Thursday . . .

So . . . who is going where?
The WHL trade deadline arrives Sunday afternoon. It gets here at 3 p.m., Calgary time. In the Pacific time zone, that’s 2 p.m. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, it’s 4 p.m.
And, yes, everyone wants to know: What have you heard?
The thing to remember is that since Dec. 1 there have been 15 trades involving 25 players, 14 bantam draft picks and one import draft pick. Granted, those numbers don’t come close to what’s being going on in the QMJHL or even the OHL . . . but there are general managers in the WHL who prefer to beat the clock and that may well be what has happened here.
In the meantime, there are a gazillion rumours out there, most of which don’t hold water.
What I can tell you is that the Kamloops Blazers will be sellers, if the marketplace allows them to make some moves.
Those moves aren’t likely to include goaltender Kurtis Mucha or defenceman Ryan Funk, two 20-year-olds the Blazers acquired earlier in the season. General manager Craig Bonner says Funk and Mucha are doing such a great job with the younger players that they aren’t likely to be changing addresses.
“We will feel the benefits of their having been here for two and three and four years down the road and likely even beyond that,” Bonner said.
Bonner, who has been with championship teams as a player and a coach, said he absolutely loves how those two are showing the younger players the commitment that is needed to play in this league.
The Blazers, who are eighth in the 10-team Western Conference, have been first-round playoff casualties in nine of the last 10 seasons; in the other season, they didn’t make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
It seems the ownership group, which is in its third season of guiding this ship, has decided to do now what it should have done a while ago -- blow it up and start over.
But that will only happen if Bonner is able to get back what he feels are ample returns for his assets.
For starters, Bonner is believed to have been in heated talks with the Calgary Hitmen and Spokane Chiefs. Stay tuned . . .
Turning to the Regina Pats, anyone who is expecting general manager Brent Parker to begin selling off his assets hasn’t been paying attention.
Parker set his club’s direction a couple of months ago when he blasted fans for not snapping up tickets to watch Jordan Eberle, the Pats’ starry winger who has such a flair for the dramatic.
It was then that Parker first showed his hand.
Then, just before the Christmas break, he acquired F Carter Ashton, 19, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. If there was any doubt about Parker’s plans, they were erased right then.
The fact that the Pats went into a nine-game swoon with Eberle and D Colten Teubert playing for the Canada at the World Junior Championship had people wondering if that might change Parker’s mind.
But, no, that won’t happen. If anything, he will be buying. Anyone got a veteran defenceman?
Of course, other teams are asking for the same thing.
The Portland Winterhawks, for example, would love a 19-year-old defenceman whose forte is reliability.
The Winterhawks and other Western Conference teams are looking at the fact they may have to win only three playoff rounds to qualify for the Memorial Cup. With Brandon as the host team, should the Wheat Kings reach the WHL final, the Western Conference champion would qualify for the Memorial Cup without having to win the WHL title.
“When the conference is wide-open and there's no clear favorite, you'd like to take a run at it no matter the age of your group,” Mike Johnston, the Winterhawks’ GM and head coach, told Scott Sepich, a freelancer who writes for The Oregonian. “I think we can, but I wish we could have one more piece to do that.”
At the same time, though, Johnston doesn’t want to dip into his nucleus of young players when he knows that this group’s time is next season and the season after that.
There is one veteran defenceman who no doubt is available. But will anyone pay a price?
D Luca Sbisa of the Lethbridge Hurricanes almost definitely will be on the move. Or, at least, the WHL playing rights to Sbisa likely will be on the move.
Sbisa, 19, played for Switzerland in the early portion of the World Junior Championship, during which he also was named to that country’s Olympic team. But early in the WJC he suffered an abdominal injury of some sort. He reportedly flew back to Switzerland over the weekend where he was to be examined by Olympic team doctors.
I spoke with two WHL general managers and asked both of them the same question: If you are the GM of a contending team, would you trade for Sbisa even though you don’t know the extent of the injury and even if you might only get him for the last two weeks of the regular season and the playoffs?
Both gentlemen replied unequivocally: “YES!”
There was no hesitation from either GM.
One of them went so far as to say that if he felt Sbisa would put his team over the top, he would give up a first-round bantam draft pick.
When Sunday evening arrives, however, there may well be only one winner.
As Kootenay Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth told Jeff Bromley of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman: “I'm getting some calls, we all get calls. We're all doing a little tire kicking. The only winner there is Telus because we're on the phone so much.”
