Tips and the U-17s, plus link updates

Published 8:50 am Friday, September 4, 2009

First, an update on Everett’s prospects and the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. If you remember, seven Silvertip 16-year-olds attended provincial development camps during the summer as part of the selection process for the U-17s, which take place Dec. 29-Jan. 4 in Timmins, Ontario. Five advanced one more step toward making their respective teams. Those were:

B.C. – C Manraj Hayer

Alberta – C Josh Winquist

Saskatchewan – D Ryan Murray, C Tyler Giebel

Manitoba – D Evan Morden

Winquist, Murray and Morden are still currently with the team and are candidates to stick, Giebel was reassigned last Sunday, and Hayer decided to play junior A this season. Each player only needs to survive one more cut, as all that remains is for each province to pair its total down to 11 players. B.C. and Alberta combine to form Team Pacific, Saskatchewan and Manitoba combine to form Team West.

Second, I made a few adjustments to the links provided at the left. The Spokane Spokesman-Review’s Chiefs blog is active again after several months of inactivity. Former Chiefs beat writer Dave Trimmer is back at the wheel, so go ahead and check there for any Chiefs news. I also added Tyler Hunnex’s Seattle Thunderbirds fan blog. In the past I limited the links to those from other newspapers or broadcasters. However, I’ve been monitoring Tyler’s blog and he does excellent work, and this now gives you places to go for each team in the U.S. Division. Finally, I updated Andy Kemper’s link to reflect the new spelling of Winterhawks (changed from Winter Hawks).