Some odds and loose ends, and some thoughts, on Friday’s news that the Winnipeg Ice have been sold and are on the move to Wenatchee, Wash., where the team will be known as the Wild. . . .
It seems that the decision by Lisa and Dick White to purchase the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice wasn’t in the works for a long time.
The WHL announced Friday that the Whites have bought the Ice and are moving 
the franchise to Wenatchee, Wash., where it will operate as the Wild. (Just wondering, but might the moving vans go through Cranbrook on their way from Winnipeg to Wenatchee?)
Bliss Littler, the Wild’s general manager, told Gabe Neumann, who covers the Wild for Area 51 Sports Network that the timeline was “not very long at all.”
“It’s always been thrown out there that Wentachee would be a great fit in the Western League, just by where we’re located,” Littler said. “It came together very fast.”
——
The Whites had operated the Wild in the BCHL since 2015. The BCHL left the umbrella of Hockey Canada on June 1, and you have to believe operating costs will increase, what with teams now scouting and recruiting in Europe and having indicated that there will be pay raises for on-ice officials, among other things. The BCHL also has promised that its teams will discontinue its pay-to-play format by 2025.
You also have to wonder if travel expenses might even be lower for the Wild in the WHL than they were in the BCHL. After all, the Wild will be playing the bulk of its games in the U.S. Division where, according to the Brandon Sun’s Perry Bergson, the distances between Wenatchee and the other teams look like this: Everett, 123 miles (198 km); Kennewick — 131 miles (211 km); Seattle 148 miles (238 km); Spokane — 170 miles (273 km); and Portland — 291 miles (469 km).
Put it all together and it has me wondering if the Whites, who in the past had indicated that they were quite comfortable in the BCHL, took a look down the road and decided if the cost of staying put was going to increase they might as well move into the WHL if the opportunity presented itself.
It did, and the Ice/Wild now is making the 2,071 km (1,287 miles) trek to Wenatchee.
——
Meanwhile, the Brandon Wheat Kings, whose shortest trip for the past four seasons has been to Winnipeg (217 km, 135 miles) now are looking at the Regina Pats as their closest opponent. That trip is 362 km (225 miles).
——
It doesn’t seem that many, if any, of Winnipeg’s off-ice people will be part of the Wild’s front office. The Wild already is advertising for an athletic therapist and an equipment manager. And it sounds as though Wenatchee will be adding a few scouts.
As Littler told Neumann: “The Western Hockey League is based on a couple of drafts. You live and die with the draft, so that’ll be something I haven’t dealt with in a while. I was with the USHL for 12 years and in that time, we ran with two drafts. We’ll have to put a scouting staff in place, (to have) people covering British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba . . . in the past, it’s been almost all Americans.”
——
Thanks to Lucas Punkari of the Brandon Sun, here is a look at the players whose WHL playing rights moved from the Winnipeg Ice to the Wenatchee Wild with the sale of the franchise:
Former WHL F Garrett Pilon scored at 10:01 of OT to give the host Hershey Bears 
a 1-0 victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Game 5 of the AHL’s championship final for the Calder Cup. . . . The Bears, who lost the first two games of this series on the road, now hold a 3-2 edge after winning three in a row on home ice. . . . The series resumes Monday in Thousand Palms, Calif., with Game 7, if needed, there on Wednesday. . . . Pilon’s fourth playoff goal came off a shot through traffic from about 15 feet in front of the blue line. . . . Hershey got 21 saves from G Hunter Shepard, while Joey Daccord stopped 30 for the Firebirds. . . . Pilon, 25, is in his fifth season in Hershey. He has 10 points in 18 playoff games. He played three seasons (2015-18) in the WHL, two-plus with the Kamloops Blazers and the last 30 games with the Everett Silvertips.
Headline at The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton): Canada hits 40 million people, 40 available houses.