Why is Chynoweth on the phone so much these days? Gotta think he’d love to add a 20-year-old forward to his mix.
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The Everett Silvertips have traded D Drew McDermott, 18, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a conditional 2011 seventh-round bantam draft pick. McDermott had three points and three penalty minutes in 53 games last season as a freshman. This season, he got into 11 games and had three assists before he was assigned to the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers for whom he had two assists and 21 penalty minutes in 11 games. . . . The Hurricanes will throw McDermott right into their mix as D Luca Sbisa (abdominal), D Max Ross (leg) and D Derek Ryckman (shoulder) are out indefinitely, and D Mike Reddington has a nagging groin injury. . . . McDermott should be in Lethbridge’s lineup Friday against the host Prince Albert Raiders.
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As for the Silvertips, they are 4-0 since the calendar flipped to January. And it could be that GM Doug Soetaert has something cooking. Because F Tyler Giebel, the 27th overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft, was to fly out of Regina and join the Silvertips in time for Friday’s game in Kent, Wash., against the host Seattle Thunderbirds. Giebel, 16, has been playing for the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians, who aren’t expecting him back. . . . Everett also has returned D Paul Bonar, 18, to the MJHL’s Swan Valley Stampeders.
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D Mike Funk (Portland, 2002-06) won’t play again this season. He suffered an early-season concussion and the AHL’s Manitoba Moose have shut him down. The Winnipeg Sun has the story right here.
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F Killian Hutt of the Regina Pats has returned home to Edmonton and won’t play again this season. The Pats acquired him from the Portland Winterhawks on Sept. 28. Hutt suffered a concussion in a 5-2 loss to the Tigers in Medicine Hat on Dec. 27 and hasn’t played since then. But he also needs a second surgical procedure to repair a problem with a cyst he had removed last summer. He had 14 points in 27 games with the Pats. . . . This leaves the Pats with 14 forwards, eight defencemen and three goaltenders with the trade deadline approaching. However, two of the goaltenders -- Damien Ketlo and Dawson Guhle -- are injured. Brett Martyniuk, acquired last week from the Tri-City Americans, will make his third straight start Friday against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. With Ketlo (shoulder) and Guhle (groin) unavailable, Brett Teskey of the midget AAA Regina Pats Canadians is expected to be the backup.
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The Regina Pats are at home to the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night and it will be Jordan Eberle Bobblehead Night. A total of 500 fans will leave the building with bobbleheads in honour of the Team Canada star. . . . Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina also has declared Friday to be Jordan Eberle and Colten Teubert Day in the Queen City.
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F Brayden Schenn won’t rejoin the Brandon Wheat Kings until after the weekend. He is at home in Saskatoon enjoying some R and R after playing for Canada at the World Junior Championship. There was a time when virtually every WHL team gave its world junior returnees a week off after the tournament, but those days appear to be long gone. . . . The Wheat Kings are without G Jacob De Serres, who is nursing a sore neck after he was involved in a minor traffic accident on Monday. G Brett McDonald, who plays high school hockey with the Brandon-Crocus Plains Plainsmen, likely will backup Andrew (Ira) Hayes through the weekend.
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Mike Velucci, the head coach of the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers, will be hearing from David Branch today. Velucci got tossed Thursday night and the video is right here on the Loose Pucks blog. . . . There is video there, too, of Velucci getting tossed from a game last season. Take notice of the linesman who stands in front of him the whole time and doesn’t even crack a smile. Is not having a sense of humour a prerequisite for being a linesman? Just asking . . .
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THURSDAY:
In Calgary, G Todd Mathews stopped 27 shots as the Kootenay Ice edged the Hitmen, 2-1. . . . The Ice (24-15-1-2) has won eight in a row. . . . The Hitmen (27-12-1-1) have lost four of five. Calgary is 12-5-0-1 at home. . . . The Hitmen won the first four games in the season series; the Ice has won the last two. . . . Kootenay got goals from Steele Boomer, at 12:54 of the first period, and Matt Fraser, at 2:00 of the third. . . . Mathews lost his shutout when D Giffen Nyren scored at 17:19 of the third. . . . Ice F Dustin Sylvester had two assists. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 23 shots and F Brandon Kozun was pointless in their returns from Team Canada. . . . Attendance was 6,571.