F Dustin Boyd (Moose Jaw, 2002-06) has signed a one-year contract extension with Barys Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan, KHL). This season, he had six goals and nine assists in 51 games. He started the season with Dynamo Moscow (Russia, KHL), going pointless in five games. He was released by Dynamo on Sept. 26 and signed with Barys on Sept. 27. . . .
F Ryan Harrison (Prince Albert, Medicine Hat, Everett, 2007-13) has signed a one-year contract extension with Jegesmedvék Miskolc (Hungary, Slovakia Extraliga). This season, he had six goals and 23 assists in 57 games. . . .
F Geordie Wudrick (Swift Current, Kelowna, 2005-11) has signed a one-year contract with Adendorf (Germany, Regionalliga Nord). This season, with Harzer Falken Braunlage (Germany, Oberliga), he had one goal in seven games. . . .
G Garret Hughson (Spokane, 2012-16) has signed a one-year contract with Acélbikák Dunaújváros (Hungary, rest Liga). This season, with U of Lethbridge (USports, Canada West), he got into 25 games, going 8-13-1-0, 3.73, .909, with one shutout and one assist. . . .
F Vitali Karamnov (Everett, 2007-08) has signed a one-year contract with Saryarka Karaganda (Kazakhstan, Vysshaya Liga). This season, in 17 games with Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia, Vysshaya Liga), he had two goals and eight assists.
The Dallas Stars selected F Jermaine Loewen from the Kamloops Blazers in the seventh 
round of the NHL’s 2018 draft and he then attended their development camp.
However, Loewen now is an unrestricted free agent.
Ray Petkau, Loewen’s agent, confirmed to Taking Note on Sunday that the Stars chose not to make an offer to Loewen prior to Saturday’s deadline, thus making him an unrestricted free agent.
“We do have AHL offers,” Petkau told Taking Note. “(There is) interest at the NHL level, but not sure yet where it’ll go.”
Loewen, now 21, has been one of the WHL’s best stories in recent years, having come all the way from a Jamaican orphanage to captain the Blazers.
He played five seasons with the Blazers, scoring 36 goals in 2017-18 and adding 28 more this season.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Loewen grew up in Arborg, Man., after being adopted by Tara and Stan Loewen. He didn’t play organized hockey until he was 10.
A true power forward who loves to drive to the opposition’s net off the left wing, Loewen finished his WHL career with 78 goals in 295 regular-season games, which isn’t bad when you consider that he didn’t get No. 1 until Game No. 85.
After not being selected in the NHL’s 2016 draft, he attended the San Jose Shark’s development camp. He also wasn’t picked in the 2017 draft.
——
At least 11 others players with WHL ties weren’t signed prior to June 1 by the NHL teams 
who held their rights. . . . Nine of those players were selected in the NHL’s 2017 draft . . .
D Daniel Bukac, a seventh-round pick by the Boston Bruins, played this season with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. Bukac, 20, spent two seasons (2016-18) with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
F Brett Davis of the Red Deer Rebels was a sixth-round pick by the Dallas Stars. Davis also has played with the Lethridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice. He turned 20 on Saturday, so is eligible to return to the Rebels.
D Brendan De Jong of the Portland Winterhawks was taken by the Carolina Hurricanes in the sixth round. De Jong, who played five seasons with Portland, completed his junior eligibility this season.
F Zach Fischer, who played with the Medicine Hat Tigers and Spokane Chiefs (2014-18), was selected by the Calgary Flames in the fifth round. Fischer, 21, split this season between the AHL’s Stockton Heat and the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks and Rapid City Rush.
G Jordan Hollett of the Medicine Hat Tigers was a fourth-round pick by the Ottawa Senators. Hollett, 20, is eligible to return for a fourth WHL season. The Tigers acquired him from the Regina Pats prior to the 2017-18 season.
F Kyle Olson of the Tri-City Americans was taken by the Anaheim Ducks in the fourth round. Olson, 20, is eligible to return to the Americans after finishing with 21 goals and 49 assists in 62 games this season.
D Jarret Tyszka of the Seattle Thunderbirds was picked by the Montreal Canadiens in the fifth round. At 20, he is eligible to return for a fifth season with the Thunderbirds.
D Scott Walford of the Victoria Royals was a third-round selection by Montreal. Walford, 20, has played four seasons with the Royals and is eligible for one more.
