Green, Carriere shut door

COLLIN GALLANT
Medicine Hat News

Bob Green and Rick Carriere running the Edmonton Oilers WHL expansion franchise?

Not according to them. But the rumour is out there, and it gained steam on Tuesday when an Edmonton newspaper columnist mused that the Tigers current head scout and former general manager — both Edmontonians — were the top candidates for similar jobs with the NHL club’s junior foray.

“Nope, not at all, I haven’t heard from them (Oilers),” said Carriere, an instructor at the Vimy Ridge Hockey Academy in the Capital City. The former Medicine Hat director of hockey operations still does consulting work fro the
Tabbies, which scratches any itch of getting in the Dub game. “Naw, I’ve got a good job here.” Okay, one down.

What about Green, whose scouting prowess has stocked the Tigers for six years.

“No,” said Green flatly on Monday at Tigers camp. “There are a lot of rumours going around about a lot of things. That’s hockey.” One thing all parties agree upon is that the Oilers will try to hit the ground running when the yet-unnamed Western League franchise hits the ice in the fall of 2007.

“Oh definitely,” said Tigers head coach and GM Willie Desjardins. “It’s really a compliment to both Rick and Bob. They’re quality guys.”

So who will lead the new team? “Edmonton is a hotbed for hockey people and there are some terrific guys inside the Oilers organization that might be in line,” said Carriere, who reeled off a long list of candidates topped by current Oiler scouts Bob Brown and Stu MacDonald. Both were GMs of the Kamloops Blazers during the teams glory years from 1983 to 1996.