Victoria Royals captain Matthew Phillips won rave reviews in the Calgary media over the weekend for what has been described as a dazzling performance in the Flames’ NHL development camp.
That’s good news for Phillips personally but not so good news for Royals fans.
The biggest story for the Royals heading into the 2018-19 Western Hockey League season is the impending decision by the Flames, which probably won’t be made until late fall, on whether to place Phillips with their American Hockey League pro team in Stockton, California, or return him to Victoria as an over-age 20-year-old for another season of junior hockey. The Royals’ prospects for next season pretty much rest on that decision.
“It’s all up in the air,” said Phillips, following the Flames’ development camp, his third in three years since being drafted by his hometown Flames in the sixth round.
“If I’m sent back to Victoria, I will use that as motivation,” he said.
“We haven’t won a [playoff] championship, yet, and I will work hard on my role as captain and leader.”
Nothing against the B.C. capital, however, but Phillips doesn’t want it to come to that and believes he is pro-ready.
“I feel I’m ready for the pro game,” he said.
“It was my third year in this camp and I had a comfort level and familiarity with the coaches and I have learned a lot about pro details. It was important to showcase myself and have a good showing.”
The greatest factor in the Royals’ favour is that Phillips is severely undersized for pro hockey at five-foot-seven, and the Flames might decide he would be better served by another season in junior hockey based on that fact alone. After all, he will have plenty of years ahead of him from 21-up to pinball around the ice in pro hockey.
But that is all conjecture at this point. The issue will be decided by what the Calgary brass sees and thinks during rookie and main camps in the fall.
An indication that Phillips might be Stockton-bound instead of Island-bound is that that Phillips is working out this summer with several regular Flames players.
“There’s about eight or nine of us, both Flames players and prospects, who are part of a workout group in Calgary,” he said.
Also in the Flames development camp was former BCHL Victoria Grizzlies goaltender Matthew Galajda, a free-agent invite after a standout freshman NCAA season at Cornell in which he was the only freshman among the 10 candidates for the 2018 Hobey Baker Award as NCAA player of the year.
Galajda’s 1.43 goals-against average was the best recorded in the NCAA in six seasons as he was named winner of the Ken Dryden Award as ECAC goaltender of the year, becoming the first Big Red goalie to win it since former NHLer Ben Scrivens in 2009-10. The 20-year-old native of Aurora, Ont., was also named ECAC rookie of the year and Ivy League player of the year. Galajda’s .943 save percentage and lights-out nine shutouts backstopped the Big Red to a 21-3-2 record and its first regular-season title since 2004-05.
No goaltender was won the Hobey Baker since current NHLer Ryan Miller in 2001. Galajda has three more seasons at Cornell to break that crease drought. No wonder the Flames offered him a free-agent invite to their development camp.
“He [Galajda] looked really good,” said Phillips.
“He made some of the hard saves look easy and also had some highlight-reel saves.”
cdheensaw@timescolonist