F Lane Zablocki was a third-round pick by the Detroit Red Wings. He doesn’t turn 21 until Dec. 27, but that means he has used up his junior eligibility. In the WHL, he played with the Regina Pats, Red Deer Rebels, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Victoria Royals and Kelowna Rockets. He finished this season, and his junior career, with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers.
Fischer and Zablocki now are unrestricted free agents; the others will be eligible for the 2019 NHL draft, which is to be held in Vancouver on June 21 and 22.
Two other players, both of whom were drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, also have gone unsigned. F Radovan Bondra (Vancouver Giants, Prince George Cougars, 2015-18) had been selected in the fifth round, while F John Dahlstrom (Medicine Hat Tigers, 2016-17) was taken in the seventh round.
Bondra and Dahlstrom, both 22, were drafted from clubs outside North American, so Chicago owned their rights for four years. Both players now are unrestricted free agents.
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 Winnipeg Ice has signed G Daniel Hauser to a WHL contract. Hauser, from Chestermere, Alta., was a sixth-round selection in the 2019 bantam draft. . . . This season, he got into 23 regular-season games with the bantam prep team at the Calgary-based Edge School. He was 3.00, .911.
The New York Times story, written by John Branch, carries this headline: The N.F.L. Has Been Consumed by the Concussion Issue. Why Hasn’t the N.H.L.? . . . “With the Stanley Cup finals underway,” Branch writes, “Joanne Boogaard and a growing group of former players worry that people have moved on to a stage of acceptance — that the N.H.L. has emerged from its concussion crisis by steadfastly denying that hockey has any responsibility for the brain damage quietly tormenting players and their families.” . . . Boogaard is the mother of the late Derek Boogaard, whose brain was found to contain chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the disease that is caused by head trauma. . . . Branch is the author of the book Boy On Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard. . . . If you haven’t read the book, you should. . . . Branch’s latest piece on the Boogards, the NHL, concussions and all the rest is right here. You should read that, too.
hoping to trade him before the Jan. 10 deadline. . . . Higson, from Grande Prairie, Alta., has three goals and 14 assists in 20 games this season. . . .
after taking a kneeing major and game misconduct during a game against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Saturday. Quigley hit F Dillon Hamaliuk on the play. Hamaliuk was injured and isn’t expected to play again this season. . . . Quigley sat out Sunday’s rematch in Portland, and will miss road games Friday (Swift Current), Saturday (Moose Jaw) and Tuesday (Brandon) before being eligible to return on Jan. 9 in Regina. . . . 
appears to be close to returning to the Kootenay Ice’s lineup. . . . McClennon, 16, hasn’t played since suffering an undisclosed injury on Nov. 24 in a 5-1 loss to the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. . . . McClennon, who has four goals and eight assists in 19 games, was a full participant in the Ice’s practice on Wednesday. . . . Kootenay will play three games in fewer than 48 hours this weekend. It is to meet the Tigers in Medicine Hat on Friday, then return to Cranbrook, B.C., to face the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday and the Vancouver Giants on Sunday. . . . The Ice (8-24-7) has lost four in a row (0-3-1) and is 1-6-3 in its last 10 outings. Kootenay is 15 points away from the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot. 
Airdrie, Alta., he was the Cougars’ first selection, ninth overall, in the WHL’s 2018 bantam draft. Armstrong is playing for the Edge School Mountaineers’ midget prep team, and has 11 goals and 12 assists in 23 games. . . . Armstrong will help fill a spot on the roster that was created when F Ilijah Colina suffered an undisclosed injury during a 2-1 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops on Sunday. He is out week-to-week. . . . The Cougars are to meet the Rockets in Kelowna on Friday night, before completing an 11-game road trip against the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday and the Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday.
