The Victoria Royals got some much-needed help on the out-of-town WHL scoreboard. Now they need to help themselves, beginning with a two-game set against the Vancouver Giants Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre.
Ninth-place Victoria has 17 games remaining and is chasing Kelowna for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference with the Rockets losing twice this week in Prince George and are four points ahead of the Royals with three games in hand. The Cougars handed Victoria a bit of a lifeline. The Royals need to grab it.
“It feels like the playoffs right now because virtually it is for us,” said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price.
“This is a huge weekend against a big rival.”
The Royals could even bring the Giants, 11 points ahead of Victoria with two games in hand, into play with a weekend sweep but that’s a big if and a bit of a longshot at this point.
There’s an added undercurrent at play that puts a lot of pressure on Royals management. Both Vancouver and Kelowna traded their captains this season for future WHL Prospects Draft picks to build for the future. Victoria stood pat at the trade deadline last month, indicating the club feels its time is now. What will it say for the Royals’ approach if they miss the playoffs with this group for the second consecutive normal season after placing last in the league in the 2021 bubble season?
The Giants and Rockets at least have the future to look forward to. Vancouver sent captain and Canadian world junior champion Zack Ostapchuk to Winnipeg for two players and the Ice’s first-round draft picks in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Combined with earlier deals, Vancouver has a whopping nine first-round draft picks in the next four WHL drafts. The foundation for the future is already in place with the Giants also having five players ranked by Central Scouting for the 2023 NHL draft. Forward Samuel Honzek, injured playing for Slovakia in the world junior championship in Halifax and now listed as day-to-day, is the No. 9-ranked North American-based skater for the NHL draft, American Jaden Lipinski the 38th-ranked, Victoria-product Ty Halaburda the 61st, Leslie Mazden the 80th and Ethan Semeniuk the 173rd.
Kelowna, meanwhile, traded captain, Canadian world junior player and Chicago Blackhawks-prospect Colton Dach to the Seattle Thunderbirds for two promising young players, including Victoria-product Ethan Mittelsteadt, and Seattle’s first-round pick in 2024 and a conditional second-round pick in 2025. It was part of a record-setting league-wide sell-off this season of veteran talent shipped from forward-looking lower-end teams to current championship contenders.
Victoria, meanwhile, is 1-3-2 against Vancouver this season. Both teams have struggled of late. The Giants are 3-7 in their past 10 games, but appear to have enough of a cushion in the standings to withstand the swoon. The Royals have lost their past four games and are 2-7-1 in their past 10, a pace that obviously cannot continue if the Royals hope to make the playoffs.
“We have to win and accrue points,” said Price.
“But when you are competitive people, like we all are at this level, you relish that pressure and rise to the challenge.”
Seattle, Kamloops and Portland, meanwhile, have already clinched playoff spots in the Western Conference.
Victoria’s injury situation remains dire. The Royals’ San Jose Sharks-signed captain Gannon Laroque remains day-to-day, as he has been listed the past four weeks, with no return. Price said Laroque, team-leading scorer Jake Poole, forward Matthew Hodson and blue-liner and former WHL draft top-10 pick Austin Zemlak are all doubtful for this weekend. The only possibility for return is 2022 Canada U-18 forward Brayden Schuurman, who skated this week.
ICE CHIPS: Friday night is the Royals’ annual Pink in the Rink Night to raise funds for breast cancer research. “We talked about it. Several of the players have family members or family friends touched by breast cancer and there is a lot of emotion, also a lot of inspiration, on this night,” said Price.
