Bonner prepared for import draft

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Craig Bonner has made his list and checked it twice.
Actually, the Kamloops Blazers’ general manager has checked it three or four times. Maybe more.
It’s all part of his preparations for the CHL’s two-round import draft that began this morning at 6 o’clock with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs, having acquired the first pick from the Halifax Mooseheads, making a pick.
The Moose Jaw Warriors will be the first WHL team to make a pick; they’re up at 6:15 a.m.
The Blazers hold the 29th pick and will pick at 11:10 a.m.
Bonner attended the NHL draft in Montreal on the weekend and spent a lot of time talking to agents and hockey people about potential import draft picks.
The Blazers have one import on their roster — centre Dalibor Bortnak, an 18-year-old Slovakian, is preparing for his second season — after releasing Slovakian defenceman Michal Siska, 19.
“I have some names,” Bonner said. “I don’t know . . . it’s getting tougher and tougher.”
More and more WHL team officials are singing the same tune, primarily because this is a draft that is controlled, for the most part, by player agents who in a lot of instances are able to pretty much dictate landing spots for their clients. The result is that the order in which players are selected has more to do with availability than talent.
“We’ll see . . .,” Bonner said.
In the meantime, Bonner said he was pleased to have two players selected in the NHL draft on Saturday.
Right-winger Tyler Shattock was taken by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round, while forward Jimmy Bubnick went to the Atlanta Thrashers in the sixth round.
“I was really happy for Shattock,” Bonner said. “That was kind of the spot I was hearing but you never know because guys started to fall a little bit.”
Shattock, 19, suffered a leg injury after Christmas 2007 and, perhaps as a result, didn’t get drafted in 2008. He came back and had a 30-goal, 69-point season.
“He had a great start to the (2007-08 season) and then he got hurt,” Jarmo Kekalainen, the Blues’ assistant GM and director of amateur scouting, told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That was probably the biggest reason he was passed on last year. He had 30 goals this year, he’s 6-foot-3, he can hit . . . he can play physical.”
Bubnick, who went into the draft ranked 55th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, sent somewhat later than that.
“He went a little later than he probably thought,” Bonner said. “I think the consensus before the drat when I was talking to teams is that it was anywhere from the late third to the sixth round. So I don’t think it was that big a surprise from my end.
“I felt pretty confident he was going to get drafted and nowadays, the way the CBA is and everything, it doesn’t really matter what round you get drafted in; the money’s not that big a deal now.”
The key, Bonner said, is that Bubnick has a chance.
“Obviously, somone liked him,” Bonner said. “And to get him in the sixth round could be, at the end of the day, a great pick.”
Bonner is hopeful that the players on his roster who didn’t get drafted will take a close look at what Shattock accomplished.
“For all our guys who didn’t get drafted, or if they don’t get a tryout, they should look right at Tyler Shattock,” Bonner explained. “Here’s a guy who came back and had a good season and he goes in the fourth round. Bortnak and all those guys . . . they have to look at him and say, ‘Hey, it’s not over yet.’”
JUST NOTES: The Lethbridge Hurricanes are expected to name Rich Preston as their general manager and head coach. An announcement could come as early as today. Preston spent two seasons as head coach of the Regina Pats and the last six as an assistant with the NHL’s Calgary Flames. . . . The Vancouver Giants have traded Russian F Mikhail Fisenko, 19, to the Calgary Hitmen for a seventh-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. Fisenko had 28 points, including 12 goals, in 60 games with the Giants last season.
The Red Deer Rebels have confirmed that Finnish D Tommi Kivisto, who was a freshman WHLer last season, won’t be returning. He has signed with Jokerit Helsinki. Kivisto was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes with the fourth-last pick in the NHL draft on Saturday. . . . There were 23 Swedish players selected in the NHL draft, but don’t expect many, if any, to end up in the WHL. “All of the Swedish kids who were selected early . . . I’ve been told they’ll be staying overseas,” Brent Sutter, the Rebels’ owner and president who also is the head coach of the Flames, told the Red Deer Advocate’s Greg Meachem. Presumably that includes D Tim Erixon, the Flames’ first pick on Friday.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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