3 victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants. . . . The Tigers (21-15-3) have won four in a row. They are fourth in the Central Division, one point behind the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Red Deer Rebels. . . . The Giants (23-11-2) have lost three straight. They are 1-3-0 on a six-game Central Division trip. Vancouver leads the B.C. Division by 11 points over the Victoria Royals and Kelowna Rockets. . . . Hamblin gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead at 15:13 of the first period. . . . The Giants took a 2-0 lead on second-period goals from F Davis Koch (11), at 1:07, and F Justin Sourdif (8), just 22 seconds later. . . . Hamblin tied it with his 23rd goal of the season, at 14:45. . . . F Elijah Brown (6) put Medicine Hat in front 3-2 at 15:18, and D Hayden Ostir (8) upped the lead to 4-2, on a PP, at 8:48 of the third. . . . F Lukas Svejkovsky (3) got the Giants to within a goal at 11:39. . . . The Tigers won 41 of the game’s 60 faceoffs. . . . G Jordan Hollett, who was playing in his 100th WHL game, stopped 29 shots to earn the victory. . . . The Tigers were without F Bryan Lockner, who, according to Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News, “hit his head on the ice in a fight Sunday.” After the game, McCracken confirmed that Lockner is in concussion protocol.
Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Red Deer (22-12-2) is tied with Lethbridge (19-10-8) for second in the Central Division, three points behind the idle Edmonton Oil Kings (21-12-7). . . . Lethbridge has points in three straight (1-0-2). . . . The Rebels forced OT with two goals in the last two minutes of the third period. . . . F Reese Johnson (17) was credited with the first of those goals after Lethbridge D Ty Prefontaine inadvertently scored an own-goal at 18:05. . . . Rebels F Brandon Hagel (23) tied it, on a PP, with 6.6 seconds left in the period. . . . Both goals came with G Ethan Anderson the bench for the extra attacker. . . . The Hurricanes led 2-0 in the first period on goals from F Jake Leschyshyn (25), at 3:48, and D Calen Addison (7), at 10:12. . . . F Jeff de Wit (21) cut the Rebels deficit to one at 10:58. . . . F Dylan Cozens (22) restored the two-goal lead 51 seconds into the second period. . . . Hagel got his guys back to within a goal at 17:08. . . . F Taylor Ross (21) gave the Hurricanes a 4-2 lead at 5:59 of the third period. . . . F Jordy Bellerive gave Lethbridge a 1-0 lead in the shootout, but the Rebels won it on goals from Hagel, who also had an assist, and Hausinger. . . . Leschyshyn’s goal, the 70th of his career, left him with 150 points in 226 games. . . . F Nick Henry had three assists for Lethbridge, with the first one being the 100th of his career. He has 169 points, 102 of them assists, in 163 games. . . . Anders finished with 28 saves. . . . G Liam Hughes, who was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday, stopped 26 shots in his Lethbridge debut.
for a fourth-round selection in the 2019 WHL bantam draft and a conditional fifth-rounder in 2020. . . . “With a long-term injury to Anthony Bishop, we felt it was necessary to add a veteran defenceman,” Americans general manager Bob Tory explained in a news release. . . . The Swift Current Broncos selected Schmiemann in the first round of the 2014 bantam draft. . . . From Wilcox, Sask., he had one assist in four games this season. Last season, he put up a goal and 10 assists in 47 games with Calgary after being acquired from the Broncos. In 135 regular-season career games, he has two goals and 22 assists. . . . His younger brother Quinn, 17, is in his first season with the Kamloops Blazers. He, too, is a defenceman.
He was a seventh-round selection of the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. . . . He was pointless in two games with the Broncos this season, after recording one goal and three assists in 55 games last season. . . . “Basically, he decided that he wanted to play closer to home,” Dean Brockman, the Broncos’ director of hockey operations and head coach, told David Zammit of 
Kamloops. This one was 1-1 when a point shot by D Mitchell Prowse changed directions off the shaft of F Dante Hannoun’s stick and beat G Dylan Garand at 9:21 of the third period. . . . Hannoun has four goals this season. . . . The Royals got 26 saves from G Griffen Outhouse, who has played every minute of all six victories. . . . Garand, a 16-year-old from Victoria, made his first start of the season, stopping 20 shots. Garand, a third-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft, made two starts last season at the age of 15. . . . Kamloops D Nolan Kneen played in his 200th regular-season game on Friday in a 5-3 loss to the visiting Portland Winterhawks. . . . The Blazers, who opened the season with a home-and-home sweep of the Kelowna Rockets, now have lost five in a row. . . . The Royals are 3-0-0 against Kamloops, having beaten the Blazers 3-2 and 6-3 in Victoria on Sept. 28 and 29. . . . 
