Murray charting hockey future

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
Like all 68 players attending this week's Team Pacific Camp, Matt Murray is standing on the edge of his hockey future.
The Team Pacific Camp, featuring 1996-born players from B.C. and Alberta, continues today and Sunday at McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre. From the attending players, Team Pacific will be selected for the World U17 Hockey Challenge in Quebec from Dec. 28 to Jan. 4.
The short-term goal for each and every one of the players is to make the team. But with junior camps scheduled to start in late August, there's a lot more on each of the 15- and 16-year-old players' minds these days.
For Murray, who turned 16 on Monday, it's cracking the roster of the WHL's Kootenay Ice, which selected him in the fourth round, 70th overall, of the 2011 bantam draft.
The Ice's camp starts at the end of August and, for the 6-foot-1, 210-pound defenceman, the strategy is pretty simple.
"I'm going to go in trying to make the team and give 'er my all out there," Murray said Thursday. "I thought I had a really good camp last year — the coaches liked how I played."
Yes, Murray turned some heads at the 2011 camp, which is probably good news for him.
The bad news is that the coaches last season — two of them, anyway — won't be back this season. Kris Knoblauch, who was the Ice's head coach the past two seasons, was let go by the team in the offseason, and assistant Todd Johnson took the head-coaching position with the U of Regina Cougars.
The Ice has since hired Ryan McGill to be its head coach, and recently added Chad Kletzel as an assistant coach.
So Murray has two new people to impress, but he's confident, especially with the time he has put in during the Team Pacific Camp.
"It's a great experience, just to be out and playing with guys who are all high-calibre," Murray said. "It's all-around good players, so it helps."
Pretty well every player at this week's camp is getting ready for a junior camp somewhere, so Murray isn't alone.
And they all have the same goal — make Team Pacific, make a junior team and then, a few years down the road, make the NHL.
Murray, who had six assists and 112 penalty minutes in 31 games for the major-midget Thompson Blazers last season, hasn't stopped working since the season ended in the spring.
"This offseason, I've been training with Greg Kozoris, doing sprints every day at 7 a.m., then going to the gym after that," Murray said. "It's pretty interesting getting to train with pro guys, and Greg does a lot of that. It's been a big help."
Without looking too far ahead, this is a special week for Murray, as it may be one of the last chances for him to play alongside some of his former Jardine's Blazers teammates.
A total of seven members of the team that won the Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament in 2011 are in camp this week — Murray, goaltender Liam McLeod, defencemen Carter Cochrane and Joe Hicketts, and forwards Ryan Gropp, Chad Butcher and Carson Bolduc.
"This will probably one of the last times we'll all be together, because we're all going our separate ways and doing what we need to do," Murray said.
But that doesn't mean Murray won't be seeing his friends.
"It will be kind of cool being able to play against these guys in the future," he said. "Hicketts and Bolduc will be playing the (WHL) next year, so I might have the chance to face them."
The camp continues today with practices at 9, 10:15 and 11:30 a.m., and 12:45 p.m.
Murray's Team Grey will meet Team White at 6 p.m., before Gropp, Hicketts and Bolduc will lead Team Black in a game against Team Red, featuring McLeod, Cochrane and Butcher, at 8:15 p.m.
Sunday's placement games are scheduled for 9 a.m. (third place) and 11:15 a.m. (gold medal).

(NOTE: I slipped up in not posting this story much earlier. The first-place game on Sunday, 11:15 a.m., will feature White and Grey.)

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By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

This hockey offseason has been anything but for Jason Becker. Not that he minds.
Becker, a 38-year-old native of Saskatoon, arrived in Kamloops on Sunday afternoon to begin final preparations for the Team Pacific camp that will run from Wednesday through Sunday at the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre.
In his other life, Becker is the lead assistant coach with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars.
After last season, he was named head coach of Team Pacific, a squad that will play in the U-17 World Hockey Challenge in Drummondville and Victoriaville, Que., Dec. 28 through Jan. 4.

JASON BECKER

There will be 68 players, 34 from each of Alberta and B.C., at this week’s camp.
“I’ve seen all of them since the end of the season,” Becker said.
He was at B.C.’s U-17 camp in Salmon Arm from May 8-13 and, two weeks later, attended Alberta’s camp in Leduc.
“It was a big deal for me to go over there,” Becker said, referencing the fact that it hasn’t been common practice for a coach from one province to cross over into the other province in these situations. “Hockey Alberta was very accommodating.”
Becker was quick to add that also has had a lot of help from Wade Klippenstein, who is Team Pacific’s head scout and also is the Cougars’ assistant GM and director of player personnel.
“Wade is pretty much in charge of watching the players and doing the reports,” said Becker, who has two assistant coaches — Steve Hamilton of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings and Brandon West of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm SilverBacks. “He has been watching these guys for two years already so he knows all the background.”
The camp opens with registration on Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. The rest of the day will be taken up with meetings, fitness testing and evening practices.
On each of the next three days, each team will practice for an hour and be involved in a two-hour game. The games will be of the serious variety, too, because there will be championship and third-place games on Sunday.
“I don’t think anyone is on the team right now,,” Becker said. “But a player certainly will be able to help his cause at this camp.
“We want the kids to compete their best and play their hardest. This is a short-term competition so should give us some insight into how they would do in the competition in Quebec.
“But they all have a clean slate right now. We will grade them on how they do here.”
Six of the players in camp are from Kamloops. Defenceman Joe Hicketts, who will be trying to crack the roster of the WHL’s Victoria Royals, and forward Ryan Gropp (BCHL-Penticton Vees) are on Team Black. Defenceman Matt Murray, whose WHL rights belong to the Kootenay Ice, is on Team Grey. Goaltender Liam McLeod, a bantam draft pick by the Kamloops Blazers in 2011, defenceman Carter Cochrane, an Everett Silvertips’ prospect, and forward Chad Butcher, whose WHL rights belong to the Medicine Hat Tigers, are on Team Red.
Becker played for the Saskatoon Blades, Red Deer Rebels, Kamloops and Swift Current Broncos from 1990-95 before going on to spent three seasons at the U of Saskatchewan. He then played nine seasons of pro hockey, eight of them in Europe, before turning to coaching.
Becker has been on the Cougars’ coaching staff, working alongside head coach Dean Clark, since December 2009.
JUST NOTES: Games will be held Thursday through Saturday at 6 and 8:15 p.m. On Sunday, the third-place game is scheduled for 9 a.m., with the championship game at 1:15 p.m. . . . D Connor Clouston of Medicine Hat, a third-round selection by the Blazers in the 2011 bantam draft, is on Team White. . . . F Jake Virtanen of Abbotsford, who went to the Calgary Hitmen with the first selection of the 2011 bantam draft, is on Team Black. He got into nine games with the Hitmen as a 15-year-old and scored three times. He got his first WHL goal in Kamloops on Dec. 30 as the Hitmen beat the Blazers, 6-3.

