Wheat Kings' Fillin' the Rafters Sept.24

  There’ll be a banner-raising ceremony in Brandon on September 24^th.

  The Brandon Wheat Kings will play their home opener on the first Saturday on the 2016-2017 season, hosting the Moose Jaw Warriors.

  The festivities that night will include the hoisting of the WHL Championship banner.

  Brandon opens their 50^th anniversary season in the Western Hockey League the night before, when they visit the Warriors to begin the season-opening home-and-home series.

 

  In other Wheat Kings’ news, Reid Duke did not sign with the Minnesota Wild by Wednesday’s deadline for NHL teams to ink 2014 draft picks.

  Duke was a sixth round pick of the Wild in the 2014 NHL Draft, and he’ll now re-enter this year’s NHL Draft.

 

  Speaking of this year’s NHL Draft, Kale Clague and Tanner Kaspick are currently in Buffalo participating in the NHL Scouting Combine.

  NHL teams have the opportunity to conduct one-one-one interviews with prospects in attendance.

  Medicial exams for the players take place Thursday, with the majority of fitness testing occurring on Saturday.

  Clague was 27^th and Kaspick 79^th among North American skaters in the NHL Central Scouting Service’s final rankings.

 

  Tim McGauley has been added to the roster of the Hershey Bears for the AHL's Calder Cup Final.

 

  The Bears are the top farm team of the NHL's Washington Capitals, who signed McGauley as an undrafted free agent last October.

 

  McGauley and the Bears are facing former Wheat Kings' captain Ryan Craig and the Lake Erie Monsters in the AHL Final.

 

  Craig had an assist Wednesday as Lake Erie took Game One by a score of 4-1.

 

 

  In the ECHL, former Wheat King Eric Roy and the Allen Americans trail the Wheeling Nailers two games to one in the Kelley Cup Final.

 

  Game four goes Friday in Wheeling.

 

  Roy, by the way, has three goals and 16 points in 21 games so far in the ECHL post-season.

  In WHL news, the Vancouver Giants will introduce Jason McKee as the seventh head coach in franchise history on Thursday.

  McKee has spent the last six seasons as GM and Head Coach of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.

  And the Prince George Cougars will introduce their new head coach on Thursday.

  Reports are former NHL defenceman Richard Matvichuk will get the job.