Hockey link roundup: June 23

A little bit to cover on Draft Week:

• ICYMI, Dominik Hasek was elected to the 2014 Hockey Hall of Fame class on Monday. Hasek is the 17th person with Indianapolis ties to be chosen for the Hall of Fame. 
• The NHL Draft is this weekend. Five players with Indiana Ice ties -- Josh Jacobs, Ryan Mantha, Blake Siebenaler, Rinat Valiev and Mitch Slattery -- are projected to be picked. Check out profiles of each. A few mock drafts from the NHL Bleacher Report, The Hockey Writers & The Hockey News. Looking ahead, there's a lot of scout comments about several USHL prospects (including Jacobs & Slattery) at OTB.
• Also, an update on Jeff Brown, the Indiana Ice's championship coach, going to Ottawa.

Ryan Huska with the Ice.

Former Indianapolis Ice captain Ryan Huska is moving up the coaching ladder. The longtime coach of the WHL's Kelowna Rockets, Huska was named as the head coach of the AHL's Adirondack Flames on Monday. They are the top affiliate of the Calgary Flames, and are based in Glens Falls, NY (the Flames' ECHL affiliate is the Kelly Cup champion Alaska Aces). Huska's boss in Calgary, Brad Treliving, is also a former IHL Ice player, although their tenures did not coincide. Treliving was also the president of the Central Hockey League when the Indianapolis Ice played there.

In other former Ice player news, Bruce Cassidy is mentioned as a possibility for the Boston Bruins' coaching vacancy (scroll down the article to catch it). He is currently the head coach of the AHL Providence Bruins, and his development work has been heavily praised. Cassidy played for, and later coached, the IHL's Indianapolis Ice. He also has been the Washington Capitals' head coach. 

There are also a couple new NHL head coaches: Gerard Gallant in Florida, Willie Desjardins in Vancouver. And, as of yet, nobody in Pittsburgh.

Indiana native Mike Emrick describes for SI his call (and subsequent 110 seconds of silence) of the Kings' Stanley Cup championship moment, as well as a brief interview with the broadcasting legend. 

If you need to know when your favorite NHL team is playing, the 2014-15 schedule is out. It opens Wednesday, Oct. 8, and will conclude on Saturday, April 11.

The ECHL meetings took place over the weekend. This link has a small recap, but expect a few changes to be announced soon. Among the notables, a voice that might be familiar to Central Indiana fans, Fort Wayne's Bob Chase, was named Broadcaster of the Year. The 88-year-old is on his seventh decade as the Komets' broadcaster

Looks as if @ECHL will have a new divisional alignment and playoff format next season. Expect it to be announced in the next week or so.
— Barry Schickling (@DoubleSMedia) June 23, 2014

Ice on the move: Brown to Ottawa & more

As we noted last night, former Indiana Ice coach Jeff Brown has been named the head coach of the OHL's Ottawa 67s.

"To join my hometown OHL team and provide my family with the opportunity to live in the great city of Ottawa is a dream come true," Brown said at his introductory press conference today. Brown, 48, is an Ottawa native who coached the Ice for two seasons. 

Links to articles from Ottawa about Coach Brown:
Ottawa 67s release 
Ottawa Sun 
Yahoo Canada
Ottawa Citizen

More Ice notes below the jump.

Report: Ice's Brown headed to Ottawa

Multiple sources out of Ottawa have reported that Indiana Ice coach Jeff Brown will be announced Thursday as the coach of the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League.

Jeff Brown (Indiana Ice photo)

Brown led the Ice to a 42-11-7 record and the USHL Clark Cup championship this past season. As coach and general manager, he took over midway through the 2012-13 season and orchestrated a rebuild that led to a worst-to-first turnaround and a championship. He was named the USHL's General Manager of the Year this past season for his efforts in building the roster, using a slew of trades during the 2012-13 season to build a stockpile of draft picks that was used to pick several key pieces for this year's championship squad.

During his tenure with the Ice, Brown's teams went 54-32-5. They also went 9-4 in the postseason -- all coming this season. His teams had a strong emphasis on defense, a heavy forecheck and mobile defensemen who had the freedom to play as Brown often did as an NHL veteran, with the freedom to pinch in from the points to keep the attack alive. This season, the Ice were the USHL's top possession team, leading the league in both shots and shots allowed. The Ice had eight shutouts in 2013-14 -- a franchise record -- and were the top defensive team in the USHL this past season. The Ice were also the third-highest scoring team in the league at the same time.

Ice's Brown named USHL GM of the Year

Indiana Ice head coach & general manager Jeff Brown was named the United States Hockey League's General Manager of the Year.

In his dual role, Brown led the Ice to the franchise's second Clark Cup championship. The Ice went 9-3 in the playoffs, beating Green Bay in four games, Dubuque in three, and Waterloo in a best-of-five series that was decided in the final two and a half minutes.

Brown also led the Ice to a 41-11-7 regular-season record -- second overall in the USHL and first in the league's Eastern Conference -- a significant turnaround from the team that finished last overall in the USHL a year ago.

Jeff Brown coached the Indiana Ice to the Clark Cup title.

This date in Indianapolis hockey history: April 30

To close out April, we have the 1990 Ice staging a futile rally, who would win the next seven games to win a title. The 1982 and 1983 Checkers post championship-series wins, and the Racers get a shutout from Paul Hoganson in 1977. Also, birthday celebrations for former Racer Charles Constantin, Checker Dave Parro, IHL Ice Geoff Peters, and USHL Ice player Viktor
Shakhvorostov and coach Jeff Brown.