F Colton Gillies (Saskatoon, 2004-08) has signed a one-year contract with Dinamo Riga (Latvia, KHL). Last season, he was pointless in six games with Dinamo. He was injured (shoulder) in early October 2017 and was out for the rest of the season. . . .
F Jesse Mychan (Everett, Tri-City, 2011-13) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with Esbjerg (Denmark, Metal Ligaen) after obtaining his release from Nitra (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had two assists in five games with Nitra this season. . . .
F Kaspars Saulietis (Kelowna, Regina, 2006-08) has signed a contract for the rest of this season with HK MOGO Riga (Latvia, Optibet Liga). Last season, he had eight goals and seven assists in 25 games with Nové Zámky (Slovakia, Extraliga).
Could F Michael Rasmussen soon be on his way back to the Tri-City Americans?
Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA, 
Rasmussen, 19, has to play with the Red Wings or the Americans. Detroit selected him ninth overall in the 2017 NHL draft.
Rasmussen, from Vancouver, opened the season with the Red Wings, and was a scratch for the first time on Monday as Detroit, which is 0-4-2, lost 7-3 to the Canadiens in Montreal.
In five games, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Rasmussen has one assist while averaging 12 minutes 34 seconds of playing time, including 2:05 per game on the PP.
Of course, the Red Wings have some time to make a decision because they won’t burn the first year of his three-year contract unless he plays a 10th game.
Last season, with the Americans, he had 59 points, including 31 goals, in 47 games. Then, in 14 playoff games, he added 16 goals and 17 assists.
In 161 regular-season games, all with Tri-City, he has 157 points, 81 of them goals.
The Swift Current Broncos, who open a tour of the B.C. Division tonight, have added D 
Austin Herron to their roster. Herron, 17, could be in the lineup tonight when the Broncos meet the Vancouver Giants. . . . This season, the native of Abbotsford, B.C., had one goal in eight games with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles. Last season, he had one goal and five assists in 38 games with the major midget Okanagan Rockets, who play out of Kelowna. . . . He was selected by the Moose Jaw Warriors in the third round of the 2016 WHL bantam draft.
The Spokane Chiefs have signed D Mike Ladyman to a WHL contract. Ladyman, from 
Winnipeg, has been on the Chiefs’ protected list since November. The 17-year-old has one goal and eight assists in eight games with the MJHL’s Winnipeg Blues. Last season, he had two goals and 21 assists in 60 games with the Blues. . . . Ladyman is expected to be in the Chiefs’ lineup tonight when they meet the Wheat Kings in Brandon. . . . The Regina Pats selected Ladyman in the fifth round of the 2016 WHL bantam draft.
There seems to be a he-said, he-said situation ongoing in Medicine Hat, where the one 
thing not in doubt is that veteran F Gary Haden has asked for a trade. . . . On Sunday, Haden told Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News, via text: “I asked for a trade on Thursday morning and was told to go home Thursday afternoon.” . . . On Monday, McCracken tweeted: “Tigers HC Shaun Clouston says Haden requested a trade then left on his own. The team is in no immediate rush to make a deal.” . . . Clouston is the long-time general manager and head coach in Medicine Hat. . . . Haden, 19, is from Airdrie, Alta. He has 25 goals and 28 assists in 115 career regular-season games with the Tigers. Last season, he had 17 goals and 25 assists in 70 games. This season, he recorded a goal and two assists in nine games.
Keith Flynn, the owner/operator of Flynnagain Productions, died in hospital in 
Kitchener, Ont., on Oct. 9. He was 58. . . . Flynn designed the WHL logo, along with numerous others. . . . This is from his Linked In site: “The company began in April 1997 with our first client, the Cincinnati Cyclones of the IHL. Over time, our company has created designs spanning North America with clients ranging from Roger Clemens to John Daly, Microsoft to the AHL. Our league logos include the WHL, IFL, SPHL, PASL, PBL and IHL as well as Baseball Canada’s logo. This last year Flynnagain Productions created designs for MTV’s Rob Dydek, the Raptor’s DNBA affiliate, Erie Bayhawks and the NHL Calgary Flames.” . . . Chris Creamer of sportslogos.net has more right here, including a look at some of the logos that were Flynn’s work.
The BCIHL’s Trinity Western Spartans have started their season with three straight victories, the latest a 4-1 victory over Simon Fraser U on Saturday night. . . . Interestingly, the Spartans won’t play again until Oct. 19 and 20 when they visit the Hamline University Pipers, a Division III team that plays out of St. Paul, Minn., and the U of Minnesota Gophers, a Top 10 team in Division I. . . . The Spartans are the BCIHL’s reigning champions, so the game with the Gophers will be an interesting test. . . . This season, the Gophers are 2-0-1, having tied (1-1) and beaten (7-4) the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and then dropped the USA U-18 side, 7-1.
Brandon West, who has been a BCHL head coach for four years, has joined the Penticton Vees as an assistant coach. West, with a career head-coaching record of 91-77-12-16 in the BCHL, was with the Surrey Eagles last season when they got into the second round of the playoffs. . . . West, who is from Kelowna, will work alongside Fred Harbinson, the president, general manager and head coach, and fellow assistant coaches Jason Becker and Matt Fraser.
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two seasons. . . . Hunter, who is preparing for his fifth season in Moose Jaw, replaces Dominique Ducharme, Canada’s head coach for each of the last two seasons. Ducharme has signed as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. . . . With Hunter moving up from assistant coach, Brent Kisio, the head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, has been added to Canada’s staff. The other assistant coaches are Marc-Andre Dumont of the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Jim Hulton of the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders. . . .
they named Alvin Backus their director of player personnel and Mike Fraser as their head scout. . . . Backus spent the past seven seasons as an amateur scout with the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. His contract with Montreal expired on Saturday and wasn’t renewed. . . . Backus lives in Salmon Arm, B.C. Garry Davidson, who is heading into his seventh season as the Silvertips’ general manager, was the owner, general manager and head coach of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks for seven seasons (2001-08). . . . Fraser, a WHL scout since 2005, lives in Edmonton. . . . He started scouting with the Swift Current Broncos in 2005 and spent seven seasons with them. Fraser has been working with the Brandon Wheat Kings since 2012-13. . . . The Silvertips lost Bil La Forge, their director of player personnel for four seasons, to the Seattle Thunderbirds, who named him general manager on June 6.
coach of the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos. Oystick, 35, replaces Darcy Haugan, who was killed in the April 6 bus crash that also claimed 15 other lives. . . . Oystrick spent last season coaching a high school team in Colorado. In 2016-17, he was an assistant coach with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators. . . . A defenceman, he played two seasons (2000-02) with the BCHL’s South Surrey Eagles before going on to four seasons at Northern Michigan U. His pro career included stints with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers, Anaheim Ducks and St. Louis Blues. . . . Kevin Mitchell of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has more 
with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. He was a seventh-round selection by the Jets in the NHL’s 2017 draft. . . . Last season, McKenzie, 20, had 47 goals and 40 assists in 72 games. In 282 regular-season games with Portland, the Sherwood Park, Alta., native has 101 goals and 111 assist. He was an eighth-round pick by Portland in the WHL’s 2013 bantam draft. . . . He is eligible to return to the WHL for one more season, but likely will start the season with the Manitoba Moose, the Jets’ AHL affiliate.
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