THE COACHING GAME:
The CCHL’s Wellington Dukes have hired Kent Lewis as their director of hockey operations and head coach. Lewis, who is from Powell River, B.C., has coached in the BCHL for more than 20 years, spending time with the Powell River Kings, Nanaimo Clippers and Victoria Salsa. Lewis’s signing came a week after the Dukes hired Todd Diminie as their general manager. . . . Diminie and Lewis take over from Derek Smith, the general manager/head coach who left the organization earlier this month.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS:
There is junior A hockey in Kenora, Ont., again, with the news that the Islanders have joined the Superior International Junior Hockey League. The Islanders are preparing to begin play in 2023-24. This will mark the return of junior A hockey to Kenora for the first time since the Thistles ceased operations in 1982. The Thistles operated in the MJHL for seven seasons. . . . Jack Dawson, the Islanders’ owner, is expected to announce a head coach in the near future. . . . The SIJHL now features eight teams — Dryden GM Ice Dogs, Fort Frances Lakers, Kam River Fighting Walleye, the Islanders, Red Lake Miners, Sioux Lookout Bombers, Thunder Bay North Stars and Wisconsin Lumberjacks.
THINKING OUT LOUD: The CFL’s B.C. Lions are 2-0 after beating the visiting Edmonton Elks, 22-0, on Saturday. The Lions have been part of the CFL since 1954; this was their third shutout, the first since 1977. Yes, 1977. . . . The Elks hadn’t been blanked since Aug. 15, 1976, when they dropped a 40-0 decision to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina. . . . The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who whupped the Roughriders, 45-27, in Regina on Friday night have to be considered the CFL’s early favourites. If you haven’t seen the 92-yard punt-return TD scored by Winnipeg’s Janarion Grant in that one you should hunt it up and give it a look. It really was one for the ages.
SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE: On Friday afternoon, one day before the Special Olympics World Games opened in Berlin, BetOnline.ag tweeted: “We are proud to be the first Sportsbook to offer betting odds on the Special Olympics!”
A note from ESPN Stats & Info after the San Francisco Giants romped to a 15-0 victory over the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Saturday night: “At 15-0, the Dodgers suffered their largest home shutout loss in 125 years. On Sept. 20, 1898, the Pirates won 15-0 at New Washington Park against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Those two games make up the largest home shutout losses in Dodgers franchise history.” . . . Maybe that will make the Edmonton Elks feel better.
——
Zach Tremblay, a young man from Robson, B.C. continues to wait for a kidney transplant. While he has been waiting, his mother, Jana, has worked tirelessly in spreading the news about kidney disease.
And now Jana is dealing with bladder cancer and issues with her kidneys. As a result, her friend Paula Chaves has started a GoFundMe page.
“After feeling unwell in May,” Paula writes, “Jana visited the hospital where it was discovered that she had bladder cancer. On June 15, Jana’s kidneys were failing and she was air-lifted to Kelowna for emergency surgery. She is awake from surgery and waiting on what’s next. . . .
“With this sudden illness, Jana will be unable work for an unknown period of time and she and her family could really benefit from the financial support as they navigate through this incredibly difficult time.”
The GoFundMe page is right here. Please help if you are able.
——
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.
Johnston is the 23rd coach in WHL history to get to 300.
have a new name. The 10-year deal between the Keystone Centre and the Westman Communications Group has reached its end and Westman has to walk away. . . . Among other things, Westman owns Brandon radio stations QCountry 91.5 FM and 880AM and is in its 27th season of owning broadcast rights to the Wheat Kings. . . . The Keystone Centre apparently has a new naming rights deal done and an announcement is to be made in the near future. . . . There is no word as too how much these naming rights go for, but USC just got a cool US$69 million from United Airlines for the naming rights to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
coach. . . . Assistant coach Brock Sawyer was named interim head coach, with assistant coach Kyle Bodie remaining on the staff. . . . “(The board of directors) just felt this course of action was in the best interests of the Powell River Kings moving forward,” Rob Villani, the team president, said in a news release. “It was an incredibly difficult decision.” . . . Lewis had been with the Kings for about 25 years. He started as an assistant coach, moved up to head coach, and then GM/head coach. . . . The Kings are 23-15-4-5 (that’s four ties) and is second in the Island Division, two points behind the Victoria Grizzlies. The Kings are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, including three straight losses.
TAKING NOTE 