Rodeo Roy Back In The Saddle

Former Lethbridge Hurricanes G.M. 'Rodeo' Roy Stasiuk is back in the hockey game, hired on by the Toronto Maple Leafs as a western Canadian scout.

Stasiuk was let go in what I think was a odd and poor decision by the board of directors in one of Canada's windiest cities this off season, and yes I still think the decision blows.

But the 'Canes loss is the Leafs gain as Stasiuk knows talent. He was the head scout for the Kootenay Ice during the team's best years where they made it to atleast the western conference semi-final from 1999-2003, and won the franchises only Memorial Cup in 2002.

Stasiuk was the brains behind players like Steve McCarthy, Jarret Stoll, Marek Svatos, and Dan Blackburn who were all great WHLers and some of whom have gone on to very good NHL careers as well.

Toronto has only selected one WHL player in the last 3 drafts (Luke Schenn, 5th overall, 2008) and when you factor in Junior A, have only grabbed 4 kids total west of Ontario in the same time frame. Something tells me Rodeo Roy will be changing that.

Ex Oiler farm coach Jeff Truitt back behind the bench?

Both Gregg Drinnan and Rod Pedersen who both have their fingers on the pulse of the WHL are reporting that former Springfield Falcons head coach Jeff Truitt will be the next G.M. for the Moose Jaw Warriors. The tribe didn't renew the contract of Chad Lang for this year and Truitt's hiring is expected Monday morning. A WHL source of mine also mentioned Truitt as head coach in MJ. Gregg Drinnan reported that current Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak might also have a contract that won't be renewed for next year, paving the way for Truitt to step behind the bench once again in the WHL.

Truitt was an assistant and a head coach in Kelowna before the Oilers hired him to coach their AHL team. However he failed to last the whole season.

Meanwhile Pat Siedlecki is reporting that the Hurricanes have had 8 applicants for their vacant G.M. position, one of them being Rich Sutter. Rich along brother Ron have reportedly been trying to buy the Canes for a few years, and a former WHL manager recently told me that with the G.M. spot open, Rich Sutter might just be content with being the G.M. instead of the owner. It would be a lot cheaper and he'd still get to run the team.

Hurricanes decision blows

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Wow. That's all I could say when my Global Sports colleague John Sexsmith broke the news to me about Roy Stasiuk being let go in Lethbridge. I was on the golf course at Sturgeon Valley all day and zipped straight to a charity bowling function where John told me. I've had some time to digest it and read some comments from the organization and now I feel like spewing my opinion.

The guy on the left might summarize it with this. "Worst decision ever."

First of all I think this is a big mistake, and the board is blowing smoke up you know where with some of their comments.

“We had very high expectations going into this season,” Lethbridge president Brian McNaughton told the gathering. “We believed we had a very strong group of 1989-born players and coming off of last season our expectations were quite high. Those expectations were not met."

HUH?????

This is a team that started the season without 2008 first round draft picks Zack Boychuk (Carolina 14th overall) and Luca Sbisa (Philadelphia 19th overall) and while both came back Boychuk was still getting over a wrist injury while Sbisa played only 18 regular season games. How did the team not meet expectations??? After Stasiuk made a ballsy deal to bring in Kyle Beach, the poster child for bad reputations notched 33 points in 24 games. He did struggle with offence and discipline in the post season, but he was reportedly good in the dressing room. The Canes also knocked off the 2nd ranked Saskatoon Blades, then lost to Calgary who didn't lose a game until the WHL final. So to me the board is full of BS with those comments.

"We’ve gone through an extensive evaluation period here for the last several weeks and came to this decision in the middle of last week.”

Brilliant comment here. Why then did you let Roy tie the can to Michael Dyck? And why would you let him run your bantam draft? This is just my opinion, but I think something happened from the time Dyck was cut loose and today. Maybe it was how out spoken Stasiuk was, maybe it was a "backroom deal" he spoke about after getting fired. But I don't think the board is being honest about when they made this decision.

One thing I'm sure of, Rodeo Roy will get back in the saddle again. He was a key cog in building the Kootenay Ice when they were winning league and Memorial Cup titles, and has a great eye for talent. He also took the Hurricanes to the WHL final just last year, so the 'Canes decision today could be very premature and might come back to bite them in the....