Dustin Butler doesn’t want to go anywhere.
But he has been around the WHL long enough that he has seen other players
get caught up in the annual 20-year-old game.
And now that he’s 20, well, guess what? Yes, the High River, Alta., native
is one of five 20-year-olds in camp with the Kamloops Blazers, who are
allowed to keep three of them.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking thinking about it . . . thinking I could be
with a different team in a couple of weeks,” Butler said prior to Tuesday
evening’s training camp scrimmage at Memorial Arena. “You never know with
the situation in the league anymore. Twenty-year-old goalies are starting to
be overtaken a little more by younger guys.“
Dean Clark, the team’s general manager and head coach, went shopping
Thursday and came back with goaltender Justin Leclerc, 18, who had been with
the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Leclerc had a terrific season as a 16-year-old
but was so-so last season.
It is, Clark said, all about competition.
“Getting Justin should be a push for guys to compete that much harder . . .
we want everybody pushing for spots,” Clark said.
Which is fine with Butler.
“As long as I play my best and I’m honest with myself,” Butler said, “it’s
up to the coaches to make a decision at the end of the day.
“It’s one of those things you can’t worry about . . . you just have to go
out and play hard. You can’t get caught up in it. You’ve just got to go out
and play your best.”
Butler was at his best shortly after being acquired early last season from
the Portland Winter Hawks. In fact, by mid-January he had set the Blazers’
single-season record for shutouts, with seven.
However, he never put up another blank job as his play and that of the team
tailed off down the stretch.
Having had a summer to think about what happened, Butler theorized: “I
didn’t feel I wore down at all. I just got off my game. When our team was
going through that rough stretch, that’s when any player starts to do too
much, and when you’re doing too much you’re not doing your own job too well.
“I’ve just got to get back to the way I was, playing simple and worrying
about my game.”
Clark agreed.
“Dustin has to regain the form he had in November,” Clark said. “He came in
and at his best was giving up one or two goals a game. But we saw that
balloon a little down the stretch and in the playoffs.”
Butler got into 54 games with the Blazers, going 33-19-2-0, with a 2.81 GAA
and a .879 save percentage. It is that final number that is going to have to
improve.
“I’m playing well right now,” Butler said. “I’m getting better every ice
time.
“And I don’t want to go. I want to finish up here obviously. I don’t really
want to be going anywhere else.”
The Blazers have until Oct. 11 to decide on their 20-year-olds. They opened
camp with five but are likely to be down to four Thursday with veteran C
Brady Mason having been placed on waivers yesterday.
That will leave Butler, defencemen Ryan Bender and Ryan White, and centre
Brock Nixon in the hunt for the three spots.
Clark said it isn’t a given that Butler won’t be here.
“He did a lot of good things for us last season,” Clark said. “His play
allowed us to play some kids last season and that will make us better this
season.”
Butler just hopes he’s around to be part of it.
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C Paul Van de Velde, a third-round pick by the Blazers in the 2005 bantamdraft, feels, after two years of midget AAA, he’s ready to make the jump to
the WHL.
“I think I’m ready now,” he said. “Last year, physically, I wasn’t ready.”
After Blazers’ camp, he returned to the Pembina Valley Hawks, who play out
of Morden, Man., and put up 70 points, including 32 goals, in 33 games. He
also missed a handful of games with a twice-sprained knee, a knee he said is
a bit sore after being tweaked the other day.
“Camp has been pretty good,” he said, “although it could be better. My
skating has to be better but my knee has been a bit sore.”
The native of Mariapolis, Man., feels he can bring some offensive
imagination to the Blazers if he is able to make the team.
“I like to make plays,” he said. “That’s what I’m about.”
He’ll get a chance to show his stuff in tonight’s intrasquad game. After
that, if he’s still around, the coaching staff will get a look at him in
weekend exhibition games in Edmonton.
“He’s had an OK camp so far,” Clark said of Van de Velde. “I’d just like to
see him compete all the time for loose pucks. Sometimes he only competes if
he thinks he can win the battle.”
Clark, who talked about this with Van de Velde yesterday, said there isn’t
any questioning Van de Velde’s skill level, but . . .
“If he competes, he’s good enough,” Clark said. “He can skate, he sees the
ice really well like good skill guys do.”
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THE WALKING WOUNDED: D Mark Schneider (wrist, out); D Matt Johnston(concussion, out); LW Danny Stevens (concussion, out); RW Kenton Dulle
(foot, day-to-day).
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JUST NOTES: The Blazers got down to 42 bodies, including four goaltendersand 14 defencemen, by releasing six players last night — G Andrew Walsh, D
Kyle Weber, D Ian Wilson, F Mike Tebbutt, D Ryne Bodger and D Warren Lees.
Bodger, the son of Blazer Legend Doug Bodger, is off to the camp of the
BCHL’s Cowichan Valley Capitals. . . .The roster total doesn’t include
injured players, or D Keaton Ellerby, who is in Russia with Team Canada. As
well, Kevin Kraus, a defenceman through most of last seaon, has been playing
on the left wing. . . . The annual intrasquad game goes tonight, 7 o’clock,
at Interior Savings Centre. . . . Dulle, who was acquired from the Edmonton
Oil Kings over the summer, blocked a shot with a foot and is day-to-day. . .
. In the morning scrimmage, Team Blue blew a 6-1 lead as Team White came
back to win 7-6 in a shootout. C Jimmy Bubnick, who missed a couple of days
with flu/fatigue and actually tested positive for strep throat so has been
on antibiotics, scored twice for the blue guys.
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