”
goings-on in the NHL where the Dallas Stars shut things down after six players and two staff members tested positive, and the Columbus Blue Jackets held 17 players out of practice.
Hockey Conference (NCHC). It took eight teams into Omaha in early December and played 38 games. They didn’t call it a bubble; rather, it was a pod. Teams were limited to their hotel and the arena. There was regular testing; there weren’t any positive tests.
things to survive, and without that I think you’re going to see failures across the country from (junior A) to major junior to junior B. It’s inevitable.
told Travis Lowe of Global News.“It’s up to the rest of us to help make sure that they make it through.”
Edmonton). “It’s hard to evaluate players (and) it’s hard for players to develop under these circumstances. We are considering delaying the draft.
TAKING NOTE 