GAME DAY: KAMLOOPS AT VICTORIA
7 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
TV: None / Radio: The Zone 91.3 FM
There is always going to be pressure on first-round Western Hockey League bantam draft picks. Especially when they are overlooked in their first chance to be included in the NHL draft list for their class. Sure, they are young, but this is the development model hockey has chosen, and which these kids have chosen to pursue.
“I don’t look at that too much,” said Dante Hannoun, the Victoria Royals 2013 bantam first-round selection, who was passed over this week in the preliminary list released by Central Scouting for the 2016 NHL draft.
“And if I do, I’ll use it as motivation to show I belong.”
He may just do that.
Hannoun had a credible start to the WHL season with a goal and assist in the opening 4-1 victory last week over Portland before being blanked Saturday in the 6-5 victory over the Winterhawks.
Hannoun and the Royals continue their six-game opening home stretch at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tonight and Saturday against the Kamooops Blazers (0-2).
The Victoria-Kamloops set will feature four players cited by Central Scouting in the preliminary 2016 NHL draft list — forward Tyler Soy, defenceman Ralph Jarratt of the Royals and forward Jake Kryski of the Blazers as fourth-fifth-sixth round candidates and six-foot-four Czech defenceman Ondrej Vala as a second-to-third round prospect.
Also listed from the WHL were blue-liners Josh Anderson from Duncan of the Prince George Cougars, Dylan Coghlan from Nanaimo of the Tri-City Americans and Brendan De Jong from Victoria of the Portland Winterhawks, along with Nanaimo forward Patrick Bajkov of the Everett Silvertips.
Hannoun still has plenty of opportunities to join them. With two more rankings to come from Central Scouting, at mid-season and season’s end, the Delta native realizes it really doesn’t matter where they put you in October.
“I’m hoping to change my role and get more offence going this season,” he said.
Hannoun has been there before, with a prolific 63 goals, 151 points and plus-114 rating in 63 games for North Shore in bantam. But bantam is not the WHL. Hannoun had three goals, 11 points and a minus-4 rating in 47 regular season games last year as a 16-year-old Royals rookie. The five-foot-six, 160-pound forward was played only twice in 10 playoff games. Hannoun draws in as regular this season. The rest is up to him.
“We don’t talk about it [NHL draft] with our players,” said Royals coach Dave Lowry.
“Your performance will get you noticed.”
Hannoun is approaching it as a team player.
“We’re all buying into our roles,” he said of Victoria’s opening victories against a Portland team that many still consider elite.
The Blazers aren’t in the Winterhawks’ class. But don’t let Kamloops’ two opening losses (4-3 and 7-3) fool you, considering they came against the defending champion Kelowna Rockets, who are again considered the class of the Western Conference, if not the entire WHL.
“Kamloops is a hard-working team and they are always in the lanes and blocking shots,” said Hannoun.
Kamloops is also a veteran squad, returning 19 players, albeit from a team that missed the playoffs last season. But any club coached by Don Hay is bound to be hard to play against.
“Last week is over,” warned Lowry.
“We can’t get caught up in that. We have to be in the present. Don Hay’s teams work hard and compete. The Blazers will be prepared.”
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports