Former Grizzlies Bob Beers and Andy Brickley who both were members of the 1996 Grizzlies Turner Cup Championship team Wednesday night celebrated the Stanley Cup Championship as members of the Boston Bruins broadcast team.

Speaking of former early IHL Grizzlies, former Utah Assistant Coach Kevin Cheveldayoff, who served the last two seasons as Assistant General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks was recently named General Manager of the new NHL franchise in Winnipeg.

In fact, here is a youtube link of two former Utah Assistant Coaches in Cheveldayoff and Greg Spenrath, who also played for the Grizzlies, dropping the gloves back in 1987 when they both played in the WHL as amateurs.

Here’s a good one for you. Former Grizzlies center Glen Gulutzan has been named Head Coach of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Don’t remember him? Well you should, because he played three games with Utah in 1996-97. It’s almost amazing that he has landed a head coaching job in the NHL without ever playing in the AHL or NHL; or even never having worked in the NHL at all. His entire playing career spanned six seasons in the WCHL with Fresno, one year in Finland and four total games in the IHL, the other game being with the Las Vegas Thunder. His coaching resume has seven seasons as the Head Coach for the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers and the last two seasons with the Texas Stars of the AHL.

The usual first announcement regarding shaping of rosters for the upcoming season will take place July 1 when each ECHL team can qualify up to eight players from their previous roster.

For the 11th straight year there were ECHL ties to the Stanley Cup. Click here to read the ECHL.com story.


Throughout the summer, blogs will appear when there is news to report pertinent to the Grizzlies.
 

2005-2006 Grizzlies captain Louis Dumont retired after a 17-season career and was promptly named General Manager of the Louisiana Ice Gators of the SPHL. The move is a perfect fit for the Dumont family as his wife’s family is from there and they made it their home in previous off-seasons.

The Colorado Eagles were officially admitted to the ECHL Tuesday three days after losing game seven of the Central Hockey League finals last Friday night. If you want an ECHL comparison, the Eagles were probably the Alaska Aces of the CHL. They are known for their big crowds, dominant success on the ice and attracting top players. They expect to have players return from this year’s team on next year’s roster and will be anything but a typical expansion team.

Also, if you’re just a casual observer, the Victoria Salmon Kings announced May 5 that they were leaving the ECHL. If you followed us in the playoffs in Victoria, you’ll remember the team held a press conference during the Grizzlies morning skate prior to game three of the second round series to announce that they had acquired a Western Hockey League team. Obviously, any foresight would have told you that the small resort island town of Victoria had no desire to host two hockey teams at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre and that the ECHL was on it’s way out. The Salmon Kings ECHL membership was terminated and will not be appearing anywhere else. The addition of Colorado was coincidental.

Bakersfield Head Coach Marty Raymond departed this weekend for a job in Europe. Ironically, he will coach the team led by former Grizzlies Ryan Kinasewich and Andy Sertich. This article even says that Kinasewich helped him get the job. Marty is a good person and was one of the most hospitable coaches in the league.

If you’ve visited ECHL.com, you may have noticed that team’s protected lists were announced. Read nothing into it, it has nothing to do with foreshadowing anything for 2011-2012. The first sign of that will be the eight qualifying offers on July 1.

Throughout the summer, blogs will appear when there is news to report pertinent to the Grizzlies.