Big news of the day, and taken from Gregg Drinnan, is that the Blazers have apparently gotten their man. Vancouver Giants assistant coach/assistant G.M. Craig Bonner has apparently agreed to a five-year contract to be Kamloops' new General Manager.
Five years is a serious commitment so the Blazers owners must be very confident that Bonner's the guy to lead that franchise out of the woods it has been in for the past few seasons. And since he was really the only candidate they ever even pursued, that should have been apparent anyway.
Getting Bonner out of his job in Vancouver will cost the Blazers two bantam draft picks, one in next week's 2008 draft and one in 2009. No word yet on what round those picks are but I would think they are probably 2nd/3rd/4th round type picks. I know the Blazers have at least one extra 2008 2nd round pick (from Calgary in the Brock Nixon deal), so it could be a 2nd rounder this year and a later-round pick next year, for example. Just guessing though and we'll have to wait for the press conference (which could be today or tomorrow) to find out exactly what compensation the Giants will get.
At the World U-18's, Canada defeated Sweden in the semi-final this morning and thus will get to play for the gold medal on Wednesday morning against Russia, who defeated the USA in the other semi-final. WHLers Jordan Eberle, Travis Hamonic, Tyler Myers, Brandon McMillan, Colby Robak, Brayden Schenn, and Colten Teubert are on this team.
The Telus Cup, the Canadian AAA midget championship, also gets underway today in Arnprior, Ontario. Representing the B.C./Alberta region are the Calgary Buffaloes, and representing the Saskatchewan/Manitoba region are the Winnipeg Thrashers. The Thrashers are the team I've mentioned on this blog before, who went undefeated all season. They did lose one game in the SK/MB/Northern Ontario playoff tournament but they're still some freaky record like 52-1 this year. Anyone interested can follow the Telus Cup here. Telus is also offering live free webcasts of all the games in the tournament.....there's a link to those at the tournament site link I posted there.
WHL-affiliated players on the Buffaloes and Thrashers:
Buffaloes:
D Erik Bonsor (Calgary 2006 4th round)
C Chris Collins (Chilliwack 2007 4th round)
D Cole Grbavac (Kamloops list player - was 2006 3rd round of Portland but dropped by them)
LW Joel Lowry (Red Deer list player)
RW Riley Reinbolt (Moose Jaw 2006 6th round)
D Hayden Rintoul (Kootenay 2006 4th round)
C Brody Sutter (Saskatoon list player)
LW Blair Wentworth (Chilliwack 2007 7th round)
Thrashers:
D Cory Baldwin (Spokane 2007 4th round)
RW David Conrad (Spokane 2006 3rd round)
C Matt Glowa (Prince Albert 2007 7th round)
C Jesse Hall (Brandon 2007 6th round)
C Mike Hay (Swift Current 2007 4th round)
LW Rob Lazo (Tri-City list player)
G Brett Martyniuk (Tri-City list player)
RW Kyle Mulder (Regina 2006 8th round)
D Jesse Pearson (Edmonton list player)
C Cole Pruden (Tri-City list player)
RW Mark Stone (Brandon 2007 5th round)
D Jeff Weselake (Kamloops 2006 10th round)
1 comment:
The Blazers only have 1 2nd round pick this year, as they traded their own 2nd rounder to Lethbridge for Justin Leclerc.
My guess would be a 3rd or 4th this year, as they have I think three 3rd round picks, and three or four 4th round picks.
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