vees:blog

VEES ADD FORWARD

The Vees have signed USHL forward Jake Johnson (89) to join the club. Jake represents the Vees last import and 20-year-old spot on the roster, as each BCHL team can carry six 20’s and 8 imports.

Where Johnson fits into the Vees picture is yet to be seen. Johnson arrived in Penticton today and skated with the club in their pre-game ice-time.

ANOTHER COLLEGE COMMITMENT

Late cut from training camp F - Steve Iacobellis (93) - who captains the Vancouver Major Midget Giants - has accepted a scholarship to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Iacobellis joins fellow 16-year-old Stephan Nicholishin as a future Maverick.

“We are very excited for Steven, he can now focus on playing the game knowing where he will be for the next six years of his career. I look forward to helping develop Steven over the next two seasons”

~ Vees Head Coach and GM Fred Harbinson

The Vees have 8 players committed to NCAA programs on their roster not including Iacobellis who is a safe bet to join this Vees club next season.

VEES VS. COWICHAN VALLEY CAPITALS

- The Cowichan Valley Capitals arrive in the Okanagan today as one of the youngest teams in the BCHL. The Caps are carrying just three 20-year-old, and have 4 players who are 16 or 17 years of age.

- The Caps are averaging a league worst 2.9 goals per game played, and have no players with over 3 goals. The Vees by contrast have seven.

- The Caps have added last year’s only BCHL goalie on the NHL draft watch list, in Alexandre Peck. Peck posted some nice numbers with the Victoria Grizzlies last year as they hosted the RBC Cup.

- The Vees have now killed off 11 straight penalties dating back to their loss in Merritt last Tuesday.

- Lost amid his torrid scoring pace is Denver Manderson’s 11 game point streak. The Vees captain has recorded at least a point in each game of the season. Quietly, rookie forward Alex Szczechura has recorded point in each of his last 7 games.

- Adam Zamec will make his season debut tonight for the Vees. The alternate captain has been out recovering from off-season injury, but has been skating with the club for a few weeks now. Zamec will play with Hayden Trupp and Stephan Nicholishin on the 4th line.

- Puck drop is 7:05 from the South Okanagan Events Centre. Catch the broadcast of the game at 6:45 with Chad Campbell (who is pinch hitting for Al Formo) and myself on EZ Rock, at BCHL.ca or at myezrock.com

* Shawn Mullin tees up the four-team pre-season exhibition tournament going down in the Kootenays with Smokies head coach and GM Jim Ingram. The Vees and Smokies will be joined by the Coastal Conference champs in the Powell River Kings, and the Brooks Bandits who had last season’s top record in the South Division of the AJHL.

* Former BCHLer Don Nachbaur has been hired as Head Coach of Bingingham Senators (Making Cents has the scoop). Fellow BCHL product Cory Clouston who was promoted to the big club during last season’s mess in the nation’s capital.

Nachbaur played his minor hockey in Prince George as Ron Gallo tells us.

* Former Vees Sniper Austin Smith has the quote of the week:

“British Columbia was like a tropical island compared to Upstate New York. Spring and fall are very nice, but the winter is a little cold.”

The Dallas born and Dallas drafted forward (he’s been playing centre at Colgate) tells Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page he is raising his goals for his Sophomore season. Smitty had 17 bingos and 31 points in 37 freshman appearances with the Raiders. The Texas kid had 67 points in his lone BCHL season and scored the first goal of each game of the BCHL Final in Nanaimo, raising his game in the second season.

* Teams for the BC Hockey Hall of Fame Charity Game will be announced tonight (stay tuned to the blog at around 9PM PST). Dennis Walker and Andre Martin will be selecting team Quinn while Sun FM/EZ Rock boys Randy Farmer, Allan Gee and Jon Ferebee will be joined by Crystal Nohr in selecting Team Renney. If the anticipation of the first pick is distracting you from work today, you aren’t alone. Agonizing over the top pick is common place.

* The Alberni Valley Bulldogs have pulled the trigger on a deal to acquire a 20-year-old tough guy from the AJHL. Alberni will most certainly be better this year, but are they a playoff team? Ask the magic eight ball!

* Curtis McKenzie was in town last weekend and I managed to get him in-studio for a quick chat. The power forward is off to Miami of Ohio this season and was selected by the Dallas Stars in the 6th round of the Entry Draft. I started off by congratulating C-Mac on being drafted…

Listen Now:

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Lots going on in the BCHL, here’s a look at the latest…

* Surrey Eagles 20-goal man Spencer Bennett has elected to play for the Portland Winter Hawks this season after being drafted by Calgary in the 5th round.

Spencer ducks out on a commitment to the University of Alaska Anchorage with the decision. No word if any Sutters influenced his choice.

* The Prince George Spruce Kings have brought back former Penticton Bronco Ed Dempsey for two more years at the helm. He’s responded by making some roster tweaks including bringing in Pentictonite and former Vees net-minder Evan Smith. Some nice TV coverage here on Ron Gallo’s Blog.

* The Merritt Centennials have rounded out their coaching staff with assistants Luke Pierce and Richard Molenaar.

The new assistants join Head Coach and GM Joey Bouchard (above) in the quest to snap their two year run without playoff action.

