On Feb. 18, 2014, Sportsnet “announced it has reached a 12-year partnership extension with the Canadian Hockey League through the 2025-26 season, continuing its tradition as the exclusive broadcaster of the CHL and Memorial Cup in Canada.
“The new agreement, which begins with the 2014-15 season, features a comprehensive suite of multimedia rights including television, online and mobile, delivering more than 50 CHL games each year, including CHL playoff games and the Memorial Cup.”
Somewhere along the line things went sour and it would seem that the CHL and Sportsnet went through a divorce at some point this summer.
On Wednesday, the CHL and TSN announced a “new multi-platform, multi-year broadcast rights partnerships that will make TSN, RDS, and CBC the home of the CHL.
“Beginning with the 2021-22 season, the new partnerships include approximately 30 regular-season games each year delivered by TSN, in addition to select playoff coverage and the comprehensive suite of CHL national events.”
It only makes sense that TSN be the CHL broadcaster, if only because TSN is the carrier for so much Hockey Canada content, including the IIHF World Junior Championship.
There is more from TSN on the deal right here. Sportsnet didn’t post a story about the move on its website.
Dave Cameron, who has returned to the OHL as the head coach of the Ottawa 
67’s, has been named the head coach of Canada’s national junior men’s team. Cameron, 62, replaces Andre Tourigny in both positions. Tourigny now is the head coach of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes. . . . Cameron also was the Canadian team’s head coach in 2011 when it finished second at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Buffalo. . . . Cameron has OHL head-coaching experience with the Son Greyhounds (1997-99), Toronto St. Michael’s Majors (2000-04) and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors (2007-11). He has been coaching in Europe with the Vienna Capitals for the past three seasons. . . .
Cameron’s assistant coaches, barring any future moves to the pro ranks, are Michael Dyck, the head coach of the Vancouver Giants; Dennis Williams, the general manager/head coach of the Everett Silvertips; and Louis Robitaille, the GM/head coach of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques. . . .
At the same time, Hockey Canada invited 51 players, 19 from the WHL, to its national junior team summer development camp that is to run from July 28 through Aug. 4 in the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex at Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary. . . . F Jack Finley of the Spokane Chiefs was invited to the camp but he is rehabbing a shoulder injury so won’t be attending. The shoulder injury prevent him from playing in the 2021 development season. . . . F Ozzie Wiesblatt of the Prince Albert Raiders also was invited but won’t be attending, presumably because he is rehabbing some kind of injury. . . . There is more on the camp invites right here.
The Prince George Cougars have signed Swiss F Liekit Reichle to a WHL 
contract. From Zurich, he was selected by the Cougars in the CHL’s 2021 import draft. Reichle, 18, had 20 goals and 55 assists in 43 games with the GCK Lions in Switzerland’s U-20 league. He led the league in assists and was third in the points race. . . . Reichle had one goal in five games for Switzerland at the 2021 IIHF U-18 World championship in Texas. . . . The Cougars didn’t have any imports on the roster that played in the 2021 developmental season.
——
The Tri-City Americans have signed G Tomas Suchanek and F Petr Moravec, 
two CHL import draft selections, to WHL contracts. . . . Both players are 18 years of age and from Czech Republic. . . . NHL Central Scoutings ranks the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Suchanek, who was taken in the 2020 import draft, sixth among international goaltenders eligible for the 2021 draft that is scheduled for Friday and Saturday. He was 3.12, .908 with HC Frydek-Mistek of Czech2, the country’s No. 2 league, in 2020-21. . . . Moravec, 6-foot-0 and 180 pounds, was selected in the 2021 import draft. He had a goal and three assists in 10 games with HC Stadion Litomerice in Czech2. He also had a goal and three assists in four games with a junior team, HK Hradek Kralove. . . . Both players have represented their country in international competitions, including the U-17 World Hockey Challenge and IIHF U-18 World championship.
When you consider all the billions spent on facilities for the Tokyo Olympics, you might think that the IOC could have made sure that a decent diamond was constructed for the women’s softball competition. If you tuned in Tuesday night, as I did, to watch Canada and Mexico you can’t be faulted if you wondered if you were watching two local teams on a slo-pitch diamond or a school field. . . . They have tried to place a softball playing field on a full-sized baseball diamond. It’s ugly and the women deserve a whole lot better.
——
Taylor Crabb, a player with the U.S.’s men’s beach volleyball team has tested positive while in Tokyo so his Olympic Games are over before they started. . . . Pavel Sirucek, a Czech table tennis player, also has tested positive, as have Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs and an unnamed female taekwondo competitor from Chile. . . . There is more on positive tests right here. . . .
Meanwhile, as if Tokyo 2020 didn’t have enough on its plate, the show director for Friday’s Opening Ceremony has been fired. Liam Morgan of insidethegames.biz reports that Kentaro Kobayashi, a Japanese comedian, “has been sacked by organizers on the eve of the event following criticism of ‘anti-Semitic’ jokes he made in a stand-up comedy routine in 1998.
Morgan added: “Kobayashi’s sacking follows the resignation earlier this week of Keigo Oyamada, the composer of the music for the Opening Ceremony, after he admitted abusing and bullying disabled children during his school days.”
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
——
Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182
kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
——
Or, for more information, visit right here.
JUST NOTES: The Red Deer Rebels have hired former WHL G Ian Gordon as their director of goaltending/goalie coach. Gordon, 46, spent the past eight seasons as the Seattle Thunderbirds’ goaltending coach. For four of those seasons, Gordon worked with then-Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk, who is heading into his first season as Red Deer’s head coach. As a player, Gordon split three seasons (1992-95) between the Swift Current Broncos and Saskatoon Blades. He won a WHL title with the Broncos in 1992-93. In Red Deer, he replaces Kraymer Barnstable, whose contract wasn’t renewed. . . . The Montreal Canadiens have added Trevor Letowski to their staff as an assistant coach. Letowski, 44, spent the previous five seasons with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, the past three as head coach. . . .
Travis Clayton has joined the AJHL’s Whitecourt Wolverines as associate coach where he will work with GM/head coach Shawn Martin. Clayton, 45, had been with the Sherwood Park Kings Athletics Club since 2019, where he also was the head coach of the U-18 AAA team. . . . Geoff Grimwood is the new head coach of the junior B Kamloops Storm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. The former coach, Steve Gainey, now is the Storm’s director of hockey operations. In recent seasons, Grimwood has been the GM/head coach with the SJHL’s Kindersley Klippers for three seasons (2015-18), the GM/head coach with the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors for part of 2018-19, the GM/head coach with the MJHL’s Swan Valley Stampeders for the start of 2019-20 and an assistant coach with the MJHL’s Winkler Flyers for the last part of the season. He signed on with the BCHL’s Cowichan Valley Capitals prior to the 2020-21 season, but resigned on Oct. 1 citing “ethical and philosophical differences with ownership.” Before joining Kindersley, he spent three seasons as an assistant coach under Dave Lowry with the WHL’s Victoria Royals.
TAKING NOTE 