Chiefs Make First Move In Annual Whl Roster Shuffle

It’s the toughest time of the year and it’s not just because of the post-holiday blahs.

January in the Western Hockey League is a time of serious reflection, leading to the Feb. 1 trade deadline.

Teams on top are looking to get better in hopes of pushing on through the Memorial Cup tournament.

Teams on the bottom - the Spokane Chiefs, for one - are desperate to improve. In many of the 18 cities in the league, playoff revenue is the difference between financial profit and loss.

If the season were to end today, the Chiefs would finish last in the WHL West, and miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

The Chiefs made their first move Thursday, releasing defenseman David Hajek and adding defenseman Jan Dusanek, 18, from the Kelowna Rockets.

Trades are reminders of how fleeting time can be.

After he swatted in the winning goal Wednesday night in Spokane’s 2-1 overtime win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Bobby Leavins of the Chiefs talked about the pressure a player deals with.

“There are quite a few trade rumors flying around,” Leavins said. “There are guys - Ty Jones, Brad Ference - that everyone from other teams will be looking to get. Hopefully, we can put a few wins together and maybe try to do something on our own.

“But with anybody anywhere in junior hockey, you never know where you’re going to be, or if you’re going to be there very long.”

Chiefs GM Tim Speltz calls it a tough but necessary process.

“It’s tough on everybody,” Speltz said. “There is always more speculation than action, but when your team hasn’t been as successful as you’d hoped, you have to look to improve. And that’s where we’re at.”

The evaluation process never ends.

The Chiefs gave Hajek a long look and his evaluation came up negative.

“He’s a good player but he isn’t ready for this level,” Speltz said.

The 18-year-old D man from the Czech Republic, let go early in the season by the Prince Albert Raiders, was dropped from the Chiefs’ 50-player protected list. Speltz said that Hajek might return to the tier II team he played for last year in Melville, Sask.

Hajek had no goals and 3 assists in 27 games with Spokane. Dusanek, also from the Czech Republic, has played in 94 WHL games over the last two seasons, scoring eight goals with 14 assists.

Notes

Bryan Maxwell’s success with the Lethbridge Hurricanes is the latest validation of his considerable coaching expertise. But his recollection Wednesday night, printed in Thursday’s paper, of losing his first game back in Spokane since he left here five seasons back obscures the fact that since 1994, Chiefs coach Mike Babcock is 3-1-1 against Lethbridge. That’s in games against the Hurricanes when Maxy was behind the Lethbridge bench… . The status of Chiefs veteran Cam Severson remains doubtful for Saturday night’s game in the Arena with the Tri-City Americans. Severson was just rounding into the dominant force he was a year ago, after recovering from an ankle injury, when he sprained the other ankle in a Dec. 19 win at Portland… . Former Chief John Cirjak had one goal in five games with the Chesapeake Icebreakers of the East Coast Hockey League before he left the team for personal reasons and landed on the club’s suspended list.