Tag: John DePourcq

Giants have their next head coach . . . Strumm, Vanstone into Regina Hall of Fame . . . Portland beefs up scouting staff

It would appear that Manny Viveiros is back in the WHL. Steve Ewen of Postmedia, citing “multiple sources,” reported on Monday that the Vancouver Giants are expected to introduce Viveiros as their new head coach during a news conference at their annual golf tournament at Tsawwassen Springs on Thursday. . . . Viveiros 57, spent the past three seasons as head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. . . . Michael Dyck, who had been the Giants head coach through five seasons, now is an assistant coach with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. . . . Ewen wrote: “According to sources, Viveiros was one of the first people Giants general manager Barclay Parneta reached out to when Dyck signed on with the Marlies. Viveiros was a Giants’ rival in the WHL the season before the Henderson stint, guiding the Spokane Chiefs in the COVID-19-shortened 2019-20 campaign. His top assistant coach there was Adam Maglio, 37, who is currently getting ready for his second season with Vancouver.” . . . Viveiros was the GM and head coach of the 2017-18 Swift Current Broncos, who won the WHL championship. Following that season, his second with the Broncos, he joined the Edmonton Oilers as an assistant coach. After one season there, he signed with Spokane. . . . With Viveiros in Vancouver it leaves the Lethbridge Hurricanes as the only one of the WHL’s 22 teams without a head coach.

HideSeek

Bob Strumm, whose involvement with the WHL goes back to 1976, is among the Regina Sports Hall of Fame’s newest inductees who were announced on Tuesday. . . . Strumm, who is from Saskatoon, was an assistant to Ed Chynoweth, then the WHL’s president, when it opened its Calgary office in 1976. . . . Now a Las Vegas resident, Strumm was with the Regina Pats for seven seasons (1979-86), at various times serving as co-owner, GM and head coach. . . . Kevin Gallant, the Pats’ play-by-play voice back in the day, points out that Regina won one WHL title and three Eastern Conference championships under Strumm and also had the six highest-scoring seasons in franchise history. . . . Strumm also worked in the WHL with the Billings Bighorns (general manager, 1977-79) and Spokane Chiefs (GM, 1987-90). . . . Also among the 2023 inductees — it’s the 20th anniversary class — is Rob Vanstone, who covered the WHL and the Pats during his lengthy stay at the Regina Leader-Post. He now is the senior writer/historian with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. . . . Strumm will be inducted as a builder, with Vanstone going in as a patron.

The Portland Winterhawks, who lost two senior members of their scouting staff Portlandearlier this summer, have added five scouts to their organization — Rjay Berra, who will be a B.C. regional scout out of Prince George; Josh Bonar, who will do the same out of the Okanagan; Ed Fowler, who also will scout in B.C., but out of Surrey; Alex Overhardt in Colorado; and William Wrenn in Alaska. . . . Overhardt spent four seasons (2014-18) playing for the Winterhawks; Wrenn, who is from Anchorage, joined them from the U of Denver during the 2010-11 season and was team captain in 2011-12 before going pro. . . . Bonar also is a former WHL player, having been with the Kamloops Blazers, Vancouver Giants and Regina Pats (2000-03). . . . Berra played with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings and the AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm. . . . Fowler spent nine years with the Victoria Royals, including three (2019-22) as their director of player personnel. . . . On Aug. 4, the Winterhawks announced that Brad Davis, who had scouted out of Manitoba for 16 years, and Ray Payne, who had been with them for six years, both had left the organization.

Spencer Trapp, the 37-year-old grandson of Barry Trapp, has joined the junior B Fort Knox franchise of the Prairie Junior Hockey League as an assistant coach. . . . Spencer’s father, Doug, played with the WHL’s Regina Pats and is a former Fort Knox head coach. . . . As a player, Spencer spent three seasons with the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds before going on to player NCAA hockey at Holy Cross.

Kindle

Jack Todd, writing in the Montreal Gazette: “After 115 games, 24-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is hitting .265 with 18 home runs and 72 RBIs. At that age, his father had 193 hits for the season, including 42 home runs and 37 doubles, drove in 131 runs and hit .316 while swinging at everything in his area code. There is no comparison.” . . .

——

Todd, again: “Why are we not surprised to see Angela price wearing a T-shirt touting ‘Kennedy for President’? Meaning anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

Brains

Morten Kjolby has signed on as the general manager and head coach of the Summerland Steam, who play in the Kootenay International Junior A Hockey League. . . . Kjolby, 33, is from Denmark, and has coached there and in Spain at the U18 and U20 levels. Last season, he was on staff with the Cold Lake, Alta., Aeros of the Canadian-American Junior Hockey League. . . . John DePourcq, who spent seven seasons (2012-19) as the Steam’s head coach, is returning after three years away to serve as an assistant coach and advisor. . . . There isn’t any mention in the Steam’s news release of James McEwan, who was named general manager and head coach on July 23. It would appear that the Steam-McEwan arrangement was rather short-lived.

