Local Chris Moulton leaves Spokane for the Wasserman Agency

After 14 years Fernie local Chris Moulton has left the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and joined the Wasserman Group  . Wasserman is a highly rated sports agency representing and marketing talent from  sports to entertainment and everything in between.


The Wasserman Group recently branched out into hockey  and bought out Bobby Orr’s player agency and now represent several NHL stars including Austin Mathews, Connor McDavid, Roman Josi, Aaron Eckblad and others. 

Chris Moulton “ I needed a change and Wasserman made me an offer that was tough to turn down”

So for those who don’t know, Moulton grew up and played minor hockey here in Fernie then moved on to coaching and eventually worked his way up to the Jr A Ghostriders as an assistant Coach/General Manager in the 1990’s.

It was around then that he joined the Calgary Hitmen as a scout and by 2005 he had built himself a good enough reputation that he got Spokane Chiefs  Director of Player Development position and eventually became Assistant General Manager.

Just getting into the WHL (without an NHL background) is a huge accomplishment, ask any coach in Junior A or B how hard that is... then to have success at that level says a lot. I’m sure he will work hard at his new job and do well at it. 

Chris and his wife Shelly are also the founders of “Friends For Friends “ you may have heard of them, but if you haven’t click here

Rock and Roll I mean the cages will never die

So here’s what we have all been waiting for, a comparison of before and after the face mask rules. Again, as stated over and over again, if the rules were cross Canada and not just in BC all the backlash would be settled by now. There was a memo out there saying that next year, not this fall, all junior B teams across Canada will use the cages. 

Hockey Canada and BC Hockey clearly dropped the ball on this IMO all they had to do was make it fair.

Oddly enough Hockey Canada will not be forcing junior A to wear the cages even though they undisputedly (according to this) make the game safer. And they wouldn’t dare try and tell the CHL how to live.

So if a Jr A guy loses his teeth can he sue HC for not putting in obvious safety rules to protect him, like wearing hard hats, glasses  and steel toed boots in the workplace... the CHL is in court as we speak with a lawsuit claiming they are essentially a workplace that should pay minimum wage. 

There is not full section on concussions and I’m pretty sure the teams were not asked if the number of concussions went up last season.  The only way they would know is if there was a claim put in. But I don’t know if every concussion results in a claim, sometimes the player just misses games... or not.

Anyway, like it or not, it’s clear the cages are here to stay


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Kamloops Storm owner Barry Dewar sells his franchise

After 18 years one KIJHL Championship several real good teams  and a host of players moved up to the next level Kamloops Storm Owner Barry Dewar has sold the Storm to Tracy Mero.

Read the full story by one of the best writers covering the KI  Marty Hastings Here

A pissed off Dewar says the final straw was when he was suspended for one year for tampering, (talking to other team’s players) .

Dewar "The league is moving in a direction I’m not happy with” 

He's preaching to the choir round here....

So why am I telling Fernie fans about something going on way up in Kamloops. When a tree falls in the forest... 

Twice so far  the Kamloops Storm, who have been plagued with poor attendance, have tried to move North to Quesnel but the KIJHL nixed the idea mostly because of travel costs, Story  by Melanie Law.

 The new owner Mero has a business in Quesnel... and Williams Lake also wants a team in the KIJHL. It’s just a matter of time if you ask me, and you didn’t.

If two more big Cities get in and possibly even Cranbrook, the small towns like Invermere, Sicamous, Golden and a few others... and maybe even Fernie will find it extremely hard if not impossible to compete. 

Several fans tell me Cranbrook would be a good fit for local rivalries and short travel. 

Well it was quite a few years ago since they were in but here is what happened when they were in the KIJHL , and they had some Fernie players on some of those winning teams as well. Fernie was in the league for some of these seasons (The Sabers) and Sparwood (Elk Valley Raiders) were in for some too.

Some Hockey Money Talk

Hockey Money

The Nelson Leafs are yet another hockey team reporting money problems. At their AGM a few weeks ago they said the cost of running their franchise went up $100,000 in the last four years... although revenue did move up $80,000 it’s still not good. And Nelson like 100 Mile Fernie Kimberley and Revelstoke do very well at the gate.

