Blazers trim roster by two

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers got their roster down to 29 players Tuesday by releasing two skaters.
Forward Uriah Machuga, 17, who started last season with the Blazers, and defenceman Max Mowat, 16, were dropped from the WHL team’s roster.
Machuga, from Norco, Calif., hasn’t decided where he will play this season. The 5-foot-7, 180-pound Machuga, who scored the Blazers’ only goal in a 4-1 loss to the visiting Chilliwack Bruins on Friday, started last season with the Blazers. He got into 18 games before being sent home.
“Machuga came into camp in good shape and with a much better attitude and work ethic from last season,” Blazers general manager Craig Bonner said. “He just got caught in the numbers . . . some guys came in and beat him out of a spot.”
Mowat, from Coldstream, was listed by the Blazers last season, and Bonner and Matt Recchi, the director of player personnel, made a few trips to watch him play with the major midget Okanagan Rockets.
“I thought Mowat had a good camp and good exhibition season,” Bonner said. “He’s just not quite ready yet. As a 16-year-old defenceman . . . it’s tough to play in the league at that age. He needs to go play and get lots of ice time.”
It is expected that the 5-foot-10, 187-pound Mowat will return to the Rockets, who play in the B.C. Major Midget League.
Mowat’s departure leaves the Blazers with three 16-year-olds – forwards Colin Smith of Edmonton, JC Lipon of Regina and defenceman Tyler Hansen of Magrath, Alta. – on their roster.
Smith, the seventh overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft, isn’t going anywhere, although he is out until sometime in October with a broken arm.
Hansen was the 66th player taken in the 2008 bantam draft; Lipon was listed last season while with the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians.
The Blazers are carrying two goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 17 forwards. That includes five players who are at NHL camps – forwards Jimmy Bubnick (Atlanta Thrashers), Tyler Shattock (St. Louis Blues) and C.J. Stretch (San Jose Sharks), and defencemen Giffen Nyren (Minnesota Wild) and Zac Stebner (Dallas Stars).
Bubnick, Shattock, Nyren and Stebner all are playing in a prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich. All teams were idle Tuesday, with action resuming today.
Stretch is with a team of Sharks prospects that is playing a three-game series against the visiting Anaheim Ducks.
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BLAZERS NOTES: The Blazers, along with every other team in the CHL, will hold a news conference this morning in their dressing room to introduce the new RBK Edge jerseys. . . . The Blazers play their final home exhibition game on Friday, 7 p.m., against the Prince George Cougars. The teams play again Saturday in Prince George.
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JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The Cougars, who went 1-1-0-1 at a tournament in Everett over the weekend, reassigned eight players Tuesday. Their roster is at 25 – two goaltenders, nine defencemen and 14 forwards. . . . Prince George F Brett Connolly, last season’s CHL rookie of the year, has yet to play in the exhibition season. He continues to be bothered by a sore hip. . . . The Cougars also are without veteran D Dallas Jackson, who will miss a month or more with a shoulder injury suffered in a training camp scrap.