scamperdog
01-09-2007, 10:08 PM
01/09/07 - Phone Lines Remain Open (Kamloops Daily News)
www.blazerhockey.com
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Dean Clark wasn’t on the Interior Savings Centre ice surface when the Kamloops Blazers practised Monday afternoon with the WHL trade deadline 48 hours away.
Instead, the WHL team’s general manager and head coach was in the stands, his phone all but welded to his right hand.
However, in the more than 60 minutes he spent watching proceedings, the phone rang but once, and it was an inquiring media mind.
While Clark said he wouldn‘t be averse to adding an experienced forward or defenceman, he said he wasn‘t about to pay an exorbitant price.
“If I don’t do anything, it won’t bother me,” Clark added, looking ahead to the deadline that arrives Wednesday at 2 p.m. “I like what we’ve got here.”
And well he should.
The Blazers (28-10-1-1) have won five straight games, the latest Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the B.C. Division-leading Vancouver Giants at The ATM. Kamloops already has two more victories than it finished with two seasons ago and is within six victories of last season’s total.
Kamloops, which has beaten Vancouver four times this season, trails the Giants (28-7-3-4) by five points and has two games in hand. Those games will be used up with road games tonight against the Kelowna Rockets (13-23-2-3) and Wednesday against the Spokane Chiefs (21-14-3-2). The Giants open a Central Division road swing Friday against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Giants made a move Monday, acquiring centre Wacey Rabbit, 20, from the Saskatoon Blades for right-winger Kenton Dulle, an 18-year-old from Craik, Sask., and a second-round selection in the 2008 bantam draft.
The Giants have had room for a 20-year-old since goaltender Dustin Slade walked out on them Nov. 20.
Rabbit, who is expected to skate with the Giants today and play Friday, had 56 points, including 28 goals, in 64 games with the Blades last season, his fourth in Saskatoon. In 259 regular-season games, he had 186 points, 80 of them goals. A native of Lethbridge, he was taken by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round of the NHL‘s 2005 draft. The Bruins signed him over the summer and until yesterday he was on the roster of the AHL‘s Providence Bruins for whom he had one goal, scored Nov. 10, and two assists in 22 games.
Rabbit actually was assigned to the ECHL’s Long Beach IceDogs on Monday and was en route to California when the Giants acquired him.
Dulle, a fourth-round 2002 bantam draft pick, has seven points, including one goal, in 43 career games with the Giants. He was saluted as the second star in Vancouver’s 2-0 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels on Sunday.
That, however, was the lone trade of what was a quiet day.
In Kelowna, the rebuilding Rockets have two of the more marketable players in goaltender Kris Westblom, 19, and centre Chris Ray, 20. But general manager Bruce Hamilton has said repeatedly that he isn’t holding a fire sale.
“Teams have to decide what direction they’re going . . .,” Hamilton told the Kelowna Daily Courier. “For us, nothing’s going on; we get calls asking, but we don’t get return calls.
“We literally haven’t been offered anything that changes our team. All along I’ve said we’re not going to trade just to trade; it has to be a trade that makes sense.”
The Blazers, meanwhile, are likely to be without two forwards tonight and Wednesday.
Left-winger Travis Dunstall didn’t skate yesterday after injuring a shoulder against the Giants. He may not play again until Jan. 19 when the Blazers are in Cranbrook to meet the Kootenay Ice.
Centre Brock Nixon, who left with a sore shoulder in the second period of Friday’s 5-2 victory over the visiting Rockets, practised but was noticeably tentative, especially in shooting the puck. He is doubtful for tonight.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The Chilliwack Bruins have reached into the roster of the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos for C Colton Graf, 16, and D Cody Hobbs, 17. Both players will stay with the Bruins for the rest of the season. Graf, taken by Medicine Hat with the 198th pick in the 2005 bantam draft, had 10 goals in 24 games with the Mintos, while Hobbs had 21 points in 20 games. Both played with the Mintos last season when the team won the Telus Cup. . . . WHL goaltenders have put up 67 shutouts this season which is on pace for 117. That would be the second-highest total in WHL history, behind only the 141 of 2004-05. There were 103 shutouts last season. . . . WHL teams are combining for an average of 6.17 goals per game, up from 5.83 from last season. . . . Brandon captain Teegan Moore will play in his 300th regular-season game tonight as the Wheat Kings visit the Regina Pats. He will become the eighth player in Wheat Kings‘ history to reach 300 games.
