D Zach Yuen (Tri-City, 2008-13) has signed a one-year contract extension with Kunlun Red Star Beijing (China, KHL). Last season, he had one goal and one assist in 35 games. . . .
D William Wrenn (Portland, 2010-12) has signed a one-year contract with Dornbirn (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). Last season, in 46 games with Grizzlys Wolfsburg (Germany, DEL), he had one goal and nine assists. . . .
F Mads Eller (Edmonton, 2013-15) has signed a one-year contract extension with the Rødovre Mighty Bulls (Denmark, Metal Ligaen). Last season, in 24 games, he had 11 goals and eight assists. He was tied for second on the team in goals.
Jason Smith is back in the WHL, less than a year after being fired as the head coach of 
the Kelowna Rockets. On Tuesday, Smith was named the Prince George Cougars’ associate coach. . . . The Cougars announced on July 4 that Mark Lamb, their general manager, also would be the head coach. At the time, Lamb stressed the importance of hiring a solid associate coach, who would run the team while Lamb was tied up with his other duties. . . . “I am thrilled that we could bring on Jason,” Lamb said in a news release. “He checks off every box of what we were looking for in an associate coach.” . . . Lamb and Smith, 45, have some history together. Lamb was an assistant coach and Smith a defenceman on the 2001-02 Edmonton Oilers. . . . Smith spent two-plus seasons as the Rockets’ head coach before being fired on Oct. 22 with the club at 4-10-0. In his two full seasons as head coach, the Rockets were 45-22-5 and 43-22-7. . . . From Calgary, Smith played two seasons (1991-93) with the Regina Pats before going on to a pro career during which he split 1,008 regular-season NHL games between the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton, Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators. . . . He spent two seasons with Ottawa as a scout and development consultant, then was an assistant coach for two seasons.
Ed Fowler is the Victoria Royals’ new director of player personnel. Fowler, who is from 
Vancouver, has been on the Royals’ scouting staff for six years, most recently as senior regional scout (west). According to a news release, he will be “responsible for the co-ordination of the Royals’ scouting staff, assisting in the development of the team’s 50-man Player Protected List and the recruitment of prospects.” . . . The Royals also have a new athletic therapist — J.T. Ward. He joins the Royals after working with Pacific FC, Victoria’s pro soccer team Ward, who is from Prince Rupert, B.C., also has worked with the BCHL’s Cowichan Capitals, Nanaimo Clippers and Alberni Valley Bulldogs.
Using information from NHL drafts from 2005 to 2014, Prashanth Iyer of Hockey Graphs has put together a study of young players and their long-term development. What he discovered, according to Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston, is that the pro-junior agreement between the NHL and NHLPA “is putting major junior draftees behind their peers in terms of long-term development, suppressing their hopes of NHL stardom.” . . . Basically, what that means is that because 18- and 19-year-old Europeans are allowed to play professionally, they get a leg up on their careers, while a major junior player, selected in the NHL draft at 18 or 19, isn’t able to join a pro team until his 20-year-old season. . . . Johnston’s complete piece is right here.
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That’s because Sydor is one of the team’s five owners. . . . After the Blazers dropped the visiting Victoria Royals, 6-1, on Wednesday night, Marty Hastings of Kamloops This Week spoke with Kamloops head coach Serge Lajoie about job security and a whole lot more. . . . 
have signed general manager and head coach Jeff Wagner to a contract extension that runs through the 2020-21 season. . . . Wagner is in his first season with Fernie. . . . The Ghostriders are 25-13, with three ties and four OTLs, and will finish second in the Eddie Mountain Division, behind the Kimberley Dynamiters, who are 39-4 with one tie and one OTL. . . . Wagner, from Calgary, joined the Ghostriders after working as the assistant GM with the KIJHL’s Creston Valley Thundercats.
Loschiavo, to beat the Warriors, 3-2, in Moose Jaw. . . . Edmonton (31-17-8) is atop the Central Division, three points clear of the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . Moose Jaw (30-15-8) has lost two in a row. It appears headed for a third-place finish in the East Division. . . . The Warriors played 12 of their previous 13 games on the road. In those 13 games, they were 9-3-1. . . . The Oil Kings had been 0-7-4 in their previous 11 games with Moose Jaw, not having beaten the Warriors since Feb. 20, 2016. On that night, the Oil Kings won, 3-2, in Moose Jaw with F Dario Meyer getting the winner. . . . F Carson Denomie (3) gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead at 12:55 of the second period. . . . Edmonton went ahead 2-1 on third-period goals from Loschiavo, at 2:11, and F Andrew Fyten (14), at 10:54. . . . D Josh Brook (14) pulled the Warriors even, on a PP, at 12:59. . . . Loschiavo snapped the tie with his 26th goal at 13:38. He has eight game-winners this season; only F Brett Leason of the Prince Albert Raiders and F Tristin Langan of the Warriors have more, with nine. . . . Loschiavo would have had a hat trick had he scored on a second-period penalty shot, but he was unable to beat G Adam Evanoff. . . . Loschiavo played the first 215 regular-season games of his WHL career with the Kootenay Ice, then was dealt to Moose Jaw and played 40 games there. On May 3, Edmonton sent F Nick Bowman and a sixth-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft to the Warriors for Loschiavo. . . . G Todd Scott stopped 31 shots for Edmonton. . . . The Warriors got 36 saves from Evanoff. . . . With G Dylan Myskiw (ill) sidelined, the Oil Kings had G Matthew Pesenti, 17, backing up Scott. Pesenti, who plays for the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers, was with Edmonton on an emergency basis, because his WHL rights belong to the Regina Pats. He has spent time with the Pats this season and got into two games last month. . . . The Oil Kings also scratched F Scott Atkinson and F Zach Russell, both of whom also were ill. . . . Edmonton D Jake Neighbours served the last game of a four-game suspension. . . . Moose Jaw had F Tate Popple in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 31.
victory over the Silvertips in Everett. . . . This game was to have been played on Wednesday night but was postponed 24 hours when poor driving conditions kept the Rebels from making it to Everett in time. . . . Red Deer (29-19-5) had lost its previous six games (0-5-1). It is in possession of the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot. . . . Everett (38-13-3) leads the U.S. Division by seven points over the Portland Winterhawks. . . . F Robbie Holmes (10) gave Everett a 1-0 lead at 1:40 of the second period. That was his first goal since being acquired by Everett from the Regina Pats at the Jan. 10 trade deadline. He had nine goals and seven assists in 24 games with the Pats. He’s got a goal and two assists in 12 games with Everett. . . . F Brandon Hagel (32) pulled Red Deer even at 11:26 of the third period. . . . D Jake Christiansen scored for Everett in the fourth round of the shootout, only to have F Jeff de Wit equalize. . . . Alexeyev then won it in the next round. . . . Each of the goaltenders — Red Deer’s Ethan Anders and Everett’s Dustin Wolf — stopped 37 shots through OT. . . . Red Deer was 0-5 on the PP; Everett was 0-4. . . . Brent Sutter, the Rebels’ head coach, now has 496 regular-season victories as he strives to become the ninth coach in WHL history to get to 500.
TAKING NOTE 