Bonner pondering Blazers' offer

From The Daily News of Friday, April 18, 2008 . . .

Craig Bonner spent part of Thursday shopping for a grass trimmer.
When it was suggested it might be a needless purchase because there aren’t
any weeds in Kamloops, Bonner just laughed.
Bonner, the assistant general manager and assistant coach with the WHL’s
Vancouver Giants, is in receipt of an offer to become the next general
manager of the Kamloops Blazers.
If he is to accept the offer, he said, it likely won’t happen over the
weekend.
“I’m going to take the weekend to think about things,” said Bonner, an
Edmonton native who will turn 36 on May 20.
Everything is in readiness should he decide to join the Blazers who, sources
have indicated, would like to introduce him at a Tuesday news conference.
The teams have agreed on compensation. Should the Blazers come to terms with
Bonner, they will give the Giants two bantam draft picks — one in the 2008
draft, which is scheduled for May 1 in Calgary, and the other in 2009.
Bonner has two years left on his Vancouver contract, a deal that was done in
August.
The Giants’ season came to an end Monday in Spokane when they were beaten by
the Chiefs. Bonner admitted yesterday that while he didn’t have much trouble
focusing on hockey while the Giants were playing, pondering his immediate
future now has become all-consuming.
Which is why he spent part of yesterday afternoon in a big box store buying
a grass trimmer.
“I said earlier that I’ve got to find something else to do . . . to get away
from it for a bit,” Bonner said. “So I’m going to cut my grass or
something.”
The fact that it would come to this has been hockey’s worst-kept secret
since November when the Blazers fired general manager/head coach Dean Clark
and first asked the Giants for permission to speak with Bonner.
In the meantime, they filled both positions on an iterim basis, Brian Fortin
serving as GM and Greg Hawgood as head coach.
Bonner played four seasons with the Blazers and captained the 1992 Memorial
Cup-winning team that was coached by Don Hay, who now is the Giants’ head
coach. Bonner’s brother, Scott, has been the Giants’ general manager since
the team’s birth prior to the 2001-02 season.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca