Former Vernon Viper Forward Hall Won't Return To Blazers:

This is posted on Gregg Drinnans Blog:

Hall won't return to Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN

Daily News Sports Editor

After a conversation with general manager Craig Bonner, veteran forward Mark Hall has decided not to attend the Kamloops Blazers’ training camp, which opens with rookie registration on Aug. 26.
“We had a good chat and I expressed where he was at,” Bonner said Tuesday. “I was honest with him and said he was going to be in tough. He was a man about it and decided he should pursue junior A . . . I respect his decision.”
Hall’s junior A rights are held by the AJHL’s Canmore Eagles, whose GM/head coach is former Blazers assistant coach Andrew Milne. However, Hall, who is from Kamloops, isn’t likely to play in the AJHL; it’s more likely that Milne will trade his rights to a BCHL team.
“I’m not going to rule it out totally, but it’s definitely not in my top three,” Hall said of Canmore. He added that his top three choices all are in the BCHL, with the Vernon Vipers at No. 1. Hall joined the Blazers midway through 2006-07 after opening the season with the Vipers.
Hall went on to play 164 regular-season games with the Blazers, totaling 25 points, including 11 goals, and 139 penalty minutes. He missed all of 2008-09 with a knee injury suffered just prior to the opening of training camp.
Last season, Hall scored five goals, with four of them coming in a late-season burst when he put together a four-game goal-scoring streak.
“That was fun,” he said of those four games. “But I think my highlight, for the most part, was all the different people that I met and the experience.”
Hall’s departure leaves forward Ryan Hanes, 18, as the only Kamloops native on the Blazers’ roster.
“It was awesome,” Hall said of playing for his hometown team. “I’ve nothing bad to say about anything here. It was awesome. The organization was the best. It was four of the best years of my life.”