* The Trail Smoke Eaters have settled on a goal-tending tandem that backed up Kevin Jebson in Westside last season. Garrett Beckwith and Devon Murtagh have re-united in the Kootenays to stop pucks, but the question remains who will back up Jebson be the starter. The Smokies have also added Darnell Dyck up front in exchange for 20-year-old goalie Paul Barclay who was shipped to Surrey. My homeboy ‘Mullsy’ is all over it at the Smokies Blog.

* The Vees will play an extensive seven game pre-season schedule (five of which are on the road). Starting with a three game round robin in Trail with the AJHL’s Brooks Bandits, the Coastal Conference defending champs from Powell River, and of course the host Smokies. Last season a similar pre-season event was played in Dawson Creek, BC with the Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL) Prince George Spruce Kings and the Burnaby Express taking part.

* After Brad Fox scampered out of town the reincarnated Timberwolves have announced their 2nd head coach as Dave Dupas formally of the Okanagan Major Midget Rockets.

Dupas has a two-year deal and an owner/president in John Wright who wants to be a playoff team come March. That could pose a problem.

* Vernon Vipers D-Man Kyle Bigos was at Oilers Prospect Camp after being drafted in the 4th round. Bigos is interviewed here, and pumps the tires of the RBC Cup as best he can.

Bigos was as improved as any player in the BCHL last season and was named the MVP and Top D-man at the RBC (he is shown above teasing his bleached-blonde Mohawk). Bigos is off to Merrimack this season and will leave a big hole on the Vernon blueline that will also lose Cam Brodie, Cody Ikkala and Mike Leidl due to their ‘88 birth years.

* Staying with the national champs, Pentictonite Sahir Gill is off to the Chicago Steel USHL, which has left some cranky at the Northern tip of the Okanagan. Like mysterious ‘vipersdiehardfan’ blogger who clearly has (her/his) (panties/briefs) in a knot about the move.

Head Coach Mark Ferner was also less than enthusiastic about Gill’s goodbye when speaking with the Vernon Morning Star:

“I feel like we treat our players pretty good here. Here’s a young player, 16-years-old, playing on the top line, the top powerplay unit, and he goes and makes a lateral move to another league… He had offers from big (NCAA) schools and he had NHL teams looking at him. There will be lots of teams who will question Sahir for making this decision.”

To me it’s not a lateral move at all. Yes, the BCHL and USHL are both NCAA eligible junior leagues, but c’mon the USHL had seven players drafted at the June NHL Entry Draft BEFORE Kyle Bigos was the first BCHLer nabbed, and the USHL grossed seventeen players picked as compared to five players selected from the BCHL. Add the US Developmental Program to a concentrated 13 team league this year, over 180 commitments to college programs and it’s obvious the level of play in the USHL is simply higher.

Sahir wanted to play at a higher level. End of story. This isn’t about getting a commitment (he already has his pick of schools), this is about development and a bigger challenge for the talented ‘92 forward - who was far and away the top 16 year old in the BCHL last season.

Curtis McKenzie’s monstrous sophomore campaign in the BCHL has garnered one final honour - as the brute was drafted by Dallas in the 6th round of the NHL Entry Draft.

After just three goals in his sixteen-year-old season, C-Mac made huge strides this year as he earned a scholarship out of training camp, earned a silver medal at the World Jr. ‘A’ Challenge with Team Canada West, played in the CJHL Prospects game in P.E.I., was named a BCHL All-Star, and earned an alternate captaincy in the Fall, after which he was named the Captain of the club when Denver Manderson went down to season ending injury at the end of January. The Golden, BC product also lead all 1991 born BCHL players in point production.

Here’s Vees Head Coach and GM Fred Harbinson on Curtis being drafted:

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Holy smokes, it’s been ages since the last update on the Vees Blog.

It seems like it was just yesterday that Kyle Bigos dangled in from the left point and toe-dragged the entire Humboldt Broncos squad enroute to the Vipers 5th RBC Cup.

Since we last spoke the Vees Blog has been scuba diving with sharks (okay, there was only one) in Malaysia, enjoying pork dumplings in Shanghai, and climbing in Yangshuo “ni-hao“!

Okay, enough storytelling. With the NHL Entry Draft taking place this weekend it’s time to get back into hockey mode.

Lots of news and notes regarding the Vees and the BCHL including:

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Some call it ‘Insomnia’, I call it time to hunt for random hockey information on the internet.

Here the top NHL quotes I found last night, errrr… At 4 this morning.

“I told all the boys after, thanks. It’s been a long time”

- DALLAS STARS Goalie Marty Turco after collecting his first win in Joe Louis Arena after posting a (0-8-2) record in his previous 12 starts in Hockeytown.

“It’s a debacle of monumental proportion”

- EDMONTON OILERS Coach Craig MacTavish following a 10-2 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres following the All-Star Weekend (they had fun with this one in Calgary).

“I think that’s probably the problem with his back… He was taking that money to the bank”

- DETROIT RED WINGS Coach Mike Babcock on Henrik Zetterberg missing Thursday’s game with the Stars after signing a 12-year, 72 Million Dollar Contract Extention.

“That’s good. Now I’m the top scoring European on the team”

- CALGARY FLAMES Goalie Miikka Kiprusoff taking a humourous poke at the Flames roster, after he was notified he was credited with an assist in the Flames 5-2 Win over the Sabres. Kiprusoff is the only European on the team.