I picked up an interesting note, via WHL guru Greg Drinnan, from the Western Hockey League. It fits right in with what Spokane Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said when the team didn't reassign any players between the three exhibition games in Everett last weekend and the two games at Tri-City this weekend.

(Meanwhile, check out the Chiefs' new jerseys, along with the rest of the new WHL jerseys.)

A press release issued Tuesday by the WHL reads:

“The Western Hockey League is proud to announce that 138 WHL players are attending NHL training camps this season.

“All of the 138 players on the list are eligible to return to the WHL for the 2009-10 season . . .

“Of the 138 players attending NHL training camps, 85 were selected by NHL teams in the NHL Entry Draft while 53 were invited to NHL camps as free agents. In addition, 33 of the WHL players attending NHL training camps are signed to NHL entry-level contracts.”

Good for the WHL for having so many players in NHL camps. Better for the WHL if it does something about the ugliness of exhibition games while all those players are gone. Is playing the games in a locked facility and not allowing in anyone – no fans, no media, nobody – a feasible solution?

Don’t be surprised if a year from now at least some teams go on team-building retreats on what, for many of them, was the second weekend of the exhibition season.

I admit I get a lot of information from Drinnan, who knows the hockey in general and the WHL in particular better than anyone I know.

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