Blazers faced with some decisions

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
For the most part, the kids have gone home.
A roster that included 94 names just one week ago now is at 33.
Which means that in the camp of the Kamloops Blazers it is time to get down to business. Serious business.
As the Blazers begin their seven-game exhibition schedule tonight against the Vancouver Giants in Ladner, there still are decisions to be made. There are jobs to be won and jobs to be lost. Just not in the department of goaltending, where only the pecking order is left to be decided.
Goaltenders Troy Trombley, 15, and John Keeney, 16, have returned to their homes in Sherwood Park, Alta., and Twin Peaks, Calif., respectively, which leaves veterans Justin Leclerc, 20, and Jon Groenheyde, 18, as the last two standing.
“I like where we’re at,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said of the goaltending. “The exhibition season is going to be where we decide.”
Leclerc, who is starting his fifth WHL season and third with the Blazers since being acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, gets the start tonight. Groenheyde, an 18-year-old sophomore, will start Saturday when the Giants visit Interior Savings Centre.
“I want to get them going,” Smith replied, when asked why he got down to two goaltenders so quickly; after all, prior to camp he had said he wouldn’t be averse to opening the season with three.
“We’ve got seven exhibition games,” Smith added. “They’re each going to play 3. We’ll see what they do there. The proof is in the pudding for me.”
When the Blazers open the regular season on Sept. 18 against the Bruins in Chilliwack, Smith said, he’ll be going with the hot hand.
“We’ll play the guy who is best out of training camp,” Smith said.
As the exhibition season begins the favourite is Leclerc, if only because Groenheyde hasn’t had a good camp.
“No, he hasn’t,” Smith confirmed. “I don’t believe you come in and warm up to things. If somebody was pushing, it would have been a good year to push. Jonny should have been the guy coming in thinking, ‘I’m going to push . . . the other way.’ ”
Meanwhile, there still are 12 defencemen in camp, with seven of them having finished last season on the Blazers’ roster. Of those seven, three — Giffen Nyren, Linden Saip and Zak Stebner — will be attending NHL camps.
That will give the likes of Matt Cumming, a 1991-born Kamloops native who played last season with the Prince George Cougars, a golden opportunity to show what he can do.
The absence of veterans may figure in things up front, too.
Tyler Shattock, the team captain, will go to camp with the St. Louis Blues, while Jimmy Bubnick does the same with the Atlanta Thrashers. As well, centre Dalibor Bortnak (spleen) could be out for as long as eight weeks.
“With all the guys we have going to camp, they’re going to get a long look,” Smith said of some of the newcomers. “They’re going to get some playing time . . . some quality playing time.
“After six or seven games, you’ll be able to definitely see who can play or who can’t. You can’t bluff after that long.”
Like all observers, Smith has been impressed with centre Colin Smith, who was the fourth overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft. Smith, the coach, referred to Smith, the player, as “the cream of the crop.” No, the two aren’t related.
Smith, the coach, also had kind words for JC Lipon and Dylan Willick, both of whom signed contracts earlier this week, and Richard Vanderhoek, a 2006 draft pick who missed most of last season with a knee injury.
“JC Lipon is a young kid but you see a guy who is responsible and a two-way-type player,” Smith said. “He’s got good speed. He goes to the net. He makes a good, hard pass. He does everything under control.”
As for Willick, Smith compared him to veteran winger Shayne Wiebe.
“Willick, I think, will be like a Shayne Wiebe, maybe with the upside of scoring more goals than Wieber does,” Smith stated. “Willick does all the good things . . . drives hard to the net . . . goes to the inside . . . has a good shot. He probably has a little better finish than Wiebe at the same age.”
Vanderhoek, meanwhile, has flown under the radar a bit for the last while, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been noticed.
“I like him,” Smith said. “He’s probably a little bit smarter defensively than the other two young guys, but maybe doesn’t have quite the same upside offensively as those two.”
An 18-year-old from Langley, Vanderhoek had 12 points in eight games with the junior B Aldergrove Kodiaks last season.
Lipon, Vanderhoek, Willick and Uriah Machuga, who started last season with the Blazers but was sent home to Norco, Calif., in December, will play tonight, while Tyler Hansen, a third-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft from Magrath, Alta., will be the only newcomer to dress on the back end.
JUST NOTES: Before leaving, Trombley, a third-round selection in the 2009 bantam draft, signed with the Blazers. Trombley, 6-foot-5 and 164 pounds, is from Sherwood Park, Alta. He played last season for a bantam AAA team in Camrose and is expected to play for a midget AAA team in Edmonton this season. The Blazers now have signed their first three 2008 draft picks, with D Brady Gaudet of Redvers, Sask., and F Logan McVeigh of Kenaston, Sask., having signed before camp. . . . Sophomore F Jake Trask (groin) won’t play tonight but might go Saturday, while Slovakian freshman F Matej Bene (groin) is day-to-day. . . . G Logan Cloutier, a 1994-born Kamloops minor hockey product, was in camp with the Giants and made enough of an impression that he will continue to work with their goaltending coach, Sean Murray.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca