'Shocked' DePape prepares to join Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
When Jordan DePape climbed out of bed Sunday, life was good. And why not? After all, he was a young player with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, the host team for the 2010 Memorial Cup tournament.
By the time the 17-year-old Winnipegger went to bed that night, his world had been turned upside down.
That’s because early Sunday evening he was traded to the Kamloops Blazers, who are eighth in the Western Conference and in the process of jettisoning older, experienced players in what has become an obvious rebuilding effort.
Left-winger Shayne Wiebe, a 19-year-old who was traded for DePape, is the sixth experienced player to leave the Blazers since Nov. 17.
“I was really shocked,” said DePape, who had eight points in 22 games with the Wheat Kings this season, one that was slowed early on by a broken foot. “I didn’t see it coming. I liked it in Brandon and enjoyed it there.
“I guess things happen in hockey . . .”
DePape said his original thoughts were on leaving a Memorial Cup team.
“That was obviously on my mind . . . to leave a team hosting the Memorial Cup is a little upsetting,” he said. “But I have to move on.
“You have to look at things positively . . . take the positives out of everything and be confident that things will work out for the best.”
DePape spent last night with his family in Winnipeg, and was scheduled to catch an early flight to Kamloops this morning. He will practice with his new teammates on Wednesday, play against the Cougars in Prince George on Friday and Saturday, then return to Winnipeg for Christmas.
DePape played last season for the Winnipeg Saints and his 85 points in 55 games garnered him the MJHL’s rookie-of-the-year award. Earlier this season, NHL Central Scouting had him 26th on its list WHL skaters who are eligible for the NHL’s 2010 draft.
“He sure can (play),” Kelly McCrimmon, Brandon’s owner, general manager and head coach, told The Daily News in an email. “And he’s a great kid, too.”
Under normal circumstances, this isn’t a deal McCrimmon would have made — it isn’t like him to give up a highly rated prospect in a deal such as this.
“It’s not how I usually do business,” McCrimmon wrote, “but this is not an ordinary year. Wiebe should fit in well and it makes us better this (season).”
Wiebe, who had 65 points, including 32 goals, last season, visited Kamloops general manager Craig Bonner early in November and asked to be moved.
“It wasn’t any one thing that happened,” said Wiebe, who is from Brandon. “It was more to do with myself . . . I just wasn’t having fun and wasn’t liking coming to the rink. I just need to find a way to get back that want-to-play feeling.
“It had nothing to do with anything here.”
Wiebe also said that while he did ask for a trade, he “didn’t specify anyone.”
“I just said I would like to be closer to home,” he said, “and lucky enough for (Bonner) to get me this opportunity.”
While Wiebe, who planned on heading for Brandon by car this morning, will go into a situation where “I know quite a few of the players,” DePape doesn’t know anyone in the Kamloops dressing room.
“I don’t know anyone. I don’t know the town. I don’t know too much about Kamloops,” DePape said.
He also is diabetic and spoke with Kamloops trainer Colin Robinson on Monday. Robinson, a veteran trainer, has worked with a handful of diabetics during his career and said it’s just a matter of being prepared.
DePape said he “takes pretty good care” of himself and the Blazers plan on introducing him to former captain Ajay Baines, who also is diabetic.
Chances are that DePape also will meet up with Diane Schuetze of the TRU WolfPack women’s basketball team. She, too, is diabetic and is the honourary chairperson for the local chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, an organization with which DePape is familiar.
JUST NOTES: DePape’s older brother, Ryan, is attending the Manitoba Emergency Services College in Brandon, training to be a firefighter. Ryan played four seasons in the WHL (Prince Albert, Regina, 2004-08). . . . G Justin Leclerc, who was released by the Blazers on Nov. 23, has decided to stay with the MJHL’s Winnipeg Saints. He had been contemplating a move to the USHL’s Lincoln Stars.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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