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Blazers to push for division supremacy?

MARTY HASTINGS STAFF REPORTER sports@kamloopsthisweek.com

A virus quashed the Kamloops Blazers’ aspirations to win WHL championships in 2020 and 2021.

The club graduated several key players after the 2020-2021 campaign, including its captain and top forward Connor Zary, but a promising young corps remains and many expect the Blazers to compete for a third consecutive B.C. Division title.

A tumultuous off-season included the death of beloved team president Don Moores (see page C3) and the exodus of general manager Matt Bardsley, who left the team to be closer to family in the U.S. and joined the Philadelphia Flyers as an amateur scout.

Blazers’ majority owner Tom Gaglardi opted for promotions from within, giving bench boss Shaun Clouston head coach and general manager duties, with Tim O’Donovan moving into the assistant general manager position.

Gaglardi has not yet named a team president.

Caedan Bankier, drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the off-season, is entering his 18-year-old campaign with the Kamloops Blazers.

ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW

THE FORWARDS At the top end of the lineup, in descending order of age, are 20-yearold Nick McCarry, 19-year-olds Josh

Pillar, Daylan Kuefler and Reese Belton, 18-year-olds Logan Stankoven, Matthew Seminoff, Caedan Bankier and Dylan Sydor and 17-year-olds Connor

Levis and Fraser Minten.

Stankoven is unquestionably the biggest ticket, the hometown wunderkind who bagged seven goals in six games of WHL action last season before notching the game-winning marker for Canada in a 5-3 triumph over Russia in the U18 world championship gold-medal game.

The Dallas Stars drafted Stankoven in Round 2 of the 2021 NHL Draft. He signed with the club on Sept. 30.

At the time of this writing, the Blazers had not yet named a captain, but Stankoven seems likely to wear the C. Defenceman Quinn Schmiemann is also in the captaincy conversation.

Pillar had a breakout season in 2020-2021, leading the team in scoring with 29 points, including 11 goals, in 22 games. He was drafted into the NHL in July by the Minnesota Wild, along with Bankier.

Seminoff, Bankier, Levis and Minten made the most of their opportunities last season and comprise part of the heart of an encouraging youth movement up front.

See GARAND, C7

We are excited to have our Blazers back on the ice!

There is nothing like Blazers hockey to boost the morale in our community.

GO BLAZERS GO!

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Club to play for beloved Mooresy in 2021-2022 A celebration of life ceremony was held for Don Moores on July 13 at Sandman Centre.

KTW was in attendance.

D

on Moores wielded a camera, shifting focus and saying hello to each of the laughing, smiling members of his clan in the room, which was steeped in warmth.

He was introducing his unborn great granddaughter to her family.

Moores panned to Kieanna, his pregnant granddaughter who was having a contraction when he zoomed in on the bundle of incoming joy.

Infectious does not begin to describe the tone in his voice — resounding, contagious contentment.

This was a man raring to greet golden years with a bear hug.

The invaluable footage was

MARTY HASTINGS Tattle of

HASTINGS captured on June 11. Rosalee was born on June 12. Moores, 65, collapsed and died on June 30 while golfing in Kamloops.

A crowd of about 1,000 gathered on July 13 at Sandman Centre for Moores’ celebration of life, a service that concluded with Moores’ camera work, the introductions Rosalee will some day cherish.

Had the Zamboni been operational, those in attendance may have skated home on a

ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW Ken Hitchcock was master of ceremonies at a celebration of life service held for Don Moores on July 13 at Sandman Centre. Moores was the Blazers’ president at the time of his death on June 30. More than 1,000 people attended the service.

sheet of frozen tears.

Country music star Gord Bamford, a friend to Moores, sung about mortality.

The woman in front of me wept.

Friends Ronnie Patterson, Al Glendenning, Billy Pulford, Willy Pulford, Jim Jesson and Tom Gaglardi spoke

to Moores’ character.

Moores often ended conversations with a seemingly simple phrase, one many men struggle to utter: “I love you, buddy.”

On July 13, a few of his pals reciprocated, one final time, through frogs in throats.

Eyes welled when granddaughter Talitha, who suffers

from pulmonary hypertension, said goodbye to her champion.

“We all love you so much,” Talitha said. “You are the best grandpa in the whole entire world.”

Teenage grandson Kane stood stoically among the lineup of family on stage. He tried to fend off emotion, a losing effort.

One of his elder sisters turned her head long enough to notice him crying, the look on her face suggesting it was a sight not often seen.

