Forward Steven Hodges showed flashes of being the most pro-ready of the 2013-14 Victoria Royals. Team management thought so, too, and are banking he will stick in the minor-pro system of the Florida Panthers.
The Royals traded the over-age 20-year-old’s Western Hockey League rights Friday to the Tri-City Americans for a conditional bantam draft pick.
“It is Steven’s expectation he will play pro this season,” said Royals GM Cam Hope, who clearly agrees with that assessment.
Yet, it is a calculated risk.
“There’s always a chance he will come back [to junior],” admitted Hope.
Each WHL team is allowed to carry three 20-year-old players and this move leaves the Royals at that maximum limit, with goaltender Patrik Polivka to play pro in his native Czech Republic and Hodges dealt.
The Royals’ 20-year-olds for 2014-15 will be forwards Austin Carroll and Brandon Magee and defenceman Travis Brown.
“I expect [those three] will be back [in junior],” said Hope.
Carroll was selected in the final round of the 2014 draft by his hometown NHL club but is unsigned by the Calgary Flames. Brown attended the rookie development camp of the New York Rangers last month but was not signed. Magee was mulling over a chance to turn pro in Europe but has decided another season in junior would be better for his development.
Hodges, who was drafted by the Panthers in the third round in 2012 and signed this year, is the seventh-leading scorer in Royals franchise history with 157 points, including 75 goals, in 247 games. One of those goals was the first ever scored by player in a Royals jersey after the franchise moved to the Island in 2011-12 from Chilliwack, where it was known as the Bruins.
Hodges’ rookie WHL season was played in Chilliwack. The six-foot native of Yellowknife, and resident of Delta, is the all-time franchise playoff scoring leader with 20 points, including six goals, in 22 games.
Hodges, however, has been slowed by injuries the past two seasons so he couldn’t always be used to maximum advantage and his true potential wasn’t readily evident at all times. Florida obviously factored that in when deciding to sign Hodges this summer to a standard NHL entry-level contract.
“The wildcard is that Steven was injured for parts of two seasons. I think he is pro-ready,” said Hope.
If he is returned to junior, Hodges must sit out his first five WHL games with the Americans because of a suspension he incurred in the Royals’ final playoff game in Portland last spring. Magee was also assessed a hefty suspension in that game and must sit out the first 12 Royals games this season.
Meanwhile, Royals 19-year-old forward Axel Blomqvist has been named to the Swedish team for the Four Nations Under-20 tournament later this month in Jonkoping, which will feature the host Swedes along with Finland, Russia and the Czech Republic. The rangy forward was undrafted but signed last year to an NHL entry-level contract by the Winnipeg Jets.
The six-foot-six, 212-pounder joined Victoria in a trade from the Lethbridge Hurricanes early last season and recorded 43 points, including 16 goals, in 46 games for the Royals. The native of Osby has 89 points, with 31 goals, in 124 career WHL games. He is now well entrenched in the qualification process to make the Swedish team for the 2015 world junior hockey championship in Toronto and Montreal, after also scoring a goal in four games with the Swedish junior team in a four-game evaluation tour of the U.S. this month.
