The Victoria Royals traded a bit of their future for an NHL-drafted defenceman Monday in the clearest indication yet that the Western Hockey League team believes its time is now.
Coming to the Royals from the Moose Jaw Warriors is 19-year-old Travis Brown, the fourth-leading scorer among WHL defencemen, in exchange for two third-round selections in the 2014 bantam draft and the rights to 15-year-old forward and 2013 third-round bantam pick Noah Gregor.
“One of our futures is now,” said Victoria general manager Cam Hope.
“We’re in this business to go as far as we can every year. Every year is another chance. We owe it to this group of players to give them every opportunity to win when the playoffs come.”
The Royals (28-14-2) have been been doing enough winning lately, despite a raft of injuries, to receive an honourable mention in the last Canadian Hockey League top-10 poll. The Warriors, meanwhile, are 12 points adrift of a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference and pretty much resigned to giving up veteran assets in order to build for the future.
“We’ve been talking a lot to various teams and it invariably is to teams sitting outside of the playoffs,” noted Hope.
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The six-foot-two Brown was taken in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. He has nine goals and 39 points this season but is minus-32 on a struggling Warriors squad. Brown has 25 goals and 109 points with 147 penalty minutes in 182 career WHL games with the Warriors.
“Travis Brown has been a great player for our hockey club and person in our community in his three plus years in Moose Jaw,” said Warriors general manager Alan Millar in a statement.
“We wish him all the best with the Victoria Royals and with his future with the Chicago Blackhawks organization.”
Millar feels he has a useful prospect in Gregor, who is third in scoring in the Alberta Triple-A Midget League.
“Gregor, along with other top Warriors prospects . . . should bode well for the future of our hockey club,” he said.
Hope doesn’t disagree that Gregor could turn out to be a very good WHL player.
“You are not going to get a player like Travis Brown unless you give up something of value in return,” said the Victoria GM.
“You don’t want to give up a future asset, but on balance, this was something we were prepared to do.”
The WHL trade deadline is Friday.
Hope described Brown as a player of “exceptional vision and skill.”
Brown is expected in the lineup Friday when the Royals begin a key two-game set against the Portland Winterhawks, who are expected to have Derrick Pouliot, Nic Petan, Taylor Leier and possibly Mathew Dumba (after a deal with Red Deer) back from the world junior championship.
“Portland is one of the favourites in the Western Conference along with Kelowna,” said Hope. “But we’re knocking on the door. Hopefully, we will be part of the same conversation.”
And the addition of Brown may just be that conversation kick-starter.
ICE CHIPS: The U.S. continues to stake its claim as a hockey nation. The Americans defeated Team Pacific, with Royals rookies Tyler Soy and Chaz Reddekopp, 4-0 Sunday in the final of the Under-17 World Challenge in Cape Breton. Soy struck silver while finishing with two goals and five points in six games while blue-liner Reddekopp had two assists. The Team Pacific bench staff included Royals assistant coach Enio Sacilotto and athletic therapist Khore Elliott.
