PORTLAND 6 (OT)
VICTORIA 5
Brayden Tracey says his favourite movies are the Fast and Furious franchise. That’s also how the 2019 first-round NHL draft-pick plays the game of hockey.
The Anaheim Ducks prospect scored the overtime winner in the 2-1 WHL win over the Portland Winterhawks on Friday in his Victoria Royals debut after being acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors the day before.
Tracey had an assist on Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre as the Royals fell 6-5 in overtime to the Winterhawks. Portland’s Jaydon Dureau scored 1:15 into the extra frame to give the visitors the win.
“I feel I’ve landed in a great place and this is a huge opportunity,” said Tracey, heading into Saturday’s game.
He has come to a surprising Royals team that appears comfortably headed to the WHL Western Conference playoffs after not being given much pre-season consideration by pundits. His former Moose Jaw team is last in the Eastern Conference, headed nowhere this season, and recently set adrift head coach Tim Hunter.
Tracey, who has nothing but good things to say about Hunter, said he was content in Moose Jaw, despite the upheaval. A trade is a life-changing thing in sports, regardless if you are going to a better team.
The 18-year-old said it was “overwhelming” and he was “shocked” when first informed that he would be moving.
“But I was very excited to learn where I would be going [Victoria],” he said.
His closest Royals connections are fellow-forwards Tarun Fizer and Gary Haden, who all grew up around the Calgary area. To bring the story even more full circle, it was Calgary native and former Royals captain and 2015-16 WHL rookie of the year Matthew Phillips who presented the 2018-19 WHL top rookie award to Tracey during last year’s league awards ceremony after Tracey scored 36 goals with 81 points in his first season.
Tracey couldn’t have imagined then he would follow Flames prospect Phillips from Calgary minor-hockey beginnings to the Royals. Tracey is now the Island club’s leading goals and points scorer with his Moose Jaw totals for the season carried over.
“I feel I’m an offensive threat who has vision and sees the ice,” said Tracey.
“I’ve always read the ice well. But I also bring grit and physicality.”
He realized early in Ducks training camp the latter will be needed if his hopes of pro hockey are to be realized.
“In the first drill, I went into the corner against [six-foot-three, 225-pound Anaheim defenceman and former Salmon Arm Silverback BCHLer] Josh Manson. I knew then I had to work on strength,” said the six-foot, 176-pound Tracey.
His ambition is clear for future seasons.
“I am going to do my best to crack the Ducks lineup,” he said.
Not after, the Royals hope, first uplifting them. Indeed, there is a great deal still to be done in junior, for both club and country. Tracey is an international who represented Canada at the 2017 U-17 World Hockey Challenge and 2019 U-18 IIHF world championship. Tracey played for Team WHL in the CIBC Canada-Russia Series in the fall, recording an assist over two games, and will almost certainly be a contender for the Canadian team to the 2021 IIHF world junior championship tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer.
“No words can describe what it feels like to put on the Canada jersey,” said Tracey.
ON THE ICE: Veteran Kaid Oliver and Swiss rookie Keanu Derungs had two goals each for Victoria in regulation time Saturday.
The Royals continue the American Division-themed home stand Tuesday and Wednesday on Blanshard against the Tri-City Americans.