Even worse for the fans in general, the Leafs say the return of inter-conference games and resulting longer schedule cost them $72,378.  You can read Tyler Harper’s story here

• It would be horrible to see the league go back to conference only games like we had a few seasons ago.  But it’s probably heading that way. It wasn’t that long ago there was semi serious talk of splitting the KIJHL into two leagues and have two reps at the Cyclone Taylor Cup. 

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I missed the Ghostrider AGM this year, the first time since 1992. But found out they made around $8000 plus paid off some of their debt incurred when they had to play out of Sparwood a couple of years ago. Just not enough fans in Sparwood. 

• But overall I would say the Ghostriders did well enough. Getting rid of the Showcase and a few tweaks of the schedule this season could keep the Riders heads above water, however they still need more billets and are losing volunteers so it’s not perfect.

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The Winnipeg Blues of the Jr A MJHL are charging players up to $12000 to play Jr A. The price went up from $3000 last year because... get this, they are now owned by the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice who you’ll remember just left Cranbrook in a messy divorce. You could learn to hate them....
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The Coaching washing machine

The Merritt Centennials of the JR A BCHL lost longtime head coach Joe Martin (formerly with Creston) this season. He left because Merritt has money problems and can’t hire a HC for more than a year because they don’t know if they will even be around next season. So Martin went to Alberni Valley where he will join another CVT coach Jeff Dubios.  

AND Former Rider Coach Barry Wolff who was with the Swan Valley Stampeders last year is going to Merritt. 

• Could Merritt be the team the City of Cranbrook has plans for? They reportedly didn’t want an AJHL team or a KIJHL team, story by David Opinko. 

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Still no word on if the media friendly Larry Martel is staying on as the new League Commissioner, and I have not seen any ad for a Commissioner either.  Although I have heard a few names out there  some of them are under contract so no nothing here. 

But we do know there is a new league structure and an advertisement for a Communications Police Man, I mean Manager. Hopefully the new Comish is the one who picks the new Twitter Cop. Kinda like how a coach picks his assistants. But what do I know.
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The New League Office Bosses from the AGM Report

The last piece of business at the AGM saw the new League Steering committee get voted in as part of the new governance. Tom Bachynski (100 Mile House) will be the new Chairman of the Board. Dean Keller (NOK Knights), Brett Holt (CV Rockies) and Jeff Wright (Nelson Leafs) will be directors and help the new the office adminstration run the league going forward. 

 Jim Harrington will stay on a Vice-Chairman and will look after discipline. Kathy Merkel will step in as Executive Assistant for the league office. Larry Martel was hired as the League's first Commissioner by the Chairman of the Board to oversee all hockey business.

Ch-ch-ch Changes

We here at the blog have been forced to make some changes  for the 2019-20 hockey season.

The KIJHL in its infinite wisdom (with Fernie’s blessing at the KIJHL AGM) has decided to fine the “volunteer" team media people (play by play guys, writers etc) who won’t toe the party line. In other words everything is wonderful or we’ll fine you up to $2500. Meaning they would fine the team for anything they didn’t like on Twitter, internet broadcast or any other platform.

The KI and BC Hockey were really pissed because everyone was mocking them for forcing the cages on the players... but only in BC not in the rest of Canada, from a recruiting standpoint it just wasn’t fair. The Spokane Nelson stuff pissed em off pretty good too.

So with that in mind I have completely left the Ghostrider organization (they had already brought in a PR guy and wanted me out anyway) and so now they will do their own PR work.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,  we will continue to do what we have always done (entertain you with local hockey) only now as an independent operator. 

Anyway in case you were wondering if the threat was real... I have already been contacted by the KIJHL’s so called “Commissioner"  saying he was looking forward to fining the team in my honour... or something like that. So I left the team, after more than 20 years of doing almost every job they ever had. 

 I am old and semi retired and the Riders want new younger blood so the parting was mutual... you know unless I wanted to be goal judge, security or one of the many other jobs I had in the past... uh no thanks,  now I can "just watch” instead of work the games.