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Eight is enough for Jardine's Blazers

Seven of the eight Kamloops Jardine's Blazers who were selected in the WHL's bantam draft on Thursday: From left, Mitchell Barker, Ryan Gropp (back), Chad Butcher, Matt Murray, Kyle Michalovsky, Liam McLeod (back) and Joe Hicketts. Missing from the photo is Carson Bolduc, who is from Salmon Arm.
(Photo by Murray Mitchell / Kamloops Daily News)

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
The Kamloops Jardine’s Blazers bantam Tier 1 team got pretty good at celebrating throughout the season.
But for some, being chosen in Thursday’s WHL bantam draft was as much a cause to celebrate as it was a relief.
The Blazers had eight players selected in Thursday’s bantam draft, which was held in Calgary. The eight Kamloops-based players chosen marked the most successful draft ever for Kamloops, and equaled the amount of locals selected over the previous six drafts, dating back to 2005.
The week leading up to the draft was quite stressful for the eligible Blazers, what with the actual hockey finished for the season and their fate in everyone else’s hands.
Defenceman Joe Hicketts, who last played in Sunday’s final at the B.C. Cup showcase tournament at Interior Savings Centre, was a popular guy the previous four days. He’s glad it’s over.
“We’ve been getting phone call after phone call,” said Hicketts, who was chosen 12th overall by Victoria. “I think I was on the phone more in this last week than I’m usually on it in a year.
“Team after team calling, asking more questions . . . but it was weird knowing you could do nothing about it. It’s out of your hands.”
The Blazers’ season was absolutely magical, there’s no other way to put it.
Not only did they win major tournaments in St. Albert and Medicine Hat, they also won the Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey Tournament in April — only the second time a Kamloops team has done so.
And Thursday was a nice reward for nearly half the Blazers’ 17-person roster.
Hicketts was one of two Kamloops players chosen in the first round, following forward Ryan Gropp, who was taken sixth overall by the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Forward Carson Bolduc, a Salmon Arm native who played for the Blazers this season, went 59th overall to the Prince George Cougars, with Chad Butcher, also a forward, going 62nd overall to the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Kootenay Ice selected defenceman Matt Murray 70th overall, with goaltender Liam McLeod going 182nd to the Kamloops Blazers, forward Mitchell Barker taken 206th by the Spokane Chiefs and goaltender Kyle Michalovsky chosen 221st by the Calgary Hitmen.
(The WHL website lists Barker as having been chosen by the Prince Albert Raiders, but he was in fact chosen by Spokane).
Hicketts and Gropp didn’t have to sweat through the day not knowing where they would be picked — both boys knew they had been selected before they headed off to school.
“I wasn’t expecting too much,” Gropp said. “I was expecting to go pretty high, but I had no idea where I was going to go.”
Gropp got a congratulatory phone call from Seattle general manager Russ Farwell.
“I just let him speak,” Gropp said. “I didn’t really have much to say — I was kind of in shock about what happened.”
Real life didn’t stop for the others, who spent the day at school, sitting on pins and needles.
Murray was sitting in a social studies class when he got a text message from his mother.
“It just said that Kootenay picked me,” Murray said. “The last four days, I’ve just been waiting. . . . I was curious, but I wouldn’t say I was stressed.”
For McLeod, the timing of his call couldn’t have been worse. He was doing a science test when his cell phone started ringing.
“Got a phone call from my mom and interrupted the whole class — it was a pretty good reason, I thought,” McLeod said. “The teacher understood after I told her what the call was about.”
McLeod really doesn’t know how well he did on the test.
“My mind wasn’t really in it after the phone call,” he admitted. “I was pretty excited, thinking about other stuff.”
He is only the sixth Kamloops player to be selected by the Blazers over the past 16 years, and was pleased to have received a phone call from goaltending coach Dan De Palma yesterday afternoon.
“I’m really glad — I really wanted to play here,” McLeod said. “I’m glad I get to stay at home, and I really like Dan De Palma — he’s a great goalie coach and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
The Blazers had a chance to select Gropp or Hicketts with the fourth pick, but neither boy was disappointed when they selected defenceman Jordan Thomson of Wawanesa, Man.
“I’m really happy that Seattle took me,” Gropp said. “It’s a good opportunity.”
“It would have been cool to have stayed in your hometown,” Hicketts added, “but it’s pretty cool that you get to go live somewhere else for a while and learn from other people’s experiences.”

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca