Bene excited to be taken by Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
While it wasn’t quite the calibre of an NHL free-agent feeding frenzy, the CHL held its 2009 import draft Tuesday with the 60 teams combining to select 75 players.
The Kamloops Blazers got in on the action by taking Slovakian forward Matej Bene with the 29th overall selection.
“I am very happy that I am (a Blazer),” Bene communicated to The Daily News.
Bene, who turned 17 on April 11, is from Tornal’a, a city of about 8,000 people in the district of Banska Bystrica, which is near the Hungarian border in the south-central part of Slovakia.
The Blazers played last season with two Slovakians on their roster — defenceman Michal Siska and centre Dalibor Bortnak. They released Siska following the season, clearing the way for them to make one selection in the import draft.
“We are friends,” Bene said of his relationship with Bortnak, 18. “He is a good player and a good man.”
Bene has been playing in the HK Nitra organization. He told The Daily News that he played 45 games with the junior team last season, totaling 36 points, including 19 goals. He also has represented his country in various international competitions, including the U-17 World Hockey Challenge that was centred in Port Alberni after Christmas. Bene had eight points in five games there.
Craig Bonner, the Blazers’ general manager, said the scouting report he received on Bene indicates that “he’s a competitive guy . . . a good-skating, skilled player . . . he has good puck skills and the ability to find ice to create good scoring chances. We’re told . . . he’s a skilled forward. He’s a high-end forward as far as Slovakian hockey is concerned.”
Bene is represented by CAA Sports, the Calgary-based firm that is headed up by prominent agent J.P. Barry. Bonner’s contact there is European agent/scout Ales Volek.
“Ales is really high on him,” Bonner said, “and one (NHL) scout we talked to was real high on him. He brings some speed which I like.”
Bonner said Volek told him that Bene was the “second-best Slovak” at a U-17 tournament last season and that he also played in two U-18 tournaments as an underage.
Bene didn’t play in the IIHF’s spring U-18 tournament because of illness but may play for Slovakia in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament in August.
“It is not know whether I will play,” Bene explained, adding that he will if he receives an invitation.
Furthermore, Bonner’s scouting reports indicate that Bene is behind only Tomas Jurco among Slovakian forwards born in 1992. Jurco, a late-1992, was taken fourth overall by the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs on Tuesday.
Bene and Jurco played on a line at the U-17 WHC where Slovakia went 1-4. Bene had four points in a 7-4 victory over Finland.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers report that Bene is 6-foot-0 and 180 pounds, although he is shown at 5-foot-9 and 142 pounds on the Slovakian U-17 WHC roster. He likely is somewhere in between. . . . The Blazers dealt their second-round selection, 71st overall, to Vancouver for the Giants‚ second-round pick next year. Vancouver used the pick on Danish C Sebastien Svendsen, who turns 18 on July 31. . . . The Lethbridge Hurricanes have signed veteran NHL assistant coach Rich Preston as their general manager and head coach. Preston, who turns 57 on Aug. 5, signed a five-year contract.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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