If you were wondering, it appears that the four players from the Moose Jaw Warriors who sat out the regular season’s last 17 games while under suspension will be back in the lineup tonight.
The Warriors are to entertain the Lethbridge Hurricanes in Game 1 of a first-
round playoff series, and G Connor Ungar, D Marek Howell, D Max Wanner and F Lynden Lakovic all have been practising and are eligible to return.
“I think they’re a big part of the renewed energy around the rink right now,” head coach Mark O’Leary told Randy Palmer of moosejawtoday.com. “They’re a big part of our team, they have been to this point and any success we find in the playoffs, they’re going to be a big part of it. They look the same way they did when they left our group and that’s great to see.”
It sounds as though Ungar may be in Moose Jaw’s goal when the game starts, too. He was having a terrific season — 26-7-3, 2.58, .925 — before the four were suspended for what the WHL said was “a violation of team and league rules.”
“It’s all in how you look at it,” O’Leary told Palmer. “Any time something happens, there are both positive and negative things and one of the ones is he’s rested, he’s fresh and he’s chomping at the bit wanting to make a difference. So Connor looks really good and he’ll be ready to go Friday.”
No, the Warriors haven’t yet allowed any of the four players to speak with the media.
Palmer’s complete story is right here.
The OHL playoffs opened on Thursday night and — oh, yes!!! — hilarity ensued. On Twitter, that is!
In one of the games, the host Ottawa 67’s outshot the Oshawa Generals, 20-0, 
in the first period en route to a 7-0 victory.
After the game, the Niagara IceDogs’ Twitter account had this: “See ya soon, @Oshawa_Generals.” . . . The IceDogs, you understand, didn’t even make the playoffs.
Anyway, the Generals responded: “Y’all couldn’t even finish last properly. We are not the same.”
To which the IceDogs came back with: “Shots since this tweet: 22 67’s, 9 Gens. Maybe focus on the game.”
The Generals ended it with: “Ottawa may have handed us the loss, but somehow, despite their season ending last week, we still gave the IceDogs their 57th L of their season tonight.”
Then the Barrie Colts got involved, chiming in with: “Last week?!? More like months.”
Thought I would check in with the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine on Thursday night. I discovered that after three years it had shut 
down the centre’s operations as of March 10. . . . Thought you might be interested in knowing that as of March 10 the U.S. had lost 1,123,836 folks to COVID-19, with 2,216 of those dying in the week prior to that. . . . According to Health Canada, we have had 51,930 people die of COVID-19 through March 27 at 10 a.m. ET. In the seven days leading up to that, 117 people died. . . . All those deaths, all those families impacted forever, so many ill people and so few people doing anything about it. So, so sad, and I don’t think I will ever understand how we got to this horrid state of affairs.
Here’s Toronto-based journalist Matt Gurney (@mattgurney) via Twitter:
“To me, my no-bullshit explanation for why Canada is broken goes something like this: a plague just killed 50,000 of us, and I don’t see any sign that we’re actually, on any level, learning much of anything from that and applying those lessons in a meaningful way.
“If your country is so comfortable with the status quo, or so incompetent at changing it, that 50,000 dead Canucks all stacked up in a big heap isn’t enough to knock some sense into us, I don’t know how else to describe that other than ‘broken.’ ”
It’s that time of the year when a handful of players from non-playoff WHL teams head elsewhere to finish their seasons. Here are a few from the early days of the spring migration . . .
D Owen Pickering of the Swift Current Broncos has joined the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Pickering, who turned 19 on Jan. 27, was selected by Pittsburgh with the 21st overall selection of the NHL’s 2022 draft. This season, he had nine goals and 36 assists in 61 games as he served as the Broncos’ captain. He signed a three-year entry-level deal with the Penguins in July. . . .
F Josh Davies of the Broncos will finish his season with the Charlotte Checkers, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. They selected Davies, who turned 19 on March 24, in the sixth round of the NHL’s 2022 draft. This season, Davies, a physical forward, had 20 goals and 14 assists in 62 games with the Broncos. . . .
F Connor Hvidston of the Broncos has signed an ATO with the San Diego Gulls, the AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. They selected him in the fifth round of the NHL’s 2022 draft. This season, Hvidston, 18, finished with 21 goals and 44 assists in 59 games. In 177 career regular-season games, he has 34 goals and 63 assists. . . .
D Landon Kosior, who completed his junior eligibility this season with the Prince Albert Raiders, has signed an ATO with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He put up 135 points, 44 of them goals, in 213 regular-season games over four seasons with the Raiders. This season, the Regina native put up 17 goals and 46 assists in 63 games.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS:
The Brandon Wheat Kings have added Riley Dudar to their hockey staff as director of player development, a brand new position for the organization. From a Wheat Kings’ news release: “The Winnipeg product joins the organization after working in hockey operations as a scout with the USHL’s Chicago Steel, as well as serving as the director of player personnel for the MJHL’s Winkler Flyers.” . . . According to the Wheat Kings, Dudar “will also join the Wheat Kings scouting staff as well as occupy the role of director of player development with the (Western Canada Hockey Academy) in Brandon at the J&G Homes Arena.” . . .
The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks announced on Thursday that its Young Stars Classic will be back in Penticton’s South Okanagan Events Centre for at least two more years. The 10th edition of the tournament is scheduled for Sept. 15-18. Prospects from the Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets will participate in each of the next two tournaments.
THINKING OUT LOUD — Opening Day in MLB with the pitch clock was a resounding success. How great was it to watch the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees play in two hours 33 minutes? . . . The WHL playoffs open tonight and you have to think the Seattle Thunderbirds and Winnipeg Ice, the regular-season conference champions, are favoured to meet in the final. They both loaded up prior to the trade deadline, but there can only be one winner. So while there is going to be joy at the end of the trail, there also is going to be a whole lot of pain. . . . Don’t sleep on: Saskatoon Blades. Only Seattle gave up fewer goals, and the Blades’ one-two punch in goal is as good as it gets. . . . Wanted to watch Connor McDavid and the Oilers against the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night. But the NHL’s blackout regulations wouldn’t allow it. So it was back to baseball with Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout and the Angels in Oakland against the A’s. . . . I will never understand how the NHL game that had the Anaheim Ducks visiting the Seattle Kraken was available, but a game in which McDavid scored No. 300 wasn’t. Oh well, the NHL’s loss, I guess.
You may be aware that crooner Michael Bublé owns a chunk of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. However, you may not be aware of how that came to happen. Ryan S. Clark of ESPN chatted with Bublé and has that story and a whole lot more right here. Whether you’re a fan or not, this is an entertaining read. I mean, how do other WHL teams compete with a team that sometimes has Bublé appear on a video call while recruiting a player?
My wife, Dorothy, will be taking part in the 2023 Kamloops Kidney Walk on June 4 and, for a 10th straight year, is fund-raising. In September, she will celebrate 10 years as a transplant recipient. . . . If you would like to make a donation and be part of Team Dorothy, you may do so right here.
——
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.
Wanner, 19, D Marek Howell, 16, and F Lynden Lakovic, 16 — “have been suspended for the balance” of the regular season.
incident that occurred in Edmonton where the Warriors beat the Oil Kings, 4-1, on Feb. 3. The four players were in the lineup again on Feb. 5 when the Warriors beat the Hitmen, 2-1, in Calgary. But all four were scratched from a Feb. 8 game against Edmonton in Moose Jaw.
15 on Dec. 20, to their roster and he is expected to play tonight against Bedard and the Pats. . . . McKenna, who plays at the Southern Alberta Hockey Academy, is fresh off the Canada Winter Games, where he played for Yukon and set a tournament scoring record with 29 points in six games. . . . In 26 games with SAHA’s U18 prep team, he has 37 goals and 38 assists. . . . The first overall selection in the WHL’s 2022 draft, McKenna already has played 11 games with the Tigers. He has eight assists, four of them coming in his first game.
investigation led it to determine that whatever happened involving the four didn’t involve criminality.
had been suspended. According to the one-paragraph news release issued by the WHL, the four were “suspended indefinitely pending an investigation into possible violations of team rules and the WHL Standard of Conduct policies.”
contract with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. Masters, 19, was a fourth-round selection by the Wild in the NHL’s 2021 draft. . . . The Blazers acquired Masters from the Red Deer Rebels prior to this season. He has 11 goals and 48 assists in 58 games. . . . From Edmonton, he has 86 points, including 16 goals, in 164 career regular-season games with Red Deer and Kamloops. . . . The contract calls for an NHL salary of US$775,000 each season with $80,000 in the minors. There also is an annual $90,000 signing bonus. . . . Masters is the third Kamloops skater to sign an NHL contract in the past few days. F Caedan Bankier signed with the Wild, while F Ryan Hofer signed with the Washington Capitals. . . . 