The Unknown Soldiers

The Unknown Soldiers

Today the KIJHL  lost four Unknown Soldiers, unknown because very few knew who was doing the league media. In fact  the league its self was scrambling last Saturday night trying to figure out who exactly was running their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and Fernie’s governor even contacted me for some information. Funny I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t know. Well now they know, or used to know... see the letter below.

Another little known fact is that a few years ago Rider News was the guy running the KIJHL Twitter account, back in its infancy. We doubled the number of followers but then after a dustup with the former league president over something unrelated to the KIJHL Twitter we left and got the tireless Josh Lockhart to take over.

Amusing that some of the very people the KIJHL really wants to fine this year, Rider News, Summerland's Tim Hogg and the so called Twittergate monster Frank Guill,  were able to wear league hats to promote the KIJHL with zero controversy... who knew eh

Anyway see the unknown letter of resignation and note the under appreciated comment that I totally agree with. Below that the new media policy and new fines the league can hardly wait to use on the very people who promote them.

Josh Lockhart

As some of you are aware, after six years of being a fan blogger and reporting on the Kimberley Dynamiters, I am stepping away from it.

What I never anticipated was that I’d end up doing some volunteer work for the KIJHL.

Several seasons ago I assumed the reigns of the KIJHL Twitter account.

As the demands got bigger, Tim Hogg (Summerland Steam), who had started a Facebook account for the KIJHL, and I teamed up to share the load.

Then at the start of this season with new league leadership, it was requested that we have a stronger social media presence.

That brought Jen Jensen (Osoyoos Coyotes) on board and she paved the way for the KIJHL’s Instagram feed.

Frank Guill (Spokane Braves) came on board as well with his infographic prowess, and he’d catch things that we’d miss.

The workload, while shared, was divided up: Tim - Facebook, Jen - Instgram, Me - Twitter, Frank - catching what we missed.

We spent hours upon hours each week discussing how we could promote the players, teams, and the league. It was thankless work, but we did it for the fans, the players, and their families.

As this season came to an end, it became apparent that many of us were burnt out and felt very unappreciated for our efforts.

It also became apparent that this group of four volunteers could not meet the expectations and time demands that the league was hoping for in social media. 

This band of misfits that I feel accomplished so much, and is very passionate about the future of the KIJHL, has decided to disband for various reasons, and will be focusing their time and effort on their respective teams.

I for one would like to take this moment to express my gratitude for their work. Even though I have only met one of them in person, we have become good friends.

So thank you (un)official KIJHL Media Department for all your hard work.

No Cranbrook in 19-20 ? or Know Cranbrook soon ?

Although it was very close it now appears that  Cranbrook will not ice a team in the KIJHL next season.

The Kelowna Chiefs were all set and KIJHL approved  to play out of Cranbrook but because the WHL Kootenay Ice still have a lease on the rink with the City of Cranbrook they couldn’t come up with a deal that allows a new tenant. 

As usual it’s all about money, or was it one final shot at the City of Cranbrook by the Winnipeg Ice ? You can read about it in detail here. 

Kelowna became available because their owner Grant Sheridan contacted bacterial meningitis and has been hospitalized for months, it’s a very sad situation.

I find it odd that in a big city like Kelowna there isn’t someone who wants to take over the team. Anyway the aforementioned article says that it’s still possible that the team could move to another location...

But as we already know from a couple of years ago new teams have to be within the KIJHL “footprint”, just ask Quesnel and Williams Lake about the big foot monster.

Moving the team will get harder as the days pass because this is the time of year the schedule gets made and that’s a very challenging job fitting in 20 teams with 49 games each and “Black Days” meaning days they can’t get the ice. Plus everyone wants Friday night, the biggest beer and attendance night of the week.

Having Cranbrook in the league would be great for travel times, costs and rivalries but the payback would be the stark reality  that recruiting players to a big City with a College is easier than to smaller centres like Fernie. 

We also hear one of the teams in our division would have to play out of another division if Cranbrook got in.

If I was a governor in either the AJHL or the BCHL I would have a hard time agreeing to travel to Cranbrook, but Cranbrook will keep on lobbying for Jr A  or another WHL team. Meanwhile expect the Key City to join the KIJHL next season…but in my opinion if a Kelowna deal could be made in the next couple of weeks I believe the KI would bend a bit.