[UPDATED BELOW]

From The Pipeline Show's blog: This past August the Windsor Spitfires were handed a $400,000 fine for recruiting violations. A month later it was reduced to a $250,000 fine, as well as, some draft pick relief.

TPS has learned from multiple sources in the WHL that the Portland Winterhawks could be the next CHL club to face sanctions for player recruitment.

Now, "could" could mean a lot of things, like there's an investigation going on, or merely that someone has made an accusation. However, the tone of the article suggests that they have some idea that something serious is coming. We'll see if that's correct.

What could this be about?

Under-the-table payments, basically. You can't offer a prospective recruit anything more than the CHL scholarship package and your organization's competence at developing kids educationally and athletically. It's a competitive balance thing; the WHL doesn't want the richer teams having an advantage that Moose Jaw or Swift Current doesn't have. Sort of like the major leagues enforcing a salary cap, although in this case the salary cap is $0.

There's a lot of speculation about Seth Jones in that article (takes up almost half the space actually). It would really surprise me if this was about Jones. The reasons he gave for choosing Portland (he wants to be the #1 overall pick, he has more likely to do that with a high-profile contender, old regime had just left Everett) make sense, and also have to factor in that Everett's GM had just come from Portland.

I'd think it's more likely about Paul Bittner, Keegan Iverson, Alex Schoenborn, Dominic Turgeon, and Keoni Texeira. All USA-based players, from the heart of NCAA recruiting territory, who would have been extremely high bantam picks if it were just about ability. The Winterhawks picked them up cheaply (or for free) and then talked them into coming here. As a result, the Winterhawks look set for a long time.

Additionally, the success at recruiting has allowed the Winterhawks to almost largely eschew the bantam draft, trading a number of high draft picks to pick up Marcel Noebels and Craig Cunningham, who each helped with the playoff runs of the last two seasons.

Other teams have done this before but the Winterhawks have taken the strategy to a different level, maybe even two levels.

It isn't a strategy that you'd think would make you many friends. The WHL, the CHL, the NCAA, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey...for each of their own reasons, you wouldn't expect them to be thrilled. Messing with the status quo isn't pretty.

So...the question is how above-board their recruiting is and I've been expecting this to come up at some point. Even if there was nothing there, sour grapes from somebody meant this would eventually become an issue. Also, more enemies could mean more potential whistleblowers if you did do something wrong.

We just don't know yet. That article sound ominous, but we'll see.

UPDATE 6:30

OK, I just listened to The Pipeline Show, where they talked about this in the first segment. I'm kicking myself right now for not thinking for recording it. Anyway, this is what they said:

1) Red 23 came up 15 seconds into the topic (not a good sign)

2) scouts of other teams really don't like the Winterhawks

3) most importantly, a WHL team was trying to recruit a kid, and he reportedly said he wanted the same deal that his friend, a Winterhawks player, got, which was a guaranteed four years of the CHL education package even if he only played one game.

I didn't catch if #3 was the only issue they're in hot water for, though it was the only one for which they gave details.

More, probably in a separate post, when I can dig up the audio.