Milne Married/Mick Vernon Bound

Kamloops Blazer assistant coach Andy Milne got married on the weekend. While he should be an arch rival of mine, he is anything but.
I got a chance to meet the personable Milne, as a player, when he wore a Swift Current Broncos jersey in the late 90's.
Milne also spent some time with the Broncos organization as a guest coach under the watch of Todd McLellan, and during that time I had the privilege of having Milne in the broadcast booth for road games. Milne was well spoken, yet had a hard time shedding his mindset of being a player. Not far removed from his battles on the ice, I remember a game in Regina where the Broncos and Pats were involved in a rare fight filled affair. The Pats had designed tough guy Kyle Freadrich, who according to Milne was taking liberties. Milne became emotional involved on what was happening below on the ice, that the only word that could come out of the mouth to explain Kyle Freadrich's antics was the word 'retarded'. Politically correct, it was not! If I remember correctly, Milne used that word about 30 times as the events unfolded, causing me to turn his mic off, electing to take the reins myself until cooler heads prevailed in the broadcast booth.
Milne was a character, and still is. He would always take his dress shoes off in the broadcast booth (excluding Cranbrook where it was -30 in their old building) and if room permitted, would sit on the counter with one leg on the floor and another parallel to the counter. I never thought much of it, until he became so excited on the air, that he lifted his leg off the counter to stand upright, sending my broadcast board onto the floor and taking us off the air.
It wasn't long after the 'retarded' episode, that Milne was squeezed off the air, no not by me, but by the Broncos coaching staff, after hearing word of Andy's antics.
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Troy Mick is coming back to the Okanagan...sort of.
Mick, who resigned as GM of the Vernon Vipers for a job selling real estate in Mexico, will be one of several familiar hockey people attending the Vernon Vipers Alumni weekend August 10th and 11th.
Mick will be joined by Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland, who has been named the guest chairman of the second annual event.
The two day event includes both a senior and junior hockey game.
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I ran into ex-NHL'er Glen Cochrane today. He is good friends with Jim Hammett. Cochrane confirmed that Hammett has indeed handed in his resignation with Hockey Canada and will be named the new Director of Amateur Scouting for the NHL's New York Rangers.
Hammett, who is based in Kelowna, is no stranger to the the NHL, having held the post as Director of Scouting for the Colorado Avalanche.