3 victory over the Pats in Regina. . . . Brandon’s second-period explosion included short-handed goals 28 seconds apart from F Caiden Daley and F Lynden McCallum. . . . The Pats, last season’s Memorial Cup host team, slid to 1-5-0. . . . 
a 5-4 victory over the visiting Swift Current Broncos. . . . The Broncos, the reigning WHL champions, are 0-6-0 and one of two teams in the 22-team league without a victory. The Calgary Hitmen, who were idle last night, are 0-4-1 after going 6-0-0 in the exhibition season. . . . In those six losses, they have scored 12 goals and given up 31. . . . Langan, who has five goals, scored three in a row, with the final one giving his guys a 4-1 lead 13 seconds into the third period. . . . The Broncos made it close with two goals late in the third. . . . F Justin Almeida had three assists for the winners. . . . The Broncos next play on Friday when they are at home to the Spokane Chiefs.
of his five games this season. Going back to last season, he has scored in six straight regular-season games. . . . According to Tbird Tidbits (@TBirdTidbits), Hamaliuk is believed to be the first Seattle player “to score a goal in the team’s first five games . . . since Petr Nedved” in 1989-90. . . . G Liam Hughes, back in action after sitting out one game with an undisclosed injury, stopped 44 shots for Seattle. . . . The Rockets now are 1-7-0. . . . With D Reece Harsch out after taking a high hit on Friday night, the Thunderbirds brought in D Luke Bateman, 16, from the major midget Thompson Blazers, who are based in his hometown of Kamloops. He was a fourth-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft. . . . Kelowna G Roman Basran, who stopped 28 shots, was in the thick of things for a lot of the night. He took three minor penalties in the first period — a minor for high-sticking at 7:32 and a double minor for high-sticking at 20:00 — and another in the third period (leaving the crease). . . . At 10:45 of the second period, Basran was involved in a collision that resulted in Seattle F Nolan Volcan getting ejected with a goaltender interference major and a game misconduct. . . . In the third period, Basran skated from his net well over the centre red line as players scrummed in the Seattle zone. Linesmen intercepted him before anything could happen. . . . The Thunderbirds and Rockets will meet again Wednesday, this time in Kelowna.
George Cougars. . . . On Friday, the Giants had beaten the host Cougars, 3-0. . . . G Trent Miner stopped 33 shots last night for Vancouver. . . . The Giants took a 3-1 lead at 19:22 of the second period when D Bowen Byram (2) scored. . . . The Cougars lost F Josh Maser to a major penalty for a slewfoot on F Justin Sourdif at 0:11 of the second period. . . . The Giants have won four games in a row and have allowed only 11 goals in seven games. . . . Joey Kenward, a former radio voice of the Giants who now works for Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, pointed out via Twitter on Saturday morning that the Giants, in their 17th season, “have posted back-to-back road shutouts for the first time in franchise history.” . . . Miner posted a 5-0 shutout over the Rockets in Kelowna on Wednesday, and David Tendeck followed that up by beating the Cougars on Friday.
curling championship.
clearance from the medical staff of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. . . . Shaw was injured on Sept. 10 while playing for a team of Wild prospects and subsequently underwent surgery. He has been skating for about a month. Last season, Shaw had 27 goals and 67 assists in 71 games, so having him healthy and in the lineup would be a huge boost for the Tigers as the playoffs being. . . . Meanwhile, G Jordan Hollett, who last played on Feb. 3, has been cleared by the Ottawa Senators’ medical staff to return from an undisclosed injury and may play this weekend. . . . There’s more 
give $7.5 million to the junior B Kimberley Dynamiters of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and the Kimberley Minor Hockey Association. Gould claimed to have won a whack of money in a Euro Millions Lottery draw. . . . The Dynamiters and KMHA have yet to see any of that pledged money. . . . After making the pledge, Gould played host to a party at a Cranbrook restaurant, then paid for it with $8,000 worth of cheques that bounced due to insufficient founds. On Thursday, Gould was sentenced in a Cranbrook courtroom for fraud. He was fined $4,000, placed on probation for six months, and ordered to do 60 hours of community service. . . . Trevor Crawley of the Cranbrook Townsman has more 
Saturday night, and Steve O’Rourke, the Cougars’ associate coach, didn’t like what he saw . . . from the Warriors.
to the Vancouver Giants in Langley, B.C. He left in the second period, apparently favouring his right leg.
TAKING NOTE 