Hard-rock local defenceman Ralph Nattrass, who was the great Bill Gadsby’s partner with the Chicago Blackhawks in the late 1940s, just passed away in Edmonton at age 87. He was living at the Rutherford Heights Retirement Residence. Nattrass played on the same Chicago Blackhawks team as Doug Bentley, the colourful Bep Guidolin, Bert Olmstead, Gus Bodnar and Hall of Fame goalie Frankie Brimsek. Nattrass played 223 games for Chicago and was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, but his sister, June Hill, said he broke his patella in his right leg and had to quit in 1950. He was only in his mid-20s. He went into automobile sales in Chicago and then started a mobile homes company in Texas.
Maybe Paul Holmgren will love being the president of the Philadelphia Flyers, which is a fancy-schmancy title, but it’s a business-first job, not hockey. Holmgren is a hockey man, first and always. The good company man, Holmgren agreed to be kicked upstairs from general manager because his assistant, Ron Hextall, was ready and teams with vacant management chairs were seriously eying the former goalie. But unless Holmgren suddenly loves the business side, he might ask for a different hockey job or move elsewhere.
What do the Columbus Blue Jackets give their best skater, Ryan Johansen, coming out of his entry-level deal? Do they offer up a two-year bridge contract for $8 million or go all in like the Edmonton Oilers with Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle (six years or more at $6 million a season)? I know one thing: Johansen will have the captain’s “C” on his chest some day soon and he can be a 80-90-point centre.
Hall of Famer Adam Oates can probably make $800,000 not to work next season after the Washington Capitals fired him, but I can definitely see him working with head man Randy Carlyle in Toronto. I can see ex-Carolina Hurricanes assistant coach John MacLean, who played with Brendan Shanahan in New Jersey, joining the staff, too.
I wonder if ex-Nashville Predators coach Barry Trotz should hang in and see what opens up after next season starts rather than jump back on the horse in lukewarm coaching situations in Carolina, Florida and Vancouver, and even Washington, where he’d be coaching Alex Ovechkin.
Craig MacTavish’s son, Sean, who was third in scoring in the Alberta Junior Hockey League this past season with the Sherwood Park Crusaders, was the 16th-overall pick in the second phase of the United States Hockey League draft a few days ago. He’ll play in Waterloo, Iowa, this winter to, hopefully, increase his foot-speed and then go off to Boston University on a scholarship in the fall of 2015. It’s interesting that two other sons of NHL GMs (George McPhee’s son, Graham, and Ray Shero’s son, Chris) will be playing at rival Boston College. In the USHL draft, the sons of Brian Bellows, Marty McInnis, Adam Foote, Tony Amonte and Jason Woolley were taken.
It’s looking more and more like the Minnesota Wild fleeced the New York Islanders in that Cal Clutterbuck for Nino Niederreiter trade. Clutterbuck is a fourth-line disturber while El Nino, who was rushed to the NHL and barely played in 2010-11 after being drafted fifth overall when he should have been sent back to his Portland Winterhawks junior squad, has the talent to be a top-six winger. “He’s the first Swiss (drafted) player who plays a north-south game,” said Switzerland’s former national team coach, Ralph Krueger.
I wonder if the Boston Bruins will be shopping third-liner Chris Kelly this summer because Carl Soderberg is anchoring that line now. Kelly (sore back), 33, has been out a month. He makes $3 million the next two seasons. Tough-nosed Kevan Miller may have taken Adam McQuaid’s spot on the back end, too.
Ex-Edmonton Oilers centre Todd Harvey is an assistant coach with the Ontario Hockey League champion Guelph Storm, who’ll be in the Memorial Cup at London, Ont., later this week. Harvey, who runs the Hockey Loft training academy in Ontario, assists ex-NHLer Scott Walker, the owner/head coach of the Storm. Walker could be Canada’s next world junior team coach.