personnel. . . . Davidson has been a free agent since May 21 when the Everett Silvertips announced that his contract wouldn’t be renewed after nine mostly successful seasons. . . . In Calgary, Davidson replaces long-time WHL player, scout and executive Dallas Thompson, who had been Calgary’s director of player personnel since July 11, 2017. The Hitmen announced on May 26 that “Thompson will not be returning next season.” . . . Prior to signing with Everett, Davidson spent four seasons with the Portland Winterhawks, serving as director of player personnel and head scout. . . . “With the number of drafts in the WHL this year,” Hitmen general manager Jeff Chynoweth said in a news release, “scouting is more important than ever and we are thrilled to add Garry Davidson to our organization. He has a tremendous amount of experience, a winning pedigree and a diverse background with a proven track record of not only identifying but also recruiting players.” . . . The Hitmen also announced that Gary Michalick will be back for a five season. He is the organization’s travelling scout. . . . Thompson, 47, played three seasons (1992-95) with the WHL’s Tacoma Rockets. He later spent 16 seasons with the Prince George Cougars, 10 as general manager. He spent two seasons (2015-17) as Calgary’s director of scouting before being named director of player personnel.
Thursday, one in which the rights to F Chase LaPinta, an unsigned prospect from Frisco, Texas, moved to Vancouver Island. . . . The Royals got LaPinta and a seventh-round pick in the WHL’s 2022 prospects draft, an eighth-round pick in 2022 and a second-rounder in 2024. The eighth-rounder originated with Victoria, so the Royals actually got back a pick that they had traded away. . . . In exchange, the Hurricanes acquired D Nolan Bentham (2003). . . . Bentham, from Victoria, was the 13th overall pick in the 2018 WHL bantam draft. As a freshman, he had one goal and two assists in 52 games with the Royals in 2019-20. He didn’t play with them in 2020-21. . . . LaPinta, a 2004-born skater, had six goals and six assists in 12 games with the 16U AAA Dallas Stars elite team this season. Lethbridge had selected him in the eighth round of the WHL’s 2019 bantam draft. . . . However, on Oct. 5, LaPinta announced his commitment to play NCAA Division 1 hockey at Arizona State for 2022-23. He also is an affiliate with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints. . . . 
organization as the director of broadcasts and media. He had been filling the role on an interim basis following the departure of Cam Moon, who now is with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. . . . Gillard was the play-by-play voice for the Rebels’ 23 games in the 2020-21 season. . . . He has been the news and sports director for Jim Pattison Media in Red Deer since 2012, during which time he also served as the host of the Rebels’ broadcasts. . . . Greg Meachem of 
four additions. . . . Branden Crowe steps in as director of social sales and strategic marketing. He also is the team’s play-by-play voice and will remain in that role. . . . Grady Manson, a former WHL player, now is the Wheat Kings’ director of corporate sales. He spent four seasons in the WHL (Moose Jaw Warriors, Tri-City Americans, 1992-96). He has spent the past 24 years in the golf and hospitality industry, most recently with the Wheat City Golf Course. He also has worked with the Clear Lake Golf Course in Onanole, Man., Bel Acres Golf Course in Winnipeg and the Elkhorn Resort, which also is in Onanole. . . . Wyatt Garden and Jordan Kaspick, both with ties to the Wheat Kings, have signed on with the Wheat Kings as account executives. Garden is the son of former Wheat Kings F Graham Garden. Of late, Wyatt has been in real estate and also owns The Media Garden, a video marketing frm. . . . Kaspick’s older brother, Tanner, is a former Wheat Kings captain and has been working in sales and marketing with the Wheat City Golf Course. . . . The complete news release is 
two from Manitoba are going to play in a Regina hub situation beginning next month.
moving to Regina to begin play next month, the junior A MJHL announced that it has cancelled the remainder of its season. . . . From an MJHL news release: “After multiple discussions with public health, representatives of the provincial government, facility managers and stakeholders, the MJHL board of governors has determined that the resumption and completion of the 2020-21 regular league/playoff season is not feasible due to current conditions. It has become unrealistic to continue operating in a state of hope with so much uncertainty and no timeline provided. It is unfair to our athletes and staff, our community organizations who have been severely impacted financially and the communities/regions our organizations support and garner support from.” . . . The news release, over commissioner Kevin Saurette’s name, also said that teams “will have the option to continue to provide training and development opportunities, exhibition games, etc. . . .” based on updated orders and directives from health officials and Hockey Manitoba. . . . The MJHL hadn’t played since Nov. 12. . . . The complete news release is 
but both games were postponed. As of Friday, they had seven players on the COVID-19 protocol list, including F Oskar Lindblom, who was added on Friday. Being on the list, doesn’t mean that a player tested positive; it might mean that contact tracing has shown a possibility of exposure. . . . Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer, 14 months ago and was declared free of the disease two months ago. . . . Also on the Flyers’ protocol list are D Justin Braun, F Morgan Frost, F Claude Giroux, F Scott Laughton, D Travis Sanheim and F Jakub Voracek. . . . F Steven Stamkos didn’t play for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, with the team saying he had a lower-body injury. On Friday, the Lightning put him on its protocol list. Stamkos later tweeted that he had gotten a false positive. . . . The NHL had 47 players on the protocol list on Friday.
