Blazers and Americans swing deal

The Kamloops Blazers cleared up the logjam on their blue line Monday by trading Joel Woznikoski, 18, and Kevin Kraus, 18, to the Tri-City Americans for D Jeff Weselake, 16, and a 2008 seventh-round bantam draft pick. Woznikoski played with the BCHL’s Westside Warriors last season. Kraus, a Californian and the younger brother of Vancouver Giants C Tim Kraus, was preparing for this second season with the Blazers. Kamloops is deep on the blue line with a top five of Ryan Bender, Ryan White, Victory Bartley, Keaton Ellerby and Jordan Rowley, so Woznikoski and Kraus were in tough to earn ice time. Especially with Darcy Huisman, an 18-year-old who was with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings last season, having a good training camp and exhibition season and the Blazers being awfully high on the injured Mark Schneider (dislocated wrist). . . . Weselake is a Winnipegger who had 11 points and 68 penalty minutes with the midget AAA Winnipeg Sharks last season. He is likely to spend this season with one of the Winnipeg teams in the MJHL. . . . The Blazers are down to 26 players, but three of those -- Bartley (Detroit), Ellerby (Florida) and Puustinen (Calgary) -- are in NHL camps. . . . Kamloops meets the Chilliwack Bruins in Abbotsford on Tuesday night. . . .

The Brandon Wheat Kings reassigned two players Monday and now have 25 players on their roster. LW Johnny Calkins, 17, is off to the midget AAA Moose Jaw Warriors, while G Graham Hildebrand, 16, will play for the midget AAA Beardy’s Blackhawks. Both teams play in the Saskatchewan midget AAA league. . . . Hildebrand’s departure leaves Brandon with three goaltenders -- veteran Joe Caligiuri, freshman Deven Dubyk, 16, and newcomer Andrew Hayes, 17, who reported to camp with a broken finger and has yet to play. . . .

The Saskatoon Blades appear ready to open the season with veterans Braden Holtby and Garrett Zemlak in goal. They reassigned two 16-year-old goaltenders, Matthew Krahn and Adam Morrison, to midget AAA. D Cameron Canart, 17, and D Tanner Sohn, 16, also were sent to midget AAA teams. . . . Saskatoon has 10 defencemen on the roster, including five freshmen -- Mitch Berg, 16, of Saskatoon and Stefan Elliott, 16, of North Vancouver, Finland’s Jyri Niemi, 17, and Brendon Wall of Saskatoon, both 17, and Colton MacPherson, 18, of Whitewood. . . . Among the rookie forwards still on the roster is 16-year-old Curtis Hamilton of Kelowna. His father, Bruce, played for the Blades more than a few years ago and now is president/GM of the Kelowna Rockets. . . .

The Rockets, by the way, have sold 5,350 season tickets and have a waiting list of around 1,000, with the folks on the waiting list wanting about 2,600 seats. That’s what Gavin Hamilton, their marketing guru, told blogger Regan Bartel, the team’s radio voice. . . . Bartel also reports that the Rockets have done away with having game programs available at home games. Lineups will be posted on-line and fans will be encouraged to print them and bring them to the games. Why no programs? Well, it’s environmentally friendly. As well, it seems that program sales have about bottomed out and the team will save considerable coin by not producing them. . . .