Dave Lowry dismisses the term rebuild.
“It’s a media word,” he said.
But maybe no less true because of it.
“We’re going to be younger . . . we know that,” said Lowry, head coach of the Victoria Royals.
“But we haven’t talked about it in [those terms].”
That’s because the best organizations in the Western Hockey League don’t so much rebuild as they just re-feed the beast.
“Kelowna is going to be strong again and Portland much the same,” said Lowry, of a Western Conference that may not see much shakeup at the top.
But Lowry’s model WHL organization worth emulating is across the Rockies.
“You look at the Calgary Hitmen, who have only missed the playoffs once in 16 years, and ask how do you maintain that level of success?”
That is the question the Royals organization must ask this season, whether the rebuild word is brought up or not.
The Royals will open the 2015-16 WHL season on Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre against the Winterhawks.
The Royals go in with 25 players on the roster. Of that total, 10 are new faces. Of the new players, seven are true rookies. Of the rookies, three are 16 years old.
The Royals were mid-pack in the Western Conference in going 39-29-4 last season, following a franchise record 48 victories the season before. But will the youth movement mean a slide to lower-middle-pack while this group looks to grow and find its way? Lowry will be head coach for Canada at the 2016 world junior hockey championship in Helsinki. It’s hard to imagine a Lowry-coached team missing the post-season, but the ground has shifted beneath his club and it may take some time for this youthful group to find its footing. So instead of targeting the third-to-fifth playoff slots in the Western Conference as in the past two seasons, the Royals may have to be content with battling it out for the sixth-to-eighth playoff slots in the Western Conference.
“The teams like Kelowna and Portland don’t just happen. You need patience and it takes time,” said Lowry.
You stick with an organizational approach and don’t alter from it. Let the young players grown into it, he noted.
“It’s called standards and principles. You play a certain way every night,” said Lowry.
Royals GM Cam Hope is realistic about the growing pains to come.
“We’re in a ramp-up phase right now,” he said. “We have a young and inexperienced team. It’s a challenge for us. Our coaches’ hands are full. But they will impart to the young players what Royals hockey is all about.”
Here is a breakdown of the 2015-16 Royals:
GOALTENDING: Because of being inexperienced up front, the Royals were forced to burn one of their three 20-year-old slots on veteran goaltender Coleman Vollrath. He will need to steal his share of games. The battle to backup Vollrath is fascinating. Six-foot-six American Evan Smith is an NHL draft pick of the Nashville Predators, while 17-year-old Griffen Outhouse is considered a sure bet in the Victoria crease for future seasons.
DEFENCE: The face of the franchise is the undersized but mobile Joe Hicketts, the Detroit Red Wings-signed blue-liner and gold medallist for Canada at the 2015 world junior championship, and likely to again be skating for Canada at the 2016 world juniors. Six-foot-three Chaz Reddekopp, a draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the summer, is the other pillar of the defence.
Ryan Gagnon’s quiet but veteran presence will also be integral. Recently acquired Jordan Wharrie and Russian import Marsel Ibragimov could also prove useful. After that, it gets young very quickly with 17-year-old sophomore Ralph Jarratt and touted 16-year-old rookies Scott Walford and Brayden Pachal. Walford co-led the Royals in points during the pre-season.
Overall, the defence appears the strength of this Royals team.
FORWARDS: Victoria must find ways to replace the output lost through the graduated Austin Carroll, Brandon Magee and offensive blue-liner Travis Brown, also forward Greg Chase, who will go pro in the Edmonton Oilers system.
The new-look Royals forwards won’t do it through size. The unit is about to get much smaller, with a series of undersized but darting forwards drafted out of bantam the last few years. The most promising is five-foot-six rookie Matthew Phillips, the Royals co-leader in pre-season scoring with three goals and four assists. Victoria also needs to have another diminutive 17-year-old, five-foot-five 2013 bantam first-round draft pick Dante Hannoun, to be productive. The veteran backbone up front is provided by Tyler Soy, Alex Forsberg, Jack Walker and 20-year-old Logan Fisher. Their leadership will be crucial.
“We used to be able to find separation up front,” said Lowry.
What he means is at the point of contact, big forwards such as Carroll and Taylor Crunk were able to move opposition defenders off the puck the past few seasons.
“Now our [smaller] forwards have to be first to the puck,” noted Lowry.
