Bees to allow Cirone to leave

HIDALGO — Jason Cirone believed his performance in this spring’s World Hockey Championships should have earned him a second year with the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.

He says that’s not the message he received from Bees coach Paul Fixter upon his return to the United States.

Playing for Italy at the IIHF championships, Cirone scored two goals and two assists in four games, including the overtime game-winner against Latvia that advanced Italy into the tournament’s qualifying round. But when Cirone returned to Hidalgo, he said Fixter essentially told him arrivederci — he was free to go find a deal with another Central Hockey League team.

“Yeah, I definitely want to play after the World Championships that I had,” Cirone said. “I know I can still play at a high level. My motivation right now is probably to go back to Europe.

“When somebody tells you you’re not wanted, that’s the coach’s decision. For the organization’s sake, I hope he’s doing the right thing because the organization has done nothing but treat me (well). The fans deserve a winning team, and I’m quite sure they’re sick of losing in the first round of the playoffs every year.”

Cirone, 36, was the team captain in 2006-07 and produced 63 points on 28 goals and 35 assists in 59 regular season games. But like most of the rest of the team, his scoring was non-existent during the Bees’ first-round playoff loss to Laredo as Cirone managed just one assist against the Bucks. The Bees scored just nine goals in the five-game series loss, their third first-round playoff defeat to Laredo in four seasons.

“I certainly would never be quoted as saying he’s not welcome back,” Fixter said. “He’s been given permission to talk to other teams.”

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PLAYER MOVEMENT: The Bees already have forward/defenseman Dennis Maxwell and center Travis Banga on board for next season, and it’s considered a mere formality that veteran left wing Rob Voltera will return.

Now Fixter and assistant Sean Gillam are working on filling out the rest of the roster, which now can accommodate 19 players per a new policy passed at last weekend’s league meetings. The CHL also changed its playoff format to eliminate the first-round mulligan that allowed the highest-seeded team that lost in the first round to advance and increased the playoff field to 10 teams.

Fixter said goaltender Jeff Van Nynatten, who was solid down the stretch of his rookie season, is someone the team is interested in bringing back. Backup Jeremy Symington, meanwhile, not surprisingly has been given permission to talk to other teams after struggling during the second half of the 2006-07 season.

Fixter also said the team has already begun discussions with undisclosed members of last year’s Lubbock franchise. The Cotton Kings will be on hiatus for the 2007-08 season.

“There’s always turnover,” Fixter said. “There aren’t too many players I wouldn’t want to have back from our team. We established ourselves as a pretty good team, and we competed hard. We’d like to win more games, but tell me a team that wouldn’t. I was really happy with the way it all worked out.”

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TEAM HONORS: The Bees’ front office was recognized with multiple awards at the CHL Summer Conference Awards Banquet in Phoenix, Ariz., not the least of which was general manager Grant Buckborough being named CHL Executive of the Year and Jennifer Sides receiving the league’s Ticketing Executive of the Year honor.

Buckborough got off to a bad start last summer with the Tony Martino coaching hire (with Martino eventually deciding not to coach the team after accepting the job), but recovered nicely in the league’s eyes by getting Fixter behind the bench.

“(Hiring Martino) obviously wasn’t the best decision we ever made,” Buckborough said. “It would have been easier to just make an excuse and call it a season, but we picked up and hired a quality coach for the franchise. Paul brought a winning attitude into our organization. I think at the end of the day he was a much better fit, and it worked out for the best.”

Director of broadcasting/media relations Rich Bocchini also was a finalist for the broadcaster of the year and communications executive of the year awards.

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Todd Mavreles covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4451.