Grandpa is gone.

Among the takeaways: Moores was a hockey man, a loyal listener and advisor, kind, genuine, hard-working and an astute businessman who loved Kamloops and its Blazers.

But, above all, said wife Sandy — he was a family man.

“They really were the most important thing in his life,” Sandy said. “He loved every one of them and they all loved him back.”

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Lindgrens all-in on chasing pro dreams MARTY HASTINGS

STAFF REPORTER

sports@kamloopsthisweek.com

Mats Lindgren, elusive and shifty, will have eyes on him all season, pro scouts working overtime to get a grasp on the silky-smoothskating 2022 NHL Draft prospect.

KTW managed to corner Lindgren with a few questions ahead of his 17-year-old campaign with the Kamloops Blazers, whose head coach, Shaun Clouston, offered insight on the blue liner’s development.

Lindgren’s father, also named Mats Lindgren, chimed in via Zoom to give readers some background on his son, daughter Gabriella, an aspiring tennis professional, and wife, Vannessa.

THE FAMILY Temporary family fracturing is necessary for the Lindgrens.

Father Mats, who played parts of seven sea-

Mats Lindgren, mother Vannessa and father Mats after signing with the Kamloops Blazers in June of 2019. Gabriella is pictured on the right.

sons in the NHL, including one with the Vancouver Canucks (20022003), resides in the Lower Mainland and works as a skills and skating coach.

With competitive tennis in Canada essentially shut down amid the pandemic, Gabriella and Vannessa moved to Spain, where the 15-year-old Lindgren sibling is enrolled in a tennis academy near Barcelona.

“When it comes to the kids, we’re trying to give them the opportunity to follow their dreams,” said Mats, who was 30 when he retired from pro hockey, his career

plagued and cut short by injuries.

“They have huge passion for their sport. It’s a couple years where I think it’s important you get that opportunity. That being said, it’s lonely. You know what I mean? It’s lonely for me. All of a sudden, it’s just me and the dog, which I’m not used to at all.”

The family moved to Sweden from Vancouver a few months after the birth of Lindgren, who spent the first 11 years of his life in the Scandinavian country.

Vannessa was born in Honduras, but moved to B.C. when she was three.

“It’s a pretty big mix,” said Lindgren, who turned 17 in August. “It’s pretty cool.

“I love it over there [Sweden]. I love the culture.

I still love it over here, though. It was a good move for me, with my hockey and my sister’s tennis, to come over. It’s a lot more high level.”

The Blazers’ rearguard was forced to decide which country he will represent when called to international duty — Canada or Sweden.

“It might sound a little silly, but when that decision came up a couple years ago,

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he was obviously thinking about it,” said dad Mats, who represented Sweden at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

“Do we turn this down? What do you feel, Matsy? He was very proud to represent Canada.

His mother is Canadian. He’s been living in Canada. Every year, he’s going to feel more like a Canadian.”

Lindgren and Blazers’ goaltender Dylan Ernst donned the Maple Leaf and won bronze at the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games in Lausanne, Switzerland.

THE SKATING Edge work was sharpened in Sweden, cut into his game through shearing repetition.

The family moved to Stockholm when Lindgren was five and found coach Roger Dahlström.

“It was hour after hour of working on your edges,” father Mats said. “I do think those five years he spent with him set the foundation for his edges. As you get older, you don’t necessarily want to spend much

time doing that.”

Power skating instructor Victor Kraatz took over from Dahlström when the Lindgrens moved back to Vancouver, but son credits father above all else.

“He’s taught me so much,” Lindgren said.

“He’s the person I look up to and I kind of try to be like him. I wouldn’t be here without him.”

Clouston was asked about his D-man’s formidable feet.

“He’s a terrific skater, a worldclass skater,” the Blazers’ head coach said.

“It’s his edge work. He can open his hips up, be on his inside and outside edges. He’s got good balance, which allows him to tight turn. He’s very mobile. The last part of that is just the power. As he gets older and stronger, with that power added to it, it’s going to add that speed element.”

The six-foot, 170-pound left shot is doing his part to gain strength.

“That was one of the big things I wanted to improve [in the off-season] was my shot and just getting a little bigger, so I could

compete with the bigger guys in the league,” Lindgren said.

“Last year, I kind of got pushed around a little bit, so that’s something I really wanted to work on. I think I’ve done a really good job and I feel good.”

THE PRESSURE Most 17-yearold high school students are not approached

by NHL scouts, media folk, adoring fans and others who can boost ego, apply pressure or affect mentality in any number of ways.

Steve Ewen of The Province recently wrote an article that quoted an anonymous NHL scout who said he is “astronomically high” on Lindgren because his game has “some special elements.”

“For me, it’s pretty fun to see those things,” Lindgren said, noting he strives to emulate Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar, star defencemen and top-flight skaters for the Canucks and Colorado Avalanche, respectively. “I feel good because it kind of shows the work I’ve been putting in has been paying off. I think the work doesn’t stop here, though. I’ll just try to work as hard as I can and, hopefully, I get drafted in June.”

His father, picked 15th overall by the Winnipeg Jets

in the 1993 NHL Draft, is positioned well to help his son handle expectations.

“I do think it helps that I’ve gone through it myself,” said Mats, who logged NHL minutes with the Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders.

Don’t listen too much to things that are good or bad. You have a dream to go as far as you can. Don’t get too high.”

THE DECISION Snaring Lindgren was a coup for the Blazers, who took a risk when they drafted the highly touted defenceman seventh overall in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft.

The Burnaby Winter Club product was verbally committed to play for the NCAA Division 1 Michigan Wolverines, but switched course and inked with Kamloops in June of 2019.

“For him, it became a fairly easy decision once Kamloops came into the picture,” Mats said. “When you go the college path, you’re going to have to wait a few years down the road.

The WHL is the best junior league in the world and I do think you have to be playing with the best to try and reach your goals.

Mats was feeling that, too.”

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C7

Garand owns crease; Ernst to borrow net From C2

Belton, Sydor, Minten and McCarry — who led the club in scoring in exhibition play, with nine points, including five goals — were among standouts at training camp and throughout the pre-season.

“Last year, coming into the team on the fourth line, you’ve got to wear that, know your role, get pucks deep, get off the ice and let the other guys go to work,” said Sydor, who tallied one goal and six points in 15 games last season, his rookie year in the WHL. “This year, just looking to build off that. I’m just happy to accept my role, wherever I am.”

The Blazers nabbed Roman Makarov, a 6-foot5, 214-pound left shot from Engels, Russia, on June 30 in the CHL Import

SHAUN CLOUSTON

ALLEN DOUGLAS/KTW Dylan Garand stretches to make a spectacular save.

Draft. COVID-19 vaccine and Visa complications appear to have pre-empted his tenure in Kamloops before it began.

Clouston traded last month for 19-year-old Slovakian defenceman Marko Stacha, sending a fifth-round pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft to Vancouver in exchange for the left-shot blue liner.

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THE DEFENCE NHL draftees Persson and Schmiemann, both 20, along with Mats Lindgren, 17, are pegged to anchor the Blazers’ blue line in 2021-2022.

Persson and Schmiemann were toiling at NHL camps at the time of this writ-

THE GOALIES Dylan Garand, a 19-year-old Victoria prod-

uct, is the man between the pipes for one more season.

The New York Rangers’ draft pick is among the top junior netminders in the country and is a good bet to start for Team Canada this winter at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

His absence in December and January will open the door for Dylan Ernst, whom the Blazers have been grooming to be the third consecutive Dylan to carry the torch beginning in 2022-2023, when Garand is aiming to begin his pro career.

“It gives me a lot of opportunity to get better and get more games in,” said Ernst, a 17-year-old netminder from Weyburn, Sask.

“More games will help me a lot.”

Go Blazers Go!

THE

LOCAL CHOICE

Stacha and 20-yearold Swedish defenceman Viktor Persson are expected to occupy the club’s two allotted import roster spots this season.

Nathan MacPhersonRidgewell, Tye Spencer and Vaughn Watterodt, all 17, and 16-year-old Emmitt Finnie are likely to start the season jostling for position at the bottom

end of the lineup.

Grayden Slipec and Kai Matthew, picked by the Blazers 27th overall and 107th overall in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft, respectively, are expected to play junior A hockey this season.

ing, Persson with the Vancouver Canucks and Schmiemann with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Smooth-skating Lindgren, the seventh overall pick in the 2019 bantam draft, was a regular in the rotation last season as a 16-year-old and enters his NHL Draft year as an intriguing prospect (read more about the Lindgren family on page C6).

Stacha, 19-year-old Ethan Brandwood, 18-year-old Logan Bairos and 16-year-old Kaden Hammell, the 19th overall pick in the 2020 bantam draft, are in the top-six mix, with Ryan Michael and Rylan Pearce, both 16, aiming to make an impression.

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