Who says you can’t go home again?
Don Hay, who still had a year remaining on his contract with the Vancouver Giants, was given permission to leave the team he spent nine seasons coaching for his hometown Kamloops Blazers, a division rival with whom he won three MasterCard Memorial Cup championships.
Hay was an assistant coach with Tom Renney when the Blazers won the national championship in 1992, and the head coach for their next two titles in 1994 and 1995. Blazers owner Tom Gaglardi approached Giants owner Ron Toigo asking for permission to talk with Hay recently, and the move became official on Thursday.
“I’ve always made a point that I’m not going to stand in the way of what anybody wants to do, regardless of what their contract says,” Toigo told the Vancouver Sun’s Elliott Pap. “Don said he was comfortable with going home and they offered him a pretty good deal. I told him: ‘Great, I’m happy for you, I appreciate everything you did for us.’
“Maybe it was time for a change for everybody. I think it’s a good scenario, although it kind of came out of left field. We certainly weren’t planning this a month ago.”
Hay will have a rather difficult task rejuvenating the Blazers, who finished second-last overall with a 14-53-2-3 record this season. But the move will provide stability in Kamloops, who used three different head coaches at various points in 2013-14.
Hay, who’s second on the Western Hockey League’s all-time wins list, won a league championship with the in 2006 and the MasterCard Memorial Cup on home ice in 2007. As the Vancouver Province’s Steve Ewen suggests, things in Giants land, however, got stale of late as various players asked to be traded while the team struggled.
The Giants coaching vacancy should be interesting. With the team planning to bid on hosting the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup, the incoming bench boss stands to be a big name. Just don’t expect it to be former Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford.
WHEAT KINGS TAP LOCAL MARKET IN BANTAM DRAFT
Thanks to a trade with the Saskatoon Blades two years ago, the Brandon Wheat Kings made Winnipeg product Stelio Mattheos the first pick in the 2014 bantam draft on Thursday.
It was the first time in Wheat Kings history the team held the first pick in the draft. Coach and GM Kelly McCrimmon informed the scoring sensation of his status before the draft on Wednesday evening. Mattheos—who talked about himself in the same sentence as another former Winnipeger chosen first overall in the WHL draft, Jonathan Toews—cleared up any thoughts of him following Toews south of the boarder to the NCAA. “I want to be a great player in the NHL and I thought that the WHL would be the best place for me to go,” he told Brandon play-by-play man Bruce Luebke. “Brandon taking me really sealed the deal, I think, because it’s a great organization and, as an added bonus, it’s close to home.”
The Lethbridge Hurricanes, who had the worst record in the league this season, picked Jordan Bellerive second. He’s the brother of Matt Bellerive, a 20-year-old forward whose rights were traded the same day from Kamloops to Vancouver. Bellerive was the first player on Lethbridge’s list. “I spoke to him right after the draft,” Hurricanes GM Brad Robson told the Lethbridge Herald. “I know Drake (Berehowsky, Hurricanes head coach) spoke to him and I think he’s excited to come to Lethbridge. Hopefully we can get him to Lethbridge and show him the Enmax Centre and the organization. I’ll be talking to all the team’s drafts when I get back to Lethbridge.”
The Red Deer Rebels chose center Jake Leschyshyn sixth. He’s the son of former NHLer Curtis Leschyshyn.
A recap of the first round can be found here.
HURRICANE IN LETHBRIDGE
The negative headlines in Lethbridge aren’t going away any time soon.
The team faced financial downfalls, player trade requests, a poor on-ice performance and now, a review from the league to go alongside a lawsuit from former assistant coach Brad Lukowich. WHL commissioner Ron Robison was in Lethbridge last week meeting with city council. “We needed to conduct an immediate review of their operations,” Robison said. “Both looking at the hockey side of the operations and developing a new business plan for the organization.”
Global News reports the team, which is owned by the community, isn’t being asked by the WHL to sell to private interests. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, aren’t looking to make changes to their coaching or managerial staff, other than to hire an assistant coach and assistant GM after former assistant coach Lukowich was fired “with cause” in February.
Lukowich is now suing his former employer for wrongful dismissal. The Lethbridge Herald obtained documents from the lawsuit, which states, among other things, that Lukowich was offered a position titled “assistant to the GM” a day or two before the team issued a press release stating he was fired with cause.
DROUIN PASSES SUPER MARIO, NOT ENOUGH
Jonathan Drouin joined some elite company before his junior career likely came to an end.
Drouin surpassed Mario Lemieux for second in all-time playoff points in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League history with 102. Lemieux had 98 career playoff points in three seasons with the Laval Voisins. The all-time leader is Jacques Jr. Locas, who had 153 points.
Drouin is unlikely to have the opportunity to move up the list. The Mooseheads were eliminated in the seventh game of their semifinal series with Val-d’Or. The third overall pick in last summer’s draft is earmarked for Tampa Bay in the fall.
– Sam Reinhart was named the WHL’s player of the year. The other award winners were also named prior to the draft on Wednesday.
– The effort still isn’t where Guelph Storm coach Scott Walker would like it to be as his team heads to North Bay tied 1-1 in the OHL final.
– Portland coach and GM Mike Johnston got his start at 23 with Camrose Lutheran College. On his first day, he went to Edmonton to buy equipment, placing an order with, of all people, Ken Hitchcock. Now Johnston’s Winterhawks are up 2-0 in the WHL final, culminating another interesting story in his coaching career.
– The Saint John Sea Dogs still haven’t given up hope American sensation Jack Eichel will join their team next season, even if he signed his national letter of intent with Boston University last week. The Quebec Remparts, who are hosting next year’s MasterCard Memorial Cup, don’t yet have Saint John’s permission to speak with Eichel, but are in negotiations with the Sea Dogs to land his QMJHL rights.
– The sales of the Regina Pats and Prince George Cougars were both made official on Wednesday.
– Plymouth Whalers coach and GM Mike Vellucci is joining the Carolina Hurricanes as the NHL team’s assistant GM and director of hockey operations.
– Game 7 of the Toronto Raptors-Brooklyn Nets playoff series captivated fans and junior hockey players alike.
– A bet’s a bet