Victoria Royals blue-liner Joe Hicketts often displays a shrewd sense of timing on his outlet passes.
His timing also couldn’t be better in another regard, although this issue is out of his control. Hicketts is expected to return this week from the NHL training camp of the Detroit Red Wings and be in the lineup for the Royals’ home openers Friday and Saturday against the Kamloops Blazers at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The move couldn’t come soon enough for a Royals team off to a 0-2 start while five players were away at NHL camps last weekend.
“Joe brings a lot of experience, which is something we are without at the moment,” said Royals GM Cam Hope.
“This takes the pressure off some of the other defencemen and the minutes they have logged.”
So will the expected return for the home openers of veteran Jack Walker, a Royals blue-liner who missed the first two games due to injury.
Victoria was forced to go with just five defencemen in beginning the season with 6-3 and 3-1 road losses against the Blazers and Vancouver Giants, respectively.
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Also returning is Royals forward Brandon Magee from Calgary Flames camp, although that move is currently moot because Magee must sit out 10 more games of a 12-game suspension to start the Western Hockey League season.
“We’re still waiting on players … waiting to get our veteran core back in,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
Ironically, better WHL teams with more pro prospects on their rosters are penalized to a greater extent this time of year, in terms of missing players, than are weaker teams with fewer potential pros.
It’s a delicate balance, admitted Lowry.
Junior coaches want their players to develop. Skating in NHL camps will certainly do that for the three Royals remaining of the six who originally went to pro camps. On the other hand, junior coaches anxiously await the return of those players.
Royals forward Axel Blomqvist continues to stick in Winnipeg Jets camp as do Victoria forward Austin Carroll and defenceman Keegan Kanzig in Flames camp.
Hope said he isn’t worried about the 0-2 start, considering the circumstances.
“You don’t want to be a couple of games below .500, and you want to make sure it doesn’t grow into a bigger hole to climb out of, but a hockey season is a marathon, not a sprint,” said the Victoria GM.
Meanwhile, there was a splashy trade Monday in the WHL. The Everett Silvertips acquired from the Saskatoon Blades 2014 first-round NHL draft pick Nikita Scherbak, a Russian taken 26th overall by the Montreal Canadiens, but surrendered a bit of their future in doing so. Going to the Blades from Everett is goaltender Nik Amundrud plus a 2015 first-round bantam draft pick and 2016 second-rounder.
Future bantam draft slots, even those in the first round, don’t sell a lot of tickets in the here and now. Especially for an Everett organization that has guaranteed its fan base a top-four finish in the WHL Western Conference this year or all season-ticket holders will receive a $100 discount for the following season.
