With little fanfare, the Moose Jaw Warriors held their annual general meeting on Thursday.
The Warriors are one of four community-owned teams in the WHL — along 
with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Prince Albert Raiders and Swift Current Broncos — and, as such, must hold AGMs for their shareholders.
The Warriors didn’t post a news release on their website. But the team did put up a brief video interview with Chad Taylor, the organization’s president.
Taylor said the Warriors showed a loss and warned that, at the moment, things aren’t looking good for the 2021-22 season.
“If it wasn’t for the provincial government our balance sheet . . . would look a lot different than it is today,” Taylor said, referring to the fact that the Saskatchewan government gave each of that province’s five WHL franchises $600,000. “We are still showing a loss. You can’t just recover . . . With no revenues it’s impossible to try and pull a profit out of an organization like this.
“I have to give tremendous credit to the staff. Unfortunately, there were numerous layoffs, pay cuts . . . some people did lose their jobs. It’s heart-wrenching to go through something like this. I think at the end of the day, we did what we could do to play another day . . .”
The Warriors lost $391,299 for 2019-20, after losses of $165,145 for 2018-19 and $463,566 for 2016-17. In 2017-18, the Warriors declared a profit of $704,182.
These days, the Warriors are looking to the future.
“There’s tons of challenges,” Taylor said. “I think it’s important to let Warriors fans know that we need your support, we need you back in the rink. I understand the challenges with some of that with certain people. But if we don’t have those fans back we’ll take staggering losses this (season). It’s trending to look like that today, but I’m optimistic that will work its way out.
“Our corporate sponsorships have been fantastic, given what we’ve been through. I think everybody in their business are re-evaluating certain things and we understand that. It’s going to take us a while to get our revenues back to (pre-pandemic) times and we understand that. We’re trying to make sure that we can manage our expenses properly. We need the revenues to support this club.”
The complete interview is right here.
The Warriors, like the other six Manitoba and Saskatchewan teams, played 24 games in a hub situation in Regina as part of the WHL’s 2021 development season.
The Broncos were part of that hub and told shareholders at their AGM that they had lost $129,968. It stands to reason, then, that the Warriors’ losses may have been in that same neighbourhood.
The Hurricanes, who played games without fans against the other four Alberta teams at home and away, told their shareholders that they had made $72,250.
There was only one game in the WHL on Tuesday night . . .
In Red Deer, the Rebels opened up a 5-0 lead and cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . The Rebels had a 41-19 edge in shots, including 20-5 in the second period. . . . F Blake Stevenson had a goal and two assists.
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Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano, both 19, of the QMJHL’s Victoriaville 
Tigres appeared in a Quebec City courtroom on Tuesday, charged with sexual assault. . . . They also have been charged with recording the incident; Daigle also has been charged with sharing images of the alleged victim. . . . The charges arose after an incident that is alleged to have occurred in a hotel in Lac-Beauport after the Tigres’ won the QMJHL championship in June. . . . Both players remain with the Tigres, although the QMJHL has said it will “analyze the content of the charges and the file presented to the court. A decision will then be communicated within the next 48 hours regarding the status of the players in the QMJHL.” . . . There is more on this story right here.
This week’s best news? That’s easy. . . . MLB’s regular season is over. So is the experiment with the runner on second base in extra innings. Thankfully. . . . No, it won’t be used in the playoffs. No, it won’t be back next season.
Jack Finarelli, aka The Sports Curmudgeon, kept an eye on MLB’s injured list during the season. Here’s what he posted on Monday:
I went to check the “almost final” numbers for the number of MLB players who spent time on the Injured List this year and how much money they earned while in that status. As of October 1st, here are the data:
In total, 823 players spent time on the IL;
Of those players, 481 were pitchers (58.4% of the total);
The number of man-days missed by players on the IL was 46,910; Those players earned a total of $817,313,884 — that’s a lot of cheese;
Justin Verlander missed the entire season and earned the most money of any player on the IL — $32M and change; and
Ten players — including Verlander — collected $10M or more while on the IL.
Some tweets that followed on the thread . . .
“ ‘I am going to potentially ‘sneak’ infect you.’ What a mind-boggling action.”
