In the end, Blazers got their guy

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
EDMONTON — At the end of the day, the numbers and the bloodlines were too much to ignore.
So the Kamloops Blazers selected forward Matt Needham with the eighth overall pick of the WHL’s 2010 bantam draft on Thursday at the Fantasyland Hotel.
The Prince George Cougars began the draft as expected, by taking forward Alex Forsberg of the Saskatchewan midget AAA league’s Beardy’s Blackhawks. His brother Jesse, 16, is a defenceman who just completed his first WHL season with the Cougars. Jesse was the 11th overall pick in the 2008 draft.
It took the 22 teams more than seven hours to draft 235 players.
The Blazers selected nine players all told, taking the sons of former Kamloops players with their first and last picks.
Needham is the son of Mike Needham, who played three seasons (1987-90) with the Blazers, scoring 59 goals and totalling 125 points in 1989-90.
With their last pick, the 162nd overall, Kamloops took forward Mackenzie Ferner, the son of former player and coach Mark Ferner, now the general manager and head coach of the BCHL-champion Vernon Vipers.
Leading up to the draft, there was speculation that Matt Needham wouldn’t commit to playing in the WHL, and that teams had been told he wanted to keep his options open, at least through next season.
Needham, who was coached by his father this season, said last night that, while he wants to keep open those options, he definitely will be in Kamloops when training camp opens on Aug. 26.
“I’m excited about that,” he said. “I’ve always liked Kamloops and (being drafted by the Blazers) was nice.”
Needham’s commitment to attend training camp was enough to sway the Blazers’ management team.
“He’s very interested in playing in Kamloops,” general manager Craig Bonner said, “and we really feel strongly that, when we get him to camp and show him our program and our coaching staff, he’ll be very proud to be a Blazer.”
This season, playing for the bantam Penticton Vees in OMAHA, Needham, the team captain, picked up an amazing 253 points, including 94 goals, in 64 games.
“There are a lot of positive things there,” Bonner said. “The first two things that come to mind are his compete and character.
“The numbers he put up speak for themselves but the character and compete are the direction that we believe we have our team at and those are the two things that are very important to us.”
The Blazers may well have made the decision to select Needham after Matt Recchi, the team’s director of player personnel, and head scout Ken Fox watched a bantam AAA tournament in Lethbridge in January.
“(Penticton) beat some quality teams there,” Recchi said. “He put his team on his shoulders and led them to the final and they ended up winning the tournament.”
That particular tournament was a season highlight for Needham.
“We beat some teams that most people didn’t think we should have,” he said. “We were short a couple of guys and we came together as a team and won it.”
Recchi added: “He’s a tremendous two-way player. He has a lot of character. He shoots the puck as well as anybody in the draft. He’s a natural and gifted scorer but he’s also a gifted playmaker. He’s ultra-competitive. He’s relentless on the forecheck.”
Asked about his offensive numbers, Needham chose to talk about his team.
“I had a pretty good season,” he said. “The team goal was to make it to provincials and we did that, so it was a successful season.”
As for next season, Needham said he expects to play for the major midget Okanagan Rockets in Kelowna or the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton.
With the eighth pick of the second round, 30th overall, the Blazers took forward Cole Ully from the bantam AAA Calgary Bronks. He was the seventh Calgarian taken, but the first in the second round. Six of the draft’s first 11 selections were from Calgary.
After taking defenceman Tyson Harvey of Nanaimo with the 35th pick, the Blazers raised a few eyebrows by using the 61st selection on defenceman Josh Connolly of Prince George. He is the younger brother of Cougars star Brett Connolly.
The Blazers also dropped five players during the draft, including Slovakian forward Matej Bene, who had 14 points, including five goals, in 59 games as a freshman.
“We expected more out of (Bene),” Recchi said. “All the talk was that he would come in and be a scoring winger in that 1992 age group. He had lots of opportunity to do that and it just never worked out for him.”
The Blazers plan on having Slovakian centre Dalibor Bortnak back for a third season, so will be making one selection when the CHL holds its import draft on June 29.
Also dropped by the Blazers were defencemen Luc Lemire of Prince Albert and Brendan Enns, who played midget in Campbell River, and forwards Kyle Buffardi of Westminster, Calif., and Mitch Vanteeling of Brandon. Enns was a fourth-round selection in 2009, Buffardi was taken in the fourth round in 2008, and Vanteeling was taken in the eighth round in 2008.
JUST NOTES: The Tri-City Americans moved up in the draft to pick Eric Comrie, the first goaltender taken, with the 13th selection. From Newport Beach, Calif., he is the brother of F Mike Comrie of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. The Americans dealt the 19th overall pick and a 2011 second-rounder to the Vancouver Giants in order to take Comrie with the 13th pick. . . . The Blazers had their eyes on G Brendan Burke of Scottsdale, Ariz., but the Portland Winterhawks traded up and took him with the 49th pick. He is the son of former NHL G Sean Burke. . . . With the second pick in the second round, the Everett Silvertips took F Ryan Chynoweth, who played this season in Lethbridge. He is the son of Jeff Chynoweth, the president and GM of the Kootenay Ice. A proud father said prior to the second round that the Ice wouldn’t be picking his son. “It isn’t fair to the team,” Jeff said, “and it really isn’t fair to the player.” . . . The Ice used the 15th overall pick to take F Sam Reinhart of the Hollyburn Huskies. His brother, Max, has played two seasons with the ice. Another brother, Griffin, was taken third overall by the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2009. All three are the sons of former NHL D Paul Reinhart. . . .
The Oil Kings took F Curtis Lazar of the Pursuit of Excellence team in Kelowna with the second overall pick. In each of the last five drafts, the No. 2 pick has played in that year’s KIBIHT — Lazar, D Morgan Reilly, who was taken by the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2009, F Ty Rattie, who went to the Portland Winterhawks in 2008, F Luke Moffatt, taken by the Kelowna Rockets in 2007, and F Landon Ferraro, taken by the Red Deer Rebels in 2006. . . . F Cole DePape, the younger brother of Blazers F Ryan DePape, was taken 77th overall by the Kootenay Ice.

EDMONTON — While there were two players selected from Neepawa, Man., and two from Thompson, Man., not even one player from Kamloops was taken during Thursday’s WHL bantam draft.
It was the first time since 2003 that no Kamloops players were selected.
Last year, the Edmonton Oil Kings took F Morgan Zulinick with the 52nd pick and G Wade Moyls with the 145th selection.
In 2008, the Prince Albert Raiders took F Brock Balson with the 61st selection.
There were two Kamloops players taken in 2007 and 2006, one in 2005, and five in 2004.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com