Bonner looks to Blazers' future

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The WHL's Kamloops Blazers are one year into general manager Craig Bonner's
five-year plan.
So . . . how's it going?
“Player personnel-wise,” Bonner says, “the one thing I'm happy with . . . I
really think we revamped our defence. We have one player left from the team
that was here a year ago. That was a big concern of mine. I know how
important defence is if you want to win in this league.”
Three weeks have come and gone since the Blazers, after going 33-33-2-4 in
the regular season, were swept from the first round of the playoffs by the
Kelowna Rockets. Those same Rockets will open the Western Conference final
in Vancouver against the Giants on Saturday night.
Bonner, of course, spent six seasons with the Giants. He was their assistant
general manager/assistant coach when he signed a five-year contract with the
Blazers a year ago.
Had he not signed with the Blazers, Bonner would be experiencing the
adrenaline rush that comes with a deep playoff run. Yes, even now, three
weeks later, getting swept from the playoffs sticks in his craw.
“We improved this season but our compete level on a game-by-game basis has
to get better,” he says. “I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with our
compete level. But that and our work ethic still have to go up.”
When Bonner took over the Blazers, he knew exactly what he was getting into
- while he and the Giants were becoming playoff mainstays, the Blazers were
failing, again and again and again, to get out of the first round.
So he got to work rebuilding the defence and gathering bantam draft picks.
He holds a first-, a second- and three third-round picks in the April 30
draft.
And when Bonner got through revamping the defence, only Kurt Torbohm was
left from the 2007-08 team.
“I like our group back there now,” Bonner said. “We have a little bit of
everything. We have good people. We went through some tough times this
season but it was a pretty young group and I think we're going to be that
much better for it.”
Having said that, Bonner is quick to add that defence is a team thing and
this team has a long ways to go before it's of championship calibre.
“I don't worry about our team scoring goals,” he says. “We need to get much
better defensively . . . not just our defencemen and our goalies . . .
everybody. It's team defence. We score enough goals.”
They scored 242 goals, the 10th-highest total in the 22-team WHL. But they
gave up 277 and only three teams allowed more.
He also wasn't pleased that the Blazers faced more opposition power plays
(437) than any other team. Only one other club was over 400.
“When you're the (most-)penalized team in the league,” he says, “eventually
it catches up to you. You waste too much energy killing penalties; you don't
get all your players involved in the game.
“I really didn't like our penalties and our goals-against . . . as a team
statistic. We need to strive to give up fewer shots and get more shots.”
All of which is certain to be part of the game plan when training camp opens
Aug. 20. You can bet, too, that there will be a lot of players in camp.
“I want to be real competitive,” Bonner says, as he flashes something of a
devious grin. “I want to have lots of guys around.”
He especially wants to get a look at a healthy Mark Hall. The Kamloops
native, a smallish, feisty forward, blew out a knee in August and didn't
play at all this season.
“He's healthy . . . he's training, he's running,” Bonner says. “He's a hard
guy to play against. He's the type of player I thought we were missing last
season at times. And now he's going to be a hungry player.”
Bonner thinks that forward Uriah Machuga, a 17-year-old from Norco, Calif.,
also will be a hungry player. Machuga was sent home on Dec. 13 due primarily
to school-related issues.
“He came with his dad to see me in Anaheim,” says Bonner, who was in
California last week for a WHL-sponsored camp. “It was a bit of a wakeup
call for him. We made it very clear to him that this is his opportunity and
that you don't get nine lives in this league.
“The kid is working hard. He's a guy who brings us some speed . . . when
he's playing the way he played at camp, he's a competitive guy.”
Bonner also would like to add Sahir Gil, a 1992-born forward from Terrace
whose WHL rights he acquired from the Giants. Gil had 17 points in as many
games as he helped the Vernon Vipers to the BCHL championship.
Bonner has seen Gil play about six times since Christmas, while head coach
Barry Smith also has made the jaunt to Vernon and “some of our ownership has
contacted him.” In other words, the Blazers have gone to a full-court press.
“He's a good player,” Bonner says. “They've won a championship so he's been
through a winning playoff run.
“I think he's a higher-end player. If he wants to do the world junior thing
and get to the next level, where I know he wants to get to, we believe this
is the way for him to come.
“But that's a decision his family is going to have to make. What the family
has said is that after all this is said and done they have to meet and come
up with a decision.
“But for him to spend another one or probably two years in junior A . . .”
Whether Gil is in Kamloops when camp opens, one thing is for certain - that
is that nothing is for sure, not with a Bonner-managed team that was swept
from the playoffs by the Rockets, a team that beat the Blazers 13 times -
yes, 13 times! - this season.
“I think I made it clear to everybody that there's no guaranteed jobs,”
Bonner says. “When you lose four straight, to me there's no guaranteed
jobs.”
JUST NOTES: Bonner expects the Blazers' coaching staff to return intact.
Head coach Barry Smith and assistant Scott Ferguson are under contract while
assistant Geoff Smith is expected to sign on for another season. . . . The
NHL's Central Scouting Service released its final rankings of draft-eligible
players earlier this week. Blazers RW Jimmy Bubnick is ranked 55th among
North American skaters, while G Jon Groenheyde is 18th among North American
goaltenders. The NHL draft is scheduled for June 26-27 in Montreal. . . . D
Wes McLeod of Kamloops, who played for the BCHL's Prince George Spruce
Kings, is ranked 200th. . . . The late Dan (Heavy) Evason, who was scouting
for the Blazers when he died in 2004, will be inducted into the Manitoba
Hockey Hall of Fame in October. Evason, who was 41 when he died, had joined
the Blazers' scouting staff in 1999. He will join his brother, Dean, in the
Manitoba hall. Dean, who played and coached with the Blazers, was inducted
in 2005.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com

An unofficial Blazers' depth chart (x - on playoff roster when season ended;
year of birth in parentheses):
Goal - x-Justin Leclerc (89); x-Jon Groenheyde (91); John Keeney (93), Twin
Peaks, Calif.; Josh Thorimbert (92), Saskatoon.
Defence - x-Giffen Nyren (89); x-Curtis Kulchar (90); x-Michal Siska (90);
x-Zak Stebner (90); x-Kurt Torbohm (90); x-Josh Caron (91); x-Linden Saip
(91); x-Brandon Underwood (92); Nick Buchanan (91), Victoria; Daniel
Medland-Marchen, Kelowna (92); Tyler Hansen (93), Magrath, Alta.
Forwards - x-C.J. Stretch (89); x-Tyler Shattock (90); x-Shayne Wiebe (90);
x-Dalibor Bortnak (91); x-Jimmy Bubnick (91); x-Cole Grbavac (91); x-Brett
Lyon (91); x-Jake Trask (91); x-Brendan Ranford (92); x-Colin Smith (93);
Richard Vanderhoek (91), Langley; Ryan Hanes (92), Kamloops; Neil Landry (92), Saskatoon; Uriah Machuga (92), Norco, Calif.; Dylan Willick (92),
Prince George.