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WHL: Brett Bulmer returns to Rockets
Team Canada's selection of power wingers for the world junior championship has improved.
Brett Bulmer, one of two second-round picks from the 2010 NHL entry draft who made his big-league debut this fall, is being returned to the WHL's Kelowna Rockets by the Minnesota Wild. People might have wondered if the Wild scratching Bulmer before he could play his 10th game and burn off year toward free agency was the kind of buying-time manoeuvre junior hockey aficionados have come to know and loath in recent years. In reality, the Wild stuck to the spirit of the rule, to the Rockets' benefit.
The 19-year-old right wing might not have a ton of buzz for the world junior team, but given that his Rockets coach, Ryan Huska, is on staff, Bulmer has one guy in the room who could champion him if he's deserving. The NHL stint certainly has put Bulmer on the radar to be a checking-line player, or some such thing:
From Steve Ewen at the Vancouver Province:
"They [Minnesota] did exactly what they said they would do — if he's not going to play regularly, there's no reason to have him there," [Bruce] Hamilton, the Kelowna Rockets general manager, said Monday, not long after it was announced the power forward Bulmer, 19, was being returned to the WHL squad after nine games in the NHL with the Wild.
" ...Our message to him will be that he's got a really important next 30 days to get himself into the loop for the world juniors. I can tell you, for certain, that he wasn't in the loop before."
... "He's a way different guy than he was a year ago," said Hamilton. "He grew up a lot this summer. He's 195 pounds now and he's matured as a person." (The Dub Hub)
The Rockets, meantime, are a fairly young team which has been struggling mightly with a 5-9-0-1 record, third-poorest in the WHL's Western Conference. They're only in a playoff position since Bulmer's hometown Prince George Cougars are struggling after losing Brett Connolly to the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and the Everett Silvertips are rebuilding.
It should be top-of-mind that Bulmer alone will not remedy those woes. It sure will help, though.
From Regan Bartel, the Rockets' play-by-play voice:
Much of the team's struggles was the result of injuries and icing an extremely young team with little depth. The coaches had no choice but to put these young players into crucial situations when they simply weren't ready. The coaches' hands were tied as the injury bug continued to chomp on the team's veteran players.
Bulmer's return is great news. But let's make one thing clear here. Bulmer is not the saviour.
... What Bulmer will bring to the table is a threat to score both even strength and on the power play and a key veteran presence at the forward position when the game is on the line. Bulmer is the only 19-year-old forward on the team outside of the injured Spencer Main.
Bulmer can be a difference maker and a game changer. He is a momentum changer. And yes, he makes everyone around him that much better. (Regan's Rant)
The big takeaway, obviously, is Hamilton's he wasn't in the loop before comment. In any event, Bulmer's experience and combo of size and skill might have something to offer the national junior team in about six weeks.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports . Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (photo: Getty Images).
