Molleken is one of just two WHL coaches with 600 regular-season wins (Liam Richards, The Canadian Press)

Since getting out while the getting is good is always advisable, it's not unusual for a team coming off a turn as the Memorial Cup host team to switch it up behind the bench. Lorne Molleken and the Saskatoon Blades have affirmed what was pretty much assumed toward the later stages of the season, that the 24-year veteran coach is relinquishing the Blades' coaching reins to assistant coach Dave Struch. It makes it five times in six seasons that the host team made a coaching change immediately following the season. In this case, the legacy is difficult to assess since Molleken's last team happened to record its only post-season win over the eventual MasterCard Memorial Cup champion Halifax Mooseheads, which was an all-time anomaly.

Blades restructuring has David Struch taking over as head coach. Lorne Molleken will remain on as GM. Leschyshyn/Engele remain as AC's.

— Saskatoon Blades (@bladeshockey) June 19, 2013

Eric Roy (right) left home at age 14 to pursue his hockey career (Larry MacDougal, The Canadian Press)

Eric Roy is the first for his hometown to play in the Western Hockey League and hopes he will not be the last.

That said, the next young man out of remote Beauval, Sask., will require a similar amount of resourcefulness. The 18-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman's community does not have its own rink. Roy, who is NHL Central Scouting's 41st-ranked North American skater, regularly faced a 300-km round trip to practise and play games in Meadow Lake, Sask., during his youth, with his parents Bill and Karen and uncle Eldon Edquist doing the chauffering.

Talk about motivation for Roy, who says he embraces being a role model for fellow Métis-Cree youth in the far north of Saskatchewan.

"I always go home and people always welcome me," says Roy, a 6-foot-2 ½, 190-pound offensive defenceman who had 17 goals and 39 points in 72 games for the rebuilding Wheat Kings. "I always go to the school and speak. It's a little disappointing we don't have a rink so no one can skate. We're hoping to build one in the near future so hopefully more kids like me can come out out of Beauval.

Nathan MacKinnon (left) was Memorial Cup MVP after defeating Jones and Portland (Steve Hiscock photo)

Either the Memorial Cup result swayed the Colorado Avalanche or it dawned on their new management that basing the first overall pick on the big clubs' immediate needs is just asking for an all-time backfire.

The Halifax Mooseheads' Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon dominated that tournament, while Finnish forward Alexander Barkov is a unique talent unto himself. All three forwards, by the way, are also quote-unquote significantly younger than 18-year-old Seth Jones. Drouin was born nearly six months later than the towering Portland Winterhawks defenceman while MacKinnon and Barkov are Jones' junior by about 11 months. And as they say, teenagers age.

From Adrian Dater:

Avalanche brass came to a conclusion: Jones won't be their pick. Instead, it could be any one of three forwards: Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin or Alexander Barkov.

"If we do pick first, we're leaning more toward one of those three forwards," Avalanche executive vice president of hockey operations Joe Sakic told The Denver Post.

Carrier had 42 points in 34 games for a struggling Screaming Eagles team (Francis Vachon, The Canadian Press)

Out in Cape Breton, William Carrier has had his difficulties whipping up that wow factor of late.

The 18-year-old left wing, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, offers a blend of core strength, skating, shooting and goal scoring that doesn't grow on trees. The one question that dominates the draft debate with the 6-foot-1½, 198-pound left wing is if and how he has been affected by toiling for a Cape Breton Screaming Eagles franchise that has won only 55 of 204 games across his three seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Carrier, ranked 18th in NHL Central Scouting's final North American ranking, also missed half of the regular season due to a high ankle sprain, although he put up 42 points in 34 games with scarcely little offensive support.

Russian Nikita Serebryakov could be one of the last goalies from overseas to play in the CHL (Terry Wilson, OHL Images)

The Canadian Hockey League's decision, announced last week, that it would cease including goaltenders in its annual import draft beginning in 2014 raised many questions. One of which is whether it is technically legal to do so while forwards and defencemen from abroad are still fine and dandy. Fortunately, Fraser Mackinnon Blair (@fmblair) has taken a look into the matter.