Brad Flynn, who has WHL coaching experience, has joined the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers as an assistant coach. Flynn, 38, is a rarity in that he has coached in all three major junior leagues. . . . That includes a three-season stint (2018-21) with the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels. . . . In 2021-22, he was an associate coach with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit. Last season, he was an assistant coach with the Brock University Badgers of USports.

Buffalo

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.

Knights

Byram chasing WHL history. . . . Scott is in select company, too. . . . Final series to resume Tuesday in Langley

ThisThat

D Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants is attempting to skate where no other player has gone since the WHL started play in the autumn of 1966.

Byram leads all playoff scorers with 22 points, two more than F Dante Hannoun of the VancouverPrince Albert Raiders.

The Giants and Raiders are tied, 1-1, in the WHL’s best-of-seven final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with Game 3 set for Tuesday night in Langley, B.C.

The record for most points by a defenceman in one playoff season is 34 and belongs to John Miner, a hard-shooter who put up nine goals and 25 assists in 23 games with the Regina Pats in 1984.

Second on that list is Keith Brown of the Portland Winterhawks, who had 33 points, 30 of them assists, in 25 games in 1979.

Derrick Pouliot of Portland is third, having recorded 32 points, including 27 assists, in 21 games in 2014.

Tied for fourth, each with 31 points, are Darren Veitch of the 1980 Pats and Greg Hawgood of the 1986 Kamloops Blazers. Veitch did it in 18 games; Hawgood managed to do it in 16 outings.

But none of those five led the playoffs in scoring.

Byram, who had 71 points in 67 regular-season games, has played in 17 playoff games, with at least three more to come.

Will he be able to hold off Hannoun? Might Raiders forwards Noah Gregor and/or Brett Leason, who are four points back, make a late run? Or what of Giants F Davis Koch, who also has 18 points?

Stay tuned.

Ian Scott of the Prince Albert Raiders stopped 15 shots in earning the shutout Saturday in PrinceAlberta 4-0 victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants in Game 2 of the WHL final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup. . . . Scott now is one of 13 goaltenders to have put up at least four shutouts in one playoff season. The record of six is shared by Dustin Slade of Vancouver, who did it in only 18 games in 2006, and Stuart Skinner, who managed to do that in 26 games with the Swift Current Broncos last season.

Judging by the WHL website, it would seem that the official name of the Ed Chynoweth Cup final series is the 2019 Rogers #WHLChampionship Series. Even though there hasn’t been a WHL game on Rogers since the first three games of the second-round series between the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades. . . . As Game 1 of the WHL final began in Prince Albert on Friday evening, Sportsnet had the same NHL game on five of the six channels, with the Blue Jays and Texas Rangers on the other. . . . If you are a WHL fan, feel free to slam palm of hand on forehead.

If you don’t like the WHL’s present playoff format, Ray Marcham, who has a blog he calls The Outlet, will take you back, back, back . . . to the days when round-robins were a part of our spring. . . . If you’re a long-time fan and lived through a few of those series, reading his piece, which is right here, just may give you nightmares.

If you’re wondering why the WHL went away from any kind of round-robin format, you may get a bit of a hint from this story right here.

JUST NOTES: How important is the first goal of a game to the Raiders. They are 11-0 when scoring first in these playoffs. Combine the regular season and playoffs, and they are 55-0. . . . Marc Habscheid of the Raiders now has 71 playoff victories as a WHL head coach. He is seventh on the WHL’s all-time list, behind Don Hay (108), Ken Hodge (101), Ernie McLean (87), Kelly McCrimmon and Pat Ginnell, each 80, and Brent Sutter, 79. . . . Michael Dyck, in his first season as the Giants’ head coach, went into this spring with 18 playoff victories, all with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He now is up to 31. . . .

Steve Ewen, who covers the Giants for Postmedia, reports right here that in Vancouver’s camp it’s all about the forecheck.

Jeff D’Andrea of paNOW.com has a piece right here on Vancouver D Bowen Byram and his tie to Prince Albert and the Raiders.

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Thank you very much.

The junior B Summerland, B.C., Steam of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League has had to make a coaching change after John DePourcq chose to step aside after seven seasons. According to a news release from the Steam, DePourcq cited “increasing work and family obligations” as the reasons for his decison. . . . Ken Karpuk is the Steam’s new head coach. Karpuk, 57, is from Penticton. . . . The Steam made the playoffs in each of DePourcq’s seven seasons and advanced past the first round on five occasions. . . . As well, Steve Hogg has been named full-time general manager after working in an interim capacity since April 28 when the club announced that, by mutual agreement, Mike Rigby’s contract wouldn’t be renewed. . . . . DePourcq will remain with the organization in an advisory capacity.

Tweetoftheday

If you haven’t seen this already, take time to check out the thread . . .