- 07 -
www.blazerhockey.com
By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Dean Clark wasn’t on the Interior Savings Centre ice surface when the Kamloops Blazers practised Monday afternoon with the WHL trade deadline 48 hours away.
Instead, the WHL team’s general manager and head coach was in the stands, his phone all but welded to his right hand.
However, in the more than 60 minutes he spent watching proceedings, the phone rang but once, and it was an inquiring media mind.
While Clark said he wouldn‘t be averse to adding an experienced forward or defenceman, he said he wasn‘t about to pay an exorbitant price.
“If I don’t do anything, it won’t bother me,” Clark added, looking ahead to the deadline that arrives Wednesday at 2 p.m. “I like what we’ve got here.”
And well he should.
The Blazers (28-10-1-1) have won five straight games, the latest Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the B.C. Division-leading Vancouver Giants at The ATM. Kamloops already has two more victories than it finished with two seasons ago and is within six victories of last season’s total.
Kamloops, which has beaten Vancouver four times this season, trails the Giants (28-7-3-4) by five points and has two games in hand. Those games will be used up with road games tonight against the Kelowna Rockets (13-23-2-3) and Wednesday against the Spokane Chiefs (21-14-3-2). The Giants open a Central Division road swing Friday against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Giants made a move Monday, acquiring centre Wacey Rabbit, 20, from the Saskatoon Blades for right-winger Kenton Dulle, an 18-year-old from Craik, Sask., and a second-round selection in the 2008 bantam draft.
The Giants have had room for a 20-year-old since goaltender Dustin Slade walked out on them Nov. 20.
Rabbit, who is expected to skate with the Giants today and play Friday, had 56 points, including 28 goals, in 64 games with the Blades last season, his fourth in Saskatoon. In 259 regular-season games, he had 186 points, 80 of them goals. A native of Lethbridge, he was taken by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round of the NHL‘s 2005 draft. The Bruins signed him over the summer and until yesterday he was on the roster of the AHL‘s Providence Bruins for whom he had one goal, scored Nov. 10, and two assists in 22 games.
Rabbit actually was assigned to the ECHL’s Long Beach IceDogs on Monday and was en route to California when the Giants acquired him.
Dulle, a fourth-round 2002 bantam draft pick, has seven points, including one goal, in 43 career games with the Giants. He was saluted as the second star in Vancouver’s 2-0 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels on Sunday.
That, however, was the lone trade of what was a quiet day.
In Kelowna, the rebuilding Rockets have two of the more marketable players in goaltender Kris Westblom, 19, and centre Chris Ray, 20. But general manager Bruce Hamilton has said repeatedly that he isn’t holding a fire sale.
“Teams have to decide what direction they’re going . . .,” Hamilton told the Kelowna Daily Courier. “For us, nothing’s going on; we get calls asking, but we don’t get return calls.
“We literally haven’t been offered anything that changes our team. All along I’ve said we’re not going to trade just to trade; it has to be a trade that makes sense.”
The Blazers, meanwhile, are likely to be without two forwards tonight and Wednesday.
Left-winger Travis Dunstall didn’t skate yesterday after injuring a shoulder against the Giants. He may not play again until Jan. 19 when the Blazers are in Cranbrook to meet the Kootenay Ice.
Centre Brock Nixon, who left with a sore shoulder in the second period of Friday’s 5-2 victory over the visiting Rockets, practised but was noticeably tentative, especially in shooting the puck. He is doubtful for tonight.
JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The Chilliwack Bruins have reached into the roster of the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos for C Colton Graf, 16, and D Cody Hobbs, 17. Both players will stay with the Bruins for the rest of the season. Graf, taken by Medicine Hat with the 198th pick in the 2005 bantam draft, had 10 goals in 24 games with the Mintos, while Hobbs had 21 points in 20 games. Both played with the Mintos last season when the team won the Telus Cup. . . . WHL goaltenders have put up 67 shutouts this season which is on pace for 117. That would be the second-highest total in WHL history, behind only the 141 of 2004-05. There were 103 shutouts last season. . . . WHL teams are combining for an average of 6.17 goals per game, up from 5.83 from last season. . . . Brandon captain Teegan Moore will play in his 300th regular-season game tonight as the Wheat Kings visit the Regina Pats. He will become the eighth player in Wheat Kings‘ history to reach 300 games.
- 07 -