“Same thing happened at the grand opening of the new Poco Rec Centre. More than one unvaxxed person went around and snuck in through the parkade. Then had the gall to boast about it.”
“We’ve got a big tourney at our rink this weekend. A security company has been hired to guard doors and scan passports and passes. (Same as two weeks ago). Everything ran so smooth.”
“Our association says anyone unvaxxed, causing a scene, unwilling to present proof of vax or sneaking in will have their child suspended and/or kicked off the team.”
“Hockey parents acting up, hard to believe!”
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JUST NOTES: G Roman Basran, 20, has joined the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads after clearing WHL waivers. A native of Delta, B.C., he played in 119 regular-season games with the Kelowna Rockets — 52-40-11, 2.89, .905 — before being waived in July. He later joined the Everett Silvertips, but things didn’t work out there, so now he’s in the OHL.
Americans. . . . The Silvertips are 3-0-0 this season, with Wolf yet to allow even one goal. . . . If you’re wondering, Chris Worthy of the Flin Flon Bombers posted four straight shutouts in 1967-68, and that’s the WHL record. . . . Wolf now has 23 career shutouts, three off the WHL record that is shared by Tyson Sexsmith (Vancouver, 179 games, 2005-09) and Carter Hart (Everett, 190 games, 2013-18). Wolf now has appeared in 130 games. . . . Wolf, a seventh-round pick by the Calgary Flames in the NHL’s 2019 draft, has stopped all 70 shots he has faced this season, having earlier blanked the Spokane Chiefs, 2-0, and the Americans, 7-0. . . . Wolf lowered his career GAA to 1.82, second to the 1.73 of Kelly Guard (Kelowna, 115 games, 2002-04). . . . The Silvertips are next scheduled to play Friday against the host Portland Winterhawks. . . . 
Current Broncos, 6-5 in OT, in the Regina hub. . . . F Tristen Robins got the winner just 29 seconds into OT. That was his second goal of the game and fifth of the season. . . . Saskatoon D Aidan De La Gorgendiere had tied the scored with 42.8 seconds left in the third period. . . . F Josh Filmon’s first WHL goal gave the Broncos (1-5-1) a 5-3 lead at 12:01 of the third period. . . . F Blake Stevenson scored for Saskatoon at 16:31. . . . G Nolan Maier picked up his 84th career victory and now is one away from the franchise’s career record (Tim Cheveldae, 1985-88). Cheveldae spent six seasons (2013-19) as the Blades’ goaltending coach. . . . The Blades now are 6-0-1. Les Lazaruk, the long-time radio voice of the Blades, reports that the franchise’s best seven-game start (6-0-1, with the 1 being a tie) came in 1985-86. The 1975-76 Blades, Lazaruk tweeted, won their first six games before dropping a 7-3 decision to the Kamloops Chiefs.
premature end to his career.
the 12-team SJHL, which includes one team (Flin Flon Bombers) in Manitoba, gets $1 million.
to shareholders. The Warriors, Raiders and Broncos did just that before 2020 ended, and announced combined losses of more than $1.5 million for a 2019-20 season that was halted prematurely by COVID-19.
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commissioner, says quitting isn’t one of them. . . .The QMJHL began its regular season on Oct. 2. By the time December is over, it will have postponed 161 of 253 scheduled games. . . . As Ken Campbell of The Hockey News wrote: “Like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail who gradually has his limbs chopped off and insists they’re merely flesh wounds, the QMJHL vows to forge on.” . . . As things now sit, the QMJHL players are going home for Christmas, then will return to their teams on Jan. 3. If travel is allowed in the four provinces in which the QMJHL has franchises, the teams will resume playing on Jan. 6, but in empty arenas. The other option is to play in a bubble — or, as Courteau calls them, “protected environments.” That type of resumption would begin on Jan. 22. . . . So could the WHL or OHL end up in some kind of bubble environment? Well, the WHL, which has said it will open its regular season on Jan. 8, apparently is on the verge of shifting that date into February. The OHL is aiming for Feb. 4. . . . According to John Shannon in the above tweet, the WHL pooh-bahs were to meet on Tuesday. . . . Of course, as Campbell points out, the QMJHL is playing to a certain extent, with taxpayers’ money. “It’s much easier to stem those wounds when you have $20 million in taxpayer money propping up your business,” Campbell wrote in a piece that is 
hour west of Calgary.
