Things that make me go hmm...

• First off, happy birthday to Rockets general manager Bruce Hamilton. Hamilton was born June 30, 1957. That makes him 53 today.
• Not much has been made of it, but the Rockets home opener this season is starting about a week later than last season. The reason? It likely had to do with the lack of marquee players that were made available to the WHL when the season started as NHL teams were in no rush to send them back to their junior teams. In Tyler Myers case, they kept him for an entire 82 games.
• I was interested to see where Luke Moffatt would end up at the NHL draft. The fact that he was selected in the 7th and final round came as a bit of a surprise. Would he have fared better in the draft had he played with the Rockets this past season? I can guarantee you he would have been put into every crucial station on a Rockets team that was re-tooling following a WHL championship season a year earlier. I can understand why Moffatt didn't want to play in Kelowna as a 16 year-old, especially with a stacked team where he would have played second fiddle. But in his draft year, as a 17 year-old rookie, he could have been one of the leaders of the band, much like Shane McColgan. Now NHL scouts have touted McColgan as a possible first round pick in the 2011 draft.
• You have to applaud Kootenay Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth for taking a firm stance by elected not to draft a player at the CHL import draft. Chynoweth wasn't willing to bring in a European born player for the sake of filling an import spot. The gm obviously feels he has enough depth with his North American kids not to make a selection for the sake of making a selection. Why bring in a European born player that is costing you a ton of money when a North American kid can provide you with the same skill level? Or why not bring in a young prospect that you can develop within your team so he can be a major contributor when he's 18 and 19? Good thinking on Chynoweth's behalf.
• What's the future of former Kelowna Rockets forward Stepan Novotny? Novotny was anticipating returning to the Swift Current Broncos as a 20-year-old this season, but the Broncos made two selections in the import draft. If they can get both kids to come to North America, is Novotny's (who fills two spots as an overager and euro) WHL career over?
• Talk about not using a valuable resource. The Prince George Citizen newspaper has arguably one of the top junior hockey writers in Western Canada and what is he doing? He sure isn't writing articles and covering the Cougars and the Western Hockey League like he used too. Jim Swanson is doing behind the scenes work these days, and frankly its a shame. When a local newspaper like the Prince George Citizen doesn't realize the valuable asset they've got and don't use it appropriately, they get what they deserve.
• Who's going to be the new play-by-play caller for the Vancouver Giants? Morley Scott vacated the spot to become the play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Eskimos. Obviously filling that position is extremely low on the Giants priority list. It may come on the list below purchasing new water bottles for the 2010-2011 season.
• I suggested that it would be neat to see the Rockets organization celebrate their 20th season in the WHL this year by bring back the logo used by the Tacoma Rockets in the first four years of their existence. I wouldn't want to see that logo on the front of the jersey, but wouldn't it be cool if a shoulder patch with the retro logo was part of the new jersey?
• A special person in my life is pretty pleased that Taylor Hall was selected first overall in last Friday's NHL draft. My niece Taylor, who lives in Kelowna, is a huge fan of the newest member of the Edmonton Oilers. Why? Because her name too is Taylor Hall. In fact at the 2009 Memorial Cup I asked Taylor Hall if he could say hi to my niece back in Kelowna. Being the class act Hall is, he said in an interview, "Hi this is Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires and I want to say a special hello to Taylor Hall in Kelowna". Small potatoes right? Not in the eyes of a eleven year-old grade five student.
• I made contact with Tyler Matheson last week. The 20 year-old tells me he is playing lacrosse this summer and is trimming down. It was nice to hear from the personable Matheson, who doesn't take for granted the opportunity he has been given to play at the major junior level.