Blazers trim roster by one

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers, unable to trade an unhappy Cole Grbavac, have designated the sophomore forward for assignment.
If he is to continue his hockey career, Grbavac, an 18-year-old from Calgary, is expected to join an Alberta junior league team.
The move leaves the Blazers with 14 forwards, including injured centres Dalibor Bortnak (spleen) and Colin Smith (broken arm), both of whom were injured in training camp and have yet to play in the regular season.
Bortnak, a Slovakian sophomore, was injured during the Blazers’ Blue-White game on Aug. 25. He might not return before Dec. 1.
“He is is going to have to have another CT scan,” Blazers general manager Craig Bonner said Monday. “With the research I’ve done with (trainer Colin Robinson) and our doctors that seems to be consistently kind of a three-month injury. So there’s a possibility he won’t be back until Dec. 1.”
Smith, a 16-year-old from Edmonton, was injured during practice the next day, losing an edge on a 2-on-1 drill and sliding into a goal post. He suffered a break just below his right shoulder. Smith is scheduled to go for an X-ray on Oct. 21.
“We’ll know more then,” Bonner said. “The doctor is feeling pretty good about him right now but said there’s no use getting an X-ray until then.”
Bonner said he “anticipates” Smith being back sometime during the first 10 days of November.
In the meantime, the Blazers will try to get by with the 12 forwards and eight defencemen now on their roster. The Blazers are preparing to play three home games over the Thanksgiving weekend, against the Prince George Cougars on Friday, the Chilliwack Bruins on Saturday and the Medicine Hat Tigers on Monday afternoon.
When that stretch is over, the Blazers will head into the East Division on a six-game swing.
“In a worst case scenario, our affiliate players are available when we’re out east,” Bonner said, mentioning forward Logan McVeigh, who is with the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts, and defencemen Brady Gaudet, with the midget AAA Tisdale, Sask., Trojans, and Max Mowat, with the major midget Okanagan Rockets.
As well, Bonner pointed out, “We’ve got eight defencemen. We’ve tried Josh Caron up front and he was OK, and Giffen Nyren has played up front.”
In time, it would seem that Bonner is likely to acquire an experienced forward.
“I’m looking at maybe . . . but we’ll see,” he said. “I’ll look around.”
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Grbavac approached Bonner in late September and expressed concerns about the amount of ice time he was receiving and his role with the team.
Grbavac was a third-round pick by the Portland Winterhawks in the 2006 bantam draft. But they dropped him and he later walked on with the Blazers, picking up seven points and 93 penalty minutes last season. He had a team-high 13 fights. This season, in eight games, he was pointless with 10 penalty minutes, having been in two fights. For the most part, he was seeing third- and fourth-line duty with some penalty killing thrown in.
Bonner said after first speaking with Grbavac, “I expressed to him that I would look to some other teams and see if there was interest. But for his role and his ability with our group, I thought he was playing probably enough, but . . . we thought we would re-evaluate after a week.”
The Blazers finished a stretch of four games in five nights with Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the visiting Winterhawks and Grbavac returned to see Bonner on Monday.
“He’s not comfortable with his role and would like to play more,” Bonner said. “At this point, there hasn’t been interest from other teams so we thought we would re-assign him.”
JUST NOTES: LW Shayne Wiebe, who left Sunday’s game in the third period, has a bruised knee but isn’t expected to miss any playing time. . . . The Blazers didn’t skate Monday but are taking part in some team-building and leadership exercises, some of which include exercises with Major David Andersen of the U.S. Marine Corps. . . . The Friday and Saturday games start at 7 p.m. The visit by the Tigers is the season’s only afternoon game and starts at 2 o’clock.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com