The Victoria Royals, having missed the Western Hockey League playoffs for the second successive season, are playing out the string and skated to a meaningless 6-3 loss against the Prince George Cougars on Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
If you would have told Royals fans in the spring of 2019 that they would not see another playoff game until at least 2024, they would have been aghast. The 2020 WHL playoffs were abruptly cancelled late in the season when the pandemic was declared and the Royals second in the B.C. Division at 34-24-8. That was out of anybody’s control. But what happened after that has to be concerning for followers of the Royals as the team finished dead last among the 22 WHL teams in the 2021 bubble season followed by missing the playoffs in both 2021-22 and now 2022-23.
Victoria head coach and GM Dan Price attributes much of that to the, admittedly, unholy number of injuries the team has suffered through the past two seasons.
“This season had substantial storylines marked by absences that made it a difficult year,” said Price. “Attrition created a huge challenge. Use Gannon Laroque as an example.”
Indeed, the Royals’ San Jose Sharks NHL-signed captain has been a virtual ghost for Victoria fans. They never saw in-person Laroque’s breakout rookie season, which was played entirely in a 21-game bubble in Kelowna and Kamloops. He showed what a fine player he is last season in 63 games but off-season surgery limited him to just four games this season. Laroque’s three-season Victoria career consists of just 88 games.
Price has been heavily criticized for not trading veterans Tarun Fizer and Bailey Peach last season and Laroque this season to contending teams in exchange for WHL draft picks to build for the future. The result has been the combination of no future selections gained, coupled with no playoffs for two consecutive seasons. That is a deathly combination in the WHL, where teams need to get one of those two things out of a season.
“I believe without the injuries, we would have been in the middle of the pack both seasons,” said Price.
But the Royals clearly don’t have the depth to counteract injuries and have twice failed, hanging onto Fizer and Peach last season for a playoff drive that fell short on the last day of the regular season, and Laroque this season for a playoff run that ended with six games remaining.
“I am asked why we didn’t trade Laroque. But because of his injury, the return was not in the ballpark of what other marquee players were getting,” said Price. “I understand the knee-jerk reaction. But sometimes the best move is no move. We are not ignoring the future. Gannon Laroque has played less than 90 games of junior, so there is a realistic chance the Sharks could return him to us next season.”
What about the next season? The Royals, with a roster of mostly 18- and 19-year-olds next season will hit a sweet transition spot in the league in 2023-24 in which this year’s heavy-hitters like the Seattle Thunderbirds will subside due to graduation while it will take a few seasons for WHL-draft rich teams such as the Vancouver Giants to see that young first-round talent come to fruition.
The trouble is that while the Royals will have a veteran-laden team next year, the last three seasons have shown that while they work hard, this group is nothing beyond just average in terms of WHL talent.
“We can objectively say this team is on the upswing and we hope to be in the top half or top third of the league,” Price countered. “Coaching is a volatile profession. Our job is always to improve the team and be transparent in who we report to.” About the rest of the season, Price said it will be used to “develop winning habits.”
The Times Colonist reached out to Royals owner Graham Lee but did not receive a reply by press time.
ICE CHIPS: Koehn Ziemmer, the 20th ranked North American skater for this year’s NHL draft, and Carlin Dezainde scored twice each for Prince George (33-24-5) in victory Saturday at the Memorial Centre. Riley Gannon, Brayden Schuurman and Alex Thacker, the latter on a three-point night, replied for Victoria (15-41-7).
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