The Red Deer Rebels don’t have the starry roster of the Canadian Hockey League top-ranked Winnipeg Ice, who came through Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre last week to beat the Victoria Royals 3-2 with three first-round NHL draft picks in tow. What the Rebels do have is one of only two undefeated records (10-0) in the Western Hockey League along with the Seattle Thunderbirds (8-0).
The Rebels have completely demolished the old club record of seven wins to start the season. That 2000-01 Red Deer team went on to win the Memorial Cup, so the Rebels can take all this as a good omen.
The Royals, meanwhile, opened the WHL season in the opposite fashion with seven consecutive losses. Victoria has gone 2-1-2 since and will be looking to keep that modest resurgence going but it won’t be easy against the Rebels tonight at 6 p.m. in Red Deer for obvious reasons as reflected in the standings.
The Rebels’ are balanced, thorough and deep. Top players include forwards Jayden Grubbe, a third-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Ben King, a fourth-round selection of the Anaheim Ducks, and defenceman Mats Lindgren, fourth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres. The Rebels future is represented by rookie forward Ollie Josephson from Victoria, the fifth overall section in the 2021 WHL prospects draft who has a goal and five points, and forward Kalan Lind, projected for the second- or third-rounds of the 2023 NHL draft on Central Scouting’s preliminary watch-list released Tuesday. Former BCHL Victoria Grizzlies goalkeeper Kyle Kelsey is 8-0 with a downright stingy 1.87 goals-against average and .936 save percentage in Red Deer.
King, however, went down with injury over the weekend and is out for six to eight weeks. The Royals can relate to having prime players down. Top-pairing defenceman Wyatt Wilson, who was in the NHL rookie camp of the Winnipeg Jets, is out for three to four months with a lower-body injury incurred this month. Victoria captain Gannon Laroque, a blue-liner signed to an NHL entry-level contract by the San Jose Sharks and who was under consideration for the Canadian team to the 2023 world junior championship, is also out month-to-month with injury and has yet to play this season. Forward Schuurman only returned to the Royals lineup for the first time this season on Saturday in the overtime loss to the Vancouver Giants at the Memorial Centre after being injured in the NHL rookie camp of the Boston Bruins.
“It’s good to be back. I did a lot of skating and conditioning and am getting back to the swing of things and up to game speed again and feeling about where I was before,” said Schuurman.
Said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price of Schuurman’s seven-shot return Saturday: “It’s like he didn’t miss a beat.”
Tonight’s game is the first of a six-game road swing through the Central Division of the Eastern Conference, the Royals’ first since before the pandemic.
“It’s time to turn the page [from the late-game-collapse overtime loss at home to the Giants on Saturday] and get hot on the road,” said Price.
But nobody is downplaying the daunting task tonight.
“We are going up against a good team in a tough building,” said Schuurman, of Red Deer and the Rebels.
“We are excited to go there.”
Schuurman noted the Royals’ recent play: “We have to stay consistent.”
