Bonner makes first deal

From The Daily News of April 28, 2008 . . .

Craig Bonner’s first trade as general manager of the Kamloops Blazers didn’t cause the earth to move.
But it did provide something of a hint in terms of his plan for the future.
Prior to Saturday, the Blazers were looking at going into Thursday’s WHL bantam draft in Calgary with more draft picks than Bonner felt necessary, including four in the fourth round. So, on Saturday, while at the Alberta Cup bantam tournament in Lloydminster, Bonner sent two of those picks, the 77th and 83rd selections, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a pair of 2009 draft selections — one in the third round and the other in the fifth round.
That third-round selection replaces one of the picks that Kamloops gave to the Vancouver Giants as part of the compensation for signing Bonner last week. He had been the Giants’ assistant general manager/assistant coach. The Blazers also gave Vancouver a 2008 third-round pick.
“I thought it was important,” Bonner said of acquiring the 2009 third-round pick. “I thought four fourths was too many.”
Before the trade, the Blazers held 11 selections in the draft’s first seven rounds.
“We still have five picks in the first four rounds and that’s plenty,” Bonner said. “I think we’ll draft up to 10 guys and we don’t have to drop anyone up until eight or nine.”
Each WHL team maintains a 50-player protected list. During the bantam draft, teams must have room on that list for each selected player.
Bonner, however, is already looking past Thursday’s draft because he knows that in order to get things turned around here — the Blazers lost 18 of their last 19 games and made a hasty first-round playoff exit — he is going to have to take a long-range view of things.
“Next year,” Bonner explained, “we were looking at potentially going into the draft . . . because we lost a third for me and if (right-winger Brady) Calla comes back there’s a fourth there . . . so we could have gone into the draft with a first, a second, no third, no fourth . . . and that’s not good.”
The Blazers acquired Calla from Moose Jaw for defenceman Keaton Ellerby on Nov. 8. The deal, which featured two players whose NHL rights belong to the Florida Panthers, also included future considerations going both ways.
As Bonner understands it, if Calla returns to the Blazers, they will give up a 2009 fourth-round selection; if Ellerby is back with the Warriors, the Blazers will get a 2010 fourth-round pick. And if both players are in the WHL in 2008-09, “it’s a wash.”
Bonner spent the latter part of last week at the Alberta Cup. The event featured that province’s best bantam-aged players and it gave Bonner a chance to see them before Thursday’s draft in which the Blazers, who are hoping to land a top-notch defenceman, will pick seventh in the first round and sixth in each subsequent round.
It also was good, he said, to meet the scouts, most of whom he has had, if anything, only a nodding acquaintance with as he worked for the Giants.
Bonner said he spent Day 1 of the Alberta Cup accepting congratulations from hockey people, including fellow WHL general managers. The atmosphere changed the next day, though.
“People congratulate you,” he said with a chuckle, “and then on Day 2 they’re all coming . . . after some guys.”
Bonner indicated that he won't be trading players just to make a deal or two.
“I want to see guys in training camp,” he said.
The Warriors were looking to acquire a 2008 fourth-round selection because they owed one to the Saskatoon Blades to complete a deal made Sept. 20. In that exchange, the Warriors acquired defenceman Brett Ward, 19, for a 2008 fourth-round pick. The Warriors didn’t have such a pick at the time and it was to be upgraded to a 2009 third-rounder if they weren’t able to acquire one.
So having made the swap with the Blazers — the 77th pick originally had belonged to Moose Jaw; the Blazers had acquired the 83rd selection from the Regina Pats — the Warriors will transfer one of the picks to the Blades and use the other themselves.
The Blazers had acquired the 77th pick from Moose Jaw for left-winger Terrance Delaronde last summer. The 83rd selection came over from Regina, along with defencemen Nick Ross and Spencer Fraipont, for defencemen Victor Bartley and Ryan Bender.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS: Now that word is out in the hockey community that the Blazers have a general manager and are looking for a head coach, Bonner has started to receive applications. He said he has received “about” 10 resumes and characterized some of them as “interesting.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca