Thursday . . .

The Vancouver Giants, of general manager Scott Bonner, have dealt D Bronson Maschmeyer, 18, to the Kamloops Blazers, of GM Craig Bonner, for a 2010 third-round bantam draft pick. The Blazers are hoping that Maschmeyer, a 5-foot-10, 170-pounder from Brundheim, Alta., will fill what they see is a need for a puck-moving defenceman in the 1991 age group. He had eight points in 48 games with the Giants last season. . . . The Giants appear to be thinking about opening with three 16-year-olds on the back end and are clearing room. . . . If you’re counting, there now have been five trades between the Blazers and Giants since Craig Bonner left the Giants – he had been the assistant coach/assistant GM – and signed on as the Blazers GM over the summer of 2008.
The Bonner Chronicles . . .
May 2, 2008: Vancouver trades D Linden Saip, 17, to Kamloops for a 2009 seventh-round bantam draft pick.
Oct. 1, 2008: Vancouver trades F Sahir Gill, 16, to Kamloops for a conditional 2010 second-round bantam draft pick. (He was with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers at the time; he now is with the USHL’s Chicago Steel.) Deal is conditional on Gill playing in Kamloops.
Nov. 10, 2008: Vancouver trades LW Brett Lyon, 17, to Kamloops for a 2010 sixth-round bantam draft pick.
Jan. 8, 2009: Kamloops trades D Nick Ross, 19, and F Alex Rodgers, 19, to Vancouver for D Curtis Kulchar, 18, and three bantam draft picks – third- and fourth-rounders in 2009 and a second-rounder in 2010.
Sept. 3, 2009: Vancouver trades D Bronson Maschmeyer, 18, to Kamloops for a 2010 third-round bantam pick.
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It would appear that there will be more fight-related penalties in the WHL, especially in the early days of the regular season as players grow accustomed to some new rules. All WHL teams have received a memo from the league office in Calgary instructing/reminding them that any players involved in staged fights will receive game misconducts, as will any players who intentionally remove their helmets prior to fighting. . . . So go ahead, guys, beat up your hands.
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F Cody Almond of the Kelowna Rockets injured a knee while preparing for training camp and, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “is expected to miss all of training camp with a sprained medial collateral ligament in (a) knee.” The 20-year-old Almond, a 66-point man last season with the Rockets, has signed with the Minnesota Wild, which selected him in the fifth round of the 2007 NHL draft. He is expected to begin the season in the AHL with Kevin Constantine’s Houston Aeros.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Star Tribune report indicated that Almond had played last season for “Memorial Cup-champion Kelowna.” . . . That ought to be big news in Windsor, home of the OHL’s Spitfires, who actually won the 2009 Memorial Cup.
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The Red Deer Rebels have reassigned F Chad Robinson, 16, to the MJHL’s Neepawa Natives. Robinson was a sixth-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft. He is from Minnedosa, Man., the hometown of Ron Chipperfield, one of the WHL’s greatest all-time scorers.
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And, hey, how about Andrea Ring, who left the 11th annual Prince Albert Raiders Golf Classic with 10 grand more than was in her jeans when she showed up. She aced the 150-yard fourth hole at Cooke Municipal Golf Course and it was worth $10,000 to her. Her husband, Martin, provides analysis on the Raiders’ radio broadcasts.
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The Tri-City Americans are expecting Belarussian F Sergei Drozd, 19, to arrive on this side of the pond Saturday. Russian G Alex Pechurski, 19, the Americans’ other CHL import draft selection in June, is playing in a four nations tournament. . . . Tri-City D Jarrett Toll, 20, is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, while D Tyler Schmidt, 19, will go to camp with the Minnesota Wild prospects after agreeing to a tryout deal.
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The Central league’s Missouri Mavericks have signed F Chad Hinz, 30, to a contract. Hinz is entering his 11th season as a pro. He played last season with the now-defunct Oklahoma City Blazers, putting up 43 points in 54 games. Hinz wore No. 57 for the Moose Jaw Warriors (1995-99).
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The ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings have signed F Bear Trapp, the grandson of well-known former WHL coach and pro hockey scout Barry Trapp. Bear is the son of Doug Trapp, who played for the Regina Pats (1982-85). Bear spent the last four seasons with the Sacred Heart University Pioneers in Fairfield, Conn.
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D Jeff Einhorn, 19, may not play for a while but at least he’s up and walking around. And he was in the stands in Hope, B.C., on Wednesday as his Chilliwack Bruins beat the Kamloops Blazers, 6-3. Einhorn spent some time in a Kelowna hospital after taking a stick to the throat in the second period of a 2-1 victory over the Rockets on Saturday. He has been left with something of a raspy voice and an awfully sore throat. But, in the end, he will play again.
Here’s how he described his predicament to Eric Welsh of the Chilliwack Progress:
“I knew something was wrong when the stick hit me in the throat, but I originally thought I was just out of breath. I went to the bench holding my neck, and I couldn’t breathe. (Athletic therapist Matt Auerbach) said my face started going blue. He took me to the dressing room, and it just kept getting worse and worse.”
Auerbach got Einhorn into the dressing room, where a doctor looked him over and called an ambulance.
“When I got to the hospital, my throat totally seized up, and I remember them shoving a tube down my throat,” Einhorn told Welsh. “It was weird, because I could see myself breathing when I wasn’t really breathing. They put me into a drug-induced coma and that’s about all I remember until they took the tube out on Sunday morning.”
He now has a bruised larynx and a swollen vocal cord. He will be checked over in two weeks.
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F Sawyer Mick, having been released by the Portland Winter Hawks, has joined the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. Mick, who turns 18 on Sept. 22, began last season with the junior B Chase Chiefs and finished up with Portland, picking up 13 points in 48 games. There’s a story right here. . . . Sawyer and Troy Mick, a former WHL player and coach, are half-brothers. Troy now is GM and head coach of the junior B Revelstoke Grizzlies.
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One of Canada’s university hockey coaches is interested in coaching the national junior hockey team and may apply at some point down the road. That story is right here.
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The dates and places all are in for the Subway Super Series. The QMJHL all-stars will play a touring Russian side in Drummondville on Nov. 16 and in Shawinigan on Nov. 18. . . . The series will continue, with the Russians playing the OHL, in Barrie on Nov. 19 and Windsor Nov. 23. . . . And then it’s on to the WHL and games in, uhh, Victoria on Nov. 25 and Kelowna on Nov. 26. . . . You’re right. Victoria is the only city on the tour that isn’t home to a major junior hockey team. . . . Anyway, Rogers Sportsnet will televise all six games – hello, there, Peter Loubardias – while the two games in Quebec also will be televised by RDS.
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Jim Kelley, who has been around the NHL as a journalist for more than a season or two, has a good take on the state of the game right here. Of special interest is his interpretation of the resignation of Stephen Walkom, who has left the NHL’s officiating office to return to the ice as a referee. Why did Walkom leave? Well . . . give Kelley a read.
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G Dan Spence (Calgary, 2004-09) has signed a one-year deal with the Central league’s Laredo Bucks. He got caught up in the 20-year-old numbers game with the Hitmen last season, was released and played most of the season with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.
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