announced combined losses of more than $1 million on Tuesday night, something that should have set off alarm bells among fans hoping for some kind of 2020-21 season.
million class-action lawsuit, although that settlement has yet to be approved by the court. Still, assuming that it is, each of the WHL’s Canadian teams will be on the hook for that amount.
director of hockey operations and head coach, is the only employee working on the hockey side of things, with Nathan MacDonald and Ryan Stricker on the business side. Their retail store — The Stable — is open and management has authorized 10 paid hours per week for communications.
in which they won the WHL championship, they announced a profit of $633,314. In the previous five seasons, they had shown losses totalling $806,571 in four of them; the exception being a profit of $3,892 in 2015-16.
hasn’t yet been announced.
fighting. . . . The league approached the government and asked for $20 million in subsidies to help its 12 Quebec-based team get through the pandemic. . . . Isabelle Charest, a former Olympic speed skater who is the junior education minister, suggested the league needed to do more to eliminate fighting. . . . On Wednesday, the QMJHL’s board of governors voted to slap a fighter with a major and a misconduct, meaning that player would have to sit out 15 minutes. A player also would face a one-game suspension after accumulating three fights, with more time off for each fight after that. . . . Here is the QMJHL’s Rule 47: “All players involved in a fight will now be assessed a misconduct penalty (duration of 10 minutes) which will be added to the major penalty (five minutes), except if a player involved is considered an instigator or an aggressor. An automatic one-game suspension will be assessed after the third fight, and for any additional fight.” . . . There is a chart 
the 2019 WHL bantam draft from the Everett Silvertips for a seventh-round pick in 2019. . . . From Kelowna, Murray was dealt by the Calgary Hitmen to the Silvertips last season for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2019 or 2020 bantam draft. . 
undisclosed conditional 2021 bantam draft pick from the Thunderbirds for F Keegan Craik, 17, and a fifth-round pick in the 2019 bantam draft. . . . MacLean, 6-foot-7 and 235 pounds, obviously adds size to the Cougars’ roster. From Penticton, he had two goals and two assists in 38 games with Seattle last season. He also got into 24 games with the AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats, putting up three goals and three assists. . . . Schoenfeld, like MacLean, is a list player. Last season, he had one goal and eight assists in 32 games with the Okanagan Hockey Academy Elite 15s. . . . Craik, from Brentwood Bay, B.C., was a fifth-round selection by the Cougars in the 2016 bantam draft. He got into two games with the Cougars last season, going pointless. In 27 games with the Delta Hockey Academy prep team, he had 13 goals and 16 assists. . . .
afternoon that they have “reassigned” Nick Sanders, 20, “to a team and league to be announced at a later date.” . . . Sanders, from Calgary, was a sixth-round selection by the Tri-City Americans in the 2013 WHL bantam draft. . . . He made 29 appearances with the Americans before being dealt to the Prince Albert Raiders on Oct. 13, 2016, along with a third-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft, for G Rylan Parenteau, 20. . . . Sanders got into 34 games with the Raiders in 2016-17 and four last season before bowing out due to hip problems. The Raiders sent him to Calgary on Jan. 8 for a sixth-round selection in the 2019 bantam draft. . . . The Hitmen still have goaltenders Matthew Armitage, who turns 19 on Oct. 30, Carl Stankowski, 18, and freshman Jack McNaughton, who will hit 17 on Oct. 30, on their roster. . . . Stankowski was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds on Aug. 7. He was Seattle’s starting goaltender in the playoffs as the Thunderbirds made their run to the 2017 WHL championship, but hip and health issues kept him sidelined last season. . . . 
from Vancouver who is the only one of the WHL’s 22 first-round 2018 bantam draft selections who has yet to sign. . . . The Kelowna Rockets selected Wong with the 18th overall selection, knowing that he was looking at going the NCAA route. In November, he made a verbal commitment to the U of Denver, starting with the 2020-21 season. . . . On Monday, there were rumblings that Wong either has signed, or is on the verge of signing, with the Rockets. He attended their rookie camp late in August. . . . Last season, with the St. George’s School bantam varsity team, he had 141 points, including 64 goals, in 30 games.
around 1,800. It will be the Broncos’ first home game since the bus accident on April 6 that claimed 16 lives.
Montreal Canadiens’ prospects team.
under the radar until you think about it.
TAKING NOTE 