suspension” for 2020-21, according to a league-issued news release. The Adirondack Thunder, Brampton Beast, Maine Mariners, Newfoundland Growlers, Reading Royals and Worcester Railers all say they will return for the 2021-22 season. . . . The Atlanta Gladiators and Norfolk Admirals had already opted out of the season. . . . Players from teams that don’t play become free agents, but only for the 2020-21 season. . . .
looking for permission to shift their base of operations to Creighton, Sask., during the pandemic. Due to restrictions put in place by the Manitoba government and health officials, the Bombers aren’t allowed to practice or play in Flin Flon’s Whitney Forum. . . . If given the OK by health officials, they would practise in Creighton and play all of their games on the road so long as the restrictions are in place. . . . Creighton is less than two miles southwest of Flin Flon.
the Armada hadn’t played in more than a month after having had 18 people in the organization test positive following two games against the Sherbrooke Phoenix. . . . The Phoenix had eight players test positive after those games, as did two on-ice officials. . . . The Armada returned to the ice last night with a 5-1 victory over the Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec City bubble. . . . Douglas Gelevan of CBC News has more on the Armada and how it dealt with COVID-19 in a piece that is 
coach, replacing Jamie Heward, who left “to pursue a different hockey opportunity.” . . . Heward, who spent two seasons with the Giants, is expected to join the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights as an assistant coach under Manny Viveiros. . . . McCambridge, a native of Thompson, Man., the hometown of former WHL coach of the year Jack Sangster, played four seasons in the WHL (Swift Current, Kamloops, 1991-95). He was a defenceman on the Blazers team that won the 1994 Memorial Cup. . . . The 46-year-old McCambridge coached in the AHL for 10 seasons, most recently as the head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack (2016-19). The Wolf Pack is the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers, who chose to let McCambridge go after the 2018-19 season. . . . In Vancouver, McCambridge will work with head coach Michael Dyck, who leaves this weekend for Red Deer to join Canada’s national junior team for its selection camp. He is an assistant coach so will be gone until the World Junior Championship ends on Jan. 5. . . . WHL teams plan on bringing players in for brief training camps right after Christmas, and then hope to open their season on Jan. 8. . . . Steve Ewen of Postmedia has more on the Giants’ story 
like” the Flin Flon Bombers to play out of Creighton, Sask., which is located two km west of the Manitoba city. . . . The Bombers have put their season on hold because of Manitoba being on a province-wide lockdown. The Bombers were to have played a weekend doubleheader against the visiting Kindersley Klippers. When the restrictions came in this week, the Bombers announced that they would play the two games in Kindersley. However, they announced Thursday that the games would be postponed. . . . Travis Rideout, the Bombers’ president, says the organization is “still looking at all the possibilities to continue our season.” . . . Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief medical officer of health, doesn’t like the Creighton option at all. “Sanitation measures were put in place for a reason. They save lives,” he said. “I encourage all Manitobans to play by the rules and not try to bend them.” . . . Houde-Hébert’s story is 
to a province-wide lockdown that could last four weeks starting on Thursday — Carter Brooks, the associate editor of the Winnipeg-based Game On Magazine, writes: “50 Below Sports + Entertainment has some serious explaining to do.”
won’t be attending the national junior team’s selection camp in Red Deer. . . . Players are scheduled to arrive in Red Deer on Monday with the camp running from Nov. 17 to Dec. 13. The World Junior Championship, to be played in an Edmonton bubble, will open Dec. 25 and close on Jan. 5. . . . According to a statement by Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s senior vice-president of national teams, “Power will not be released to participate” in the camp. . . . Mel Pearson, the U of Michigan’s head coach, had said Monday that he would release Power for the camp; he just didn’t know when that might happen. . . . With two of the three major junior leagues not yet playing games due to the pandemic, the selection camp will run for almost four weeks, resulting in a conflict with NCAA schedules. Some NCAA teams are about to start and Power, with no guarantee of making Canada’s team, could miss as many as 10 Michigan games.
TAKING NOTE 