The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) unveiled a new award this season — the IIHF Male Player of the Year — and announced on Monday that the inaugural winner is F Connor Bedard of the WHL’s Regina Pats. . . . Never mind that he won’t turn 18 until July 17, Bedard had that kind of a year, winning two World Junior Championship gold medals (Edmonton and Halifax). In Halifax, he may well have had the greatest WJC in the event’s history. . . . According to Andrew Podnieks’ story at iihf.com, the award is “voted on by media and IIHF family from around the world.” . . . Bedard got 31.8 per cent of the votes, finishing ahead of Latvian G Arturs Silovs (19.6), Swiss F Andres Ambuhl (19.2), German D Moritz Seider (14.3) and Canadian F Adam Fantilli (11.9). . . . F Hilary Knight was named the IIHF Female Player of the Year earlier. . . . Bedard will cap off his season on Wednesday when the Chicago Blackhawks select him first overall in the NHL draft in Nashville. . . . Podnieks’ story is right here.
——
Keep in mind that ‘tomorrow’ in the below tweet is actually today (Wednesday) . . .
The AHL’s championship final for the Calder Cup will be decided in Thousand Palms, Calif., on Wednesday night. The Coachella Valley Firebirds forced Game 7 with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Hershey Bears on Monday night. . . . The Firebirds had opened the series with two home-ice victories. The series shifted to Hershey and the Bears won three in a row. . . . On Monday, F Kole Lind scored twice for the winners, giving him nine goals in these playoffs. D Ryker Evans, like Lind a former WHLer, had two assists.
As you may be aware, players who were on the roster of the BCHL’s Wenatchee Wild are free agents, free to move elsewhere, including to other BCHL teams. 
That’s because the Winnipeg Ice WHL franchise is moving to Wenatchee where it will operate as the Wild. The BCHL franchise, meanwhile, won’t operate in the 2023-24 season.
One of those free agents, 2003-born F Parker Murray, has signed with the defending-champion Penticton Vees. The son of former NHL F Glen Murray, Parker played the past two seasons with the Wild. Last season, the native of Manhattan Beach, Calif., put up 39 points, 23 of them goals, in Wenatchee. The 6-foot-5-225-pounder then added 13 goals — he had back-to-back four goal games — and one assist in 10 playoff games. . . . He was a 10th-round selection by the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL’s 2018 draft.
——
F Cade Littler, who would have been a free agent after playing the past two seasons with the BCHL’s Wild, actually made a move a few days before the Wild’s owners purchased the Ice. Littler announced early in June that has moved on to the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and will play with them in 2023-24. That announcement came after he attended their main tryout camp earlier this month. . . . He is the son of Wild general manager Bliss Littler. . . . Of course, had the 2004-born Cade stayed with the Wild and played in the WHL, he would have lost his NCAA eligibility. . . . Littler was committed to Minnesota State-Mankato in 2022 when the Calgary Flames selected him in the seventh round of the NHL draft. The plan was for him to go to Mankato for the 2023-24 season. But a coaching change at the school resulted in his being given the opportunity to change his commitment and now he plans on going to the U of North Dakota for the 2024-25 season. . . . Last season, he put up 68 points, including 29 goals, in 51 BCHL games. . . . Cedar Rapids had selected him third overall in the USHL’s Phase I draft in 2020. . . . The Edmonton Oil Kings selected him in the 10th round of the WHL’s 2019 draft. They traded his WHL rights to the Tri-City Americans on Jan. 1, 2020. In that exchange, the Americans gave up G Beck Warm and F Riley Stuart in exchange for Littler, G Carter Gylander and second- and fourth-round picks in the WHL’s 2021 draft. Stuart spent the past four seasons with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints. . . . Gylander just completed his fourth season at Colgate U. Warm spent parts of four seasons with the Americans and finished his WHL career by playing 15 games with Edmonton.
THE COACHING GAME:
Veteran coach Jake Grimes has joined the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit as associate coach. The Spirit is the host team for the 2024 Memorial Cup. . . . Grimes spent last season as an associate coach at the U of Waterloo. . . . He has spent 18 seasons coaching major junior hockey; most recently he spent parts of three seasons (2019-22) as the head coach of the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles, resigning in the middle of the 2021-22 season. . . . He has coached in two Memorial Cup tournaments — in 2008 with the Belleville Bulls and in 2019 with the Guelph Storm. . . .
The MJHL’s Niverville Nighthawks have added Ben Micflikier to their staff as an assistant coach. Micflikier played parts of three seasons (2010-13) in the MJHL, playing two games with the Portage Terriers and 44 with the Winkler Flyers. . . . Last season, he was an assistant coach with the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League’s St. Boniface Riels.
Headline at The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton): Anti-vaxxer demands you produce a single study showing mRNA vaccines are safe — no not that one.
——
The Beaverton, again: Poll — The Beaverton beats the National Post as Canada’s most preferred source of misinformation.
THINKING OUT LOUD:
Ron Robison, the WHL commissioner, attended news conferences in Cranbrook and Winnipeg on Jan. 29, 2019, at which long-rumoured plans to move the Kootenay Ice to Winnipeg were confirmed. On Friday, the WHL used a four-paragraph news release to announce that the Winnipeg franchise had been sold and was on its way to Wenatchee, Wash. . . . So when are the news conferences in Winnipeg and Wenatchee? . . . BTW, Olympia is the capital of Washington state, which now is home to five WHL teams. Olympia’s population is more than 56,000. So why doesn’t it have a WHL franchise? . . . It was great to see Joey Votto back at first base for the Cincinnati Reds on Monday. He’d been gone for 10 months, and baseball is better when he’s healthy. . . . And, just to make it really sweet, he went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run, a homer and three RBI in a 5-4 victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies. . . . The Reds made it 10 in a row on Tuesday.
The City of Kamloops is a whole lot poorer today following the death of Pete Friedel, who was the trainer for the junior B Kamloops Storm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. Friedel, who died on Saturday, was 63. . . . Before working with the Storm, he spent a whole lot of years helping out with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, going back to when they were the Jr. Oilers. He was with the Blazers for each of their three Memorial Cup victories (1992, 1994, 1995). . . . Friedel was a man of great courage who had dealt with health issues in recent times, most of them brought on by diabetes and kidney disease. . . . On Monday, his son, James, told Kamloops This Week: “I always knew how remarkable a human he was, but my phone has been buzzing off the hook literally since people found out. That’s just been the best thing, seeing that everyone kind of felt the same way about him. It’s something you always hope for. I mean, you assume, but it’s just kind of awesome to see how much the community really cared for him.” . . . The sincerest of condolences to the Friedel family and friends.
——
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.
TAKING NOTE 