Blazers' braintrust preparing for bantam draft

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Members of the Kamloops Blazers organization who will be involved in next week’s WHL bantam draft have started making their way to Edmonton.
The annual draft will be held there on Thursday, with the Blazers holding the eighth overall pick.
But before the draft arrives, the Blazers, and the 21 other WHL teams, are taking care of some business in Leduc, Alta., where the Alberta Cup, the showcase for that province’s draft-eligible players, opened Thursday. It runs through Sunday and is the last chance for 1995-born players to strut their stuff prior to the draft.
Matt Recchi, the Blazers’ Kamloops-based director of player personnel, and head scout Ken Fox, who lives in Holdfast, Sask., arrived in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
General manager Craig Bonner flew into the Alberta capital last night, after stopping off in Calgary to attend a meeting of team and arena management people from throughout the league that was called by the WHL office.
The WHL “wants to get relations going better between rinks and management,” one WHL insider told The Daily News.
Bonner and Tony Carlucci, the arena operations supervisor at Interior Savings Centre, were among about 75 people in attendance. There was at least one representative of each team and at least one person from each arena on hand.
“We have a good relationship with our group,” Bonner said. “It was getting together and talking about different challenges that both parties have. It was worthwhile. It’s trying to get everyone to communicate better.
“It was good. I thought it was really good.”
And then it was on to Edmonton and Leduc, for one last look at Alberta prospects before the draft.
The Blazers will bring their entire scouting staff in for the draft. That staff comprises Greg Batters of Victoria, who handles Vancouver Island; Mark Blair of Edmonton and Warren Renden of Calgary, who handle Alberta; Grant Evans and John Davis, who look after the Lower Mainland; Stefan Couture of Saskatoon; and, Gerry Hogue of Winnipeg. Renden also does extensive scouting in the U.S.
Bonner, Recchi, Fox, Blair and Renden will spend the weekend watching the Alberta Cup.
“We’ll have our list together by Tuesday . . . it’ll probably be done Monday,” Recchi said. “It’s basically done now but we might tweak some Alberta kids after the weekend.”
Recchi is of the opinion that this will be a “fairly deep draft.”
“In the first round,” he said, “there are going to be 22 real good players. After that, there’s going to be a dropoff, but I feel there’s a good pile of players who will fall into Rounds 2 to 4. Overall, I think it’s a fairly deep draft.”
The draft will begin at 8:30 a.m. MT, with the Prince George Cougars holding the first pick.
They are expected to select forward Alex Forsberg, 15, who finished third in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA league scoring race with the Beardy’s Blackhawks.
The Blazers have four picks in the first three rounds and, barring trades, will make four selections in the first 35 picks.
Bonner said he will be “very involved” in making the first-round pick.
After that, well, as he put it: “You have to trust your people.”
JUST NOTES: Bonner said he hasn’t heard from either of the two goaltenders on the Blazers’ list who have yet to commit. John Keeney of Twin Peaks, Calif., is backing up with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, while Josh Thorimbert of Saskatoon was the SJHL’s rookie of the year with the Kindersley Klippers. . . . Bonner also hasn’t heard any more on D Corey Fienhage, a draft pick of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres who played with the U of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. There has been speculation that Fienhage, a 20-year-old next season, may leave school. Bonner doesn’t expect any news on that front until after the NHL draft.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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