Please note: the contents of this article are not to be construed as legal advice. The author of this article is a recent graduate of law school, but is not a lawyer.

Beginning in 2014, the Canadian Hockey League in conjunction with Hockey Canada will forbid its clubs from selecting European goaltenders in its annual two-round import draft. Clubs will still be permitted to draft European goaltenders in this year’s draft, but may only do so in the draft’s first round.

The ban is being justified as an attempt to increase the calibre of Canadian goaltending by increasing the number of Canadian goalies minding the 60 CHL creases. However, according to Buzzing the Net's Cam Charron, only 11 of the 68 CHL goalies who qualified for the games played threshold were from Europe, so it’s hard to view this as a pandemic. The CHL has not altered its policy regarding the eligibility of American-born goaltenders.

While we can debate whether the CHL’s decision will have any effect on the calibre of future Canadian goaltenders elsewhere, it is apparent that the decision raises issues relating to anti-competitive behaviour.

Competition law in Canada is structured under the Competition Act, the purpose of which is to "maintain and encourage competition in Canada." In general commercial matters, it tries to accomplish this purpose by, amongst other things, prohibiting restrictive trade practices, exclusive dealing, price maintenance, bid rigging and other cartel-like behaviour.

Adam Tambellini's brother and father each played in the NHL (Getty Images)Adam Tambellini, having committed to the longer but sometimes surer path to the NHL, is eager to see what he can do against stiffer competition.

Like his older brother Jeff Tambellini, who skated in 242 NHL games and now plays in Switzerland, the 6-foot-2¼, 169-pound centre opted to develop through the British Columbia Hockey League and U.S. college hockey. There were times this season when Adam Tambellini was simply able to outclass Junior A defenders with his confluence of size, skill and speed; after moving from the Vernon Vipers to the Surrey Eagles in a midseason trade, he averaged a point per game in the playoffs during Surrey's run to to the BCHL title. The lanky pivot knows he has a lot of gaps to fill in his game.

"Doing the college route gives me a little bit of time to develop," says Tambellini, whose father Steve Tambellini, also a former NHLer, was general manager of the Edmonton Oilers until being replaced in April. "The coach at North Dakota [Dave Hakstol] will be great for me. So hopefully I will go down there and learn a complete game and grow out my frame a little more.

JC Lipon is on the draft radar as a 19-year-old (Kelvin Harrison photo)After not a single NHL team felt he was worth investing a draft pick on in the last two NHL entry drafts, it seems the third time is the charm for Kamloops Blazers winger JC Lipon.

Lipon, who turns 20 in July, broke out into a gritty star in his fourth season in Kamloops following showing glimpses of his scoring potential last year. He notched 36 goals and 89 points in 61 games, while racking up 115 minutes in the sin bin.

The 6-foot, 189-pounder believes he is a classic late bloomer, but he also feels opportunity had a lot to do with his slow-and-steady development.

“My development has been slower than other players I’ve played with,” he said. “It took me a while to get going in the WHL. The first year I had to adjust to speed and just the overall talent of the league. But I also think I had to earn my ice time more than some other players. I was a smaller player when I came to Kamloops and I was undrafted, so I had to prove that I had the potential to be a first-line player. In my

Nicolas Roy (right) with Eagles coach-GM Marc-Andre Dumont on draft day (Danielle Bradette, The Canadian Press)Ten days ago, Nick Roy drew his line in the sand and he does not appear open to erasing it.

Prior to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft on June 8, it was made crystal-clear that the desire was for first overall pick Nicolas Roy to play in his native Quebec instead of crossing over to the league's other solitude to join the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. It's almost like a repeat of how another player advised by Pat Brisson, Nathan MacKinnon, balked at moving from Nova Scotia to play for the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in 2011.

Eagles coach-GM Marc-André Dumont called their bluff/set himself up for a trade windfall by drafting Roy anyway, as you know. The latest indication is that the Roy camp has dug in.

His parents, both teachers, said their son would not do well studying by correspondence and they worry about his academic performance.

“For us it's better to go to the U.S.A. because we are about two hours from U.S.A. The school is better, the program is better. They have six or ten students by teacher,” said his father Nick Roy.