In less than two months, the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation will salute 29 past and present-day scouts by inducting them into its Wall of Honour. That will all be part of a July 29 dinner in Okotoks, Alta., where the Wall of Honour is housed in the Viking Rentals Centre. . . . It also is being billed as A Night With the Sutters, with members of the hockey-playing Sutter family on hand to take part in a hot stove session or two. Tickets for the dinner are available at tickets.hockeyscoutsfoundation.com. . . . As the big date nears, we want you to meet the inductees, and this time it’s Tim Lenardon.
TIM LENARDON
(May 11, 1962 —)
Born in Trail, B.C., he played for his hometown junior Smoke Eaters (1979-83), as had his father, Norm. Tim put up 476 points, including 234 goals, in 148 games with the Smokies. . . . Went on to Brandon University where he starred with the Bobcats (1983-86), leading the team in scoring in each of his three seasons. . . . Got into scouting on a part-time basis with the Vancouver Canucks in 2000. Was hired on a full-time basis in 2010 and remained on the team’s staff through the 2021-22 season. . . . Injuries, including concussions, brought his playing career to an end after two seasons (1991-93) with the IHL’s Kalamazoo Wings. . . . A free-agent signing by New Jersey, he played 15 NHL games, scoring once in seven games with the Devils and once in eight games with the Canucks.
head coach during their annual golf tournament today (Thursday). . . . Viveiros, a former WHL player and coach, has spent the past three seasons as the head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. . . . In Vancouver, Viveiros, 57, will take over from Michael Dyck, who left the Giants after five seasons for a position as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. . . . Viveiros also worked in the WHL as the director of player personnel and head coach of the Swift Current Broncos for two seasons, winning the WHL title in 2018. He was the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs for one season (2019-20). . . .
teams without a head coach. The leading candidate to replace Brent Kisio in Lethbridge is believed to be Bill Peters. The 58-year-old Peters has had two WHL coaching stints, both with the Spokane Chiefs.
development. . . . Patrick, 60, spent the past six seasons as the Ice’s head coach. . . . Patrick is the third key off-season hiring for the Royals, joining Joey Poljanowski, the vice-president of hockey operations, and Jake Heisinger, the associate general manager. Poljanowski joins the Royals from the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, while Heisinger had been in Winnipeg with the Ice. . . . Interestingly, Patrick has spent the past 17 seasons in the coaching game, the first 11 as an NHL assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres and then the Dallas Stars. That followed a playing career that included 1,280 regular-season NHL games over 21 seasons. . . .
with the Kamloops Blazers. He had been one of their two assistant general managers and also was the director of player personnel. . . . Sandland 40, is from Nanaimo. He joined the Blazers as their head B.C. scout in 2018 and was promoted to director of player personnel a year later. He added the AGM tag a year ago. . . . Shaun Clouston is the Blazers’ GM and head coach. Tim O’Donovan is the other assistant GM. . . . The Blazers’ website still shows Sandland as the team’s assistant GM and director of player personnel. But, then, it still shows Ken Fox as one of three head scouts and he told Taking Note on Aug. 8 that he had retired, a move the team acknowledged two days later on X, formerly know as Twitter.
Swift Current, Coward played in 45 games over four seasons with the Rebels, going 25-23-4, 2.66, .904. . . . Due to hip issues — he underwent double hip surgery — he got into only four games last season (1-2-1, 2.98, .902). He was 0-2-0, 4.76, .830 in two playoff games. . . . Tikhon Chaika, the Raiders’ starter last season who is from Belarus, won’t be returning after signing with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk. Chaika, 20, is from Minsk. He made 101 regular-season and playoff appearances with the Raiders over the past two seasons. . . . It could be that the Raiders start the season with Coward and Max Hildebrand, 19, as their goaltenders. Hildebrand was 11-14-3, 3.71, .871 as a sophomore last season. . . . The trade would appear to leave Kyle Kelsey, 19, as the Rebels’ starting goaltender. Last season, in 37 games, he was 21-11-5, 2.64, .907. He followed that up by going 7-2-1, 2.36, .912 in 11 playoff appearances.
contract extension. The length of the extension wasn’t released. . . . McMullin is going into his 12 season as the club’s director of scouting. . . . McMullin, 68, played five seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings back in the day. A prolific scorer, he put up 418 points, including 168 goals, in 309 regular-season games. The Wheat Kings weren’t very good back in those days, and he only got into 10 playoff games. That only makes his regular-season scoring feats even more impressive.
TAKING NOTE 