Ten things about the Blazers on the ice . . .

From The Daily News of Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 . . .

While adults scrap over ownership of the Kamloops Blazers, using newspaper
advertisements, rather than hockey sticks, as weapons, about 110 players
have arrived in town, all of them desperately wanting to be a part of this
city’s WHL team.
About 70 of those players will take to the Interior Savings Centre ice
surface today as the team’s three-day rookie camp begins. At stake, at least
in the short term, are about 20 spots at main camp, which opens Sunday at
Memorial Arena. (Why Memorial Arena? A team known as INXS has The ATM
booked.)
Anyway . . . with the Blazers looking for bigger and better things than last
season, when a highly successful 40-victory regular season was followed by a
four-game first-round playoff exit, here are 10 things to watch for as
training camp leads to the regular season:
1. Goaltender Dustin Butler, 20, looked like the steal of the century when
he was acquired early last season from the Portland Winter Hawks. By
mid-January he had set a franchise record for shutouts in a season. But he
isn’t overly big, appeared to hit a wall in late January or early February,
and struggled through the playoffs where he was outplayed by the Prince
George Cougars’ Real Cyr. Butler is going to have to be good — very good —
if he is to hold down one of the three 20-year-old spots.
2. Ryan White was this team’s most consistent defenceman last season. He’s
20 now and looks to be on the outside looking in, with Butler, defenceman
Ryan Bender and centre Brock Nixon the early favourites for the three
overage spots. But never say never because should injuries strike, or should
a younger goaltender come available, or . . .
3. Jordan Rowley was a 16-year-old rookie defenceman last season and he
looked it, if only in the first half. In the second half, his confidence
grew and he started to do things with the puck that gave credence to his
having been highly touted. Will that confidence continue to grow?
4. Keaton Ellerby, who is with the Canadian junior team in Russia today,
won’t join the Blazers until perhaps just before their first regular-season
game, Sept. 21 against the visiting Chilliwack Bruins. His ill-timed
decisions exasperated the coaching staff last season, until he was benched
for one game. The 10th overall pick in the 2007 NHL draft by the Florida
Panthers, will Ellerby come back from his hectic summer in a better frame of
mind? Or will he be dangled in an attempt to land the scoring forward the
team could use so badly?
5. One of the highlights last season was the chemistry that developed
between Nixon and right-winger Juuso Puustinen, the personable Finn who
dazzled for most of last season. If that chemistry has survived, this pair
is capable of lighting it up.
6. There could be an interesting battle for one spot on defence that could
go to one of three players — Joel Woznikoski, who spent most of last season
with the BCHL’s Westside Warriors; Kurt Torbohm, from the junior B
Revelstoke Grizzlies; or, Darcy Huisman, from the BCHL’s Prince George
Spruce Kings.
7. Slovakian left-winger Ivan Rohac struggled for a lot of the season,
likely because of language difficulties and the adjustment to a new culture.
But there were times late in the season when he was dynamite. If he can
score, it will take a lot of pressure off the offence.
8. Jimmy Bubnick, the fifth overall pick in the 2006 bantam draft, will have
to play poorly not to earn a spot. A centre, he was one of the youngest
players in the selection came for Canada’s U-18 team earlier this month. The
Saskatoon native is, according to most people, a stud.
9. Centre Mark Hall and left-winger Shayne Wiebe are under-sized forwards
who play the same pesky style. Hall finished last season here; Wiebe played
with the midget AAA Brandon Wheat Kings. Will there be room on the roster
for both of them?
10. There are two players on the roster — Nixon and hard-nosed defenceman
Ryan Bender — who have known nothing but off-ice turmoil with this
organization. They were rookies in the fall of 2003 when the missing money
was discovered and the chicken feathers first hit the fan. Now they are
20-year-olds and are learning that the more things change around here, the
more they stay the same. Will the off-ice circus impact their ability to be
the leaders this team so badly needs?