Bittner, Turgeon and Iverson Succeeding at the Ivan Hlinka Tounrament/ Hawks Change Coaching Structure

Paul Bittner, Dominic Turgeon and Keegan Iverson are all playing at the Ivan Hlinka Under 18 Tournament for Team USA in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia from August 5th-10th.

Team USA lost in their first game: 3-2 in OT to Finland, before beating Russia 4-2 and Slovakia 5-2, making it to the medal round semifinal August 9th vs the Czech Republic.

Iverson had a goal in the win over Slovakia and Bittner had a goal and an assist in the same game. The 3, the only WHL players on Team USA's roster are doing a great job of using the tournament to get their names out there for the 2014 NHL draft. They will all play much larger roles for the Hawks this year, especially Bittner, who could make a jump to the top line, replacing the departing Ty Rattie.

In other news: the Winterhawks made the expected move of changing around their coaching structure. They basically put Kyle Gustafson into Travis Greens old role of Assistant Coach. He will spend every game behind the bench, rather then in spots, like he had. Also, Matt Bardsley takes over Green's old role of Assistant GM.