WHL's Attitude On Hiring from Within/Moen and the Media

I always like it when WHL teams hire from within.
The Everett Silvertips did just that Thursday by promoting John Becanic.
Becanic was an assistant under Kevin Constantine in Everett, and it's nice to see him rewarded for his efforts.
The WHL has so many quality assistants, who often times get overlooked when a team losses it's head coach.
When Marc Habscheid left Kelowna after winning the Memorial Cup in 2004, GM Bruce Hamilton elected to hire from within by giving Jeff Truitt a chance.
Now Becanic has been given the chance of following in the footsteps of a successful coach, much like Truitt did with Habscheid's departure.
He will undoubtedly bring a new approach to the Tips as a far friendlier figure in the dressing room, again a similar route Truitt took when he replaced Habscheid.
How did the players responded in going from an army general, who shouted to get his point across,to a players coach in Truitt who had an open ear and a shoulder to cry on when needed?
While the two were polar opposites, the players responded well to the change with a WHL championship in Truitt's first year.
Whether Becanic can get his team to buy into his concepts, and have the type of success Truitt did is yet to be seen.
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Cam Ward signed an 8 million dollar deal with the Carolina Hurricanes Thursday.
Why I mention Ward on this blog is twofold.
Ward is a former Red Deer Rebel, but more importantly was the goaltender the Kelowna Rockets beat in capturing the franchises first WHL championship.
Even during the championship series in 2003 you knew Ward was special. The Rebels have had so many solid goaltenders come through the organization over the years, but Ward was a cut above.
Ward has already won a Stanley Cup, is coming off a 30 win season, and is now being paid like one of the best young goaltenders in the NHL.
This past season Ward made 684 thousand dollars.
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I came across a cool story Terry Jones did this week on Stewart Valley's Travis Moen. The former Kelowna Rocket is getting a fair share of press coverage in his first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals.

Here is the article following his game winning goal in game one of the best of seven.

Stewart Valley, Saskatchewan, was a one-elevator town until they tore it down. Now it’s a one horse town.
That horse, however, is Travis Moen. And today he’s the toast of the town.
The Anaheim Ducks had just ridden the broad back of the 6-foot-2, 216-pound player to another Stanley Cup playoff win, this one with Moen scoring the winner with less than three minutes to play to give the Ducks a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.

For the second time this spring, Moen scored the game-winner. The first was in overtime against Vancouver. Now, the 75 citizens of the Stewart Valley are going to have to put up a little bigger
‘Home of Travis Moen’ sign than ‘the little one,’ as the Duck describes it, that greets folks driving through the place, 10 km outside of Swift Current. Three more wins and Moen will be bringing the Stanley Cup to the Stewart Valley Co-op.”

While Moen is getting media attention, the photo above isn't overly flattering.
At practice the other day it looked like the taco salad he had prior to practice didn't sit well with him.