Igor Zborovskiy is an example of why rookie camps are held. The 17-year-old free-agent find, a native of Moscow whose family moved to Fort McMurray, Alta., from Russia, was among 37 players who skated in Victoria Royals rookie camp last week.
The six-foot-one forward has advanced to the current 43-player main camp of the Western Hockey League club.
“Our scouts did a great job of identifying a group of rookie talent. [Zborovskiy] has been really good at competing and has a good chance of making the team,” said Royals head coach and GM Dan Price.
“He is extremely physical, energetic and tenacious, and is a bit of an agitator who gets under skins.”
Zborovskiy had an assist and 10 penalty minutes in six games last season in the pandemic-abbreviated Saskatchewan Under-18 Triple-A League with the Notre Dame Hounds.
He had 10 goals and 22 points and 34 penalty minutes in 35 games with the Toronto Red Wings of the GTA Triple-A U-16 League in 2019-20.
In representative hockey, he was picked for the Ural Under-15 Selects.
“It’s been my dream to play in the CHL and this is really exciting,” Zborovskiy said in a statement.
“The Royals have a great organization, great staff and Victoria is a great place to be.
“To hopefully play in front of thousands of fans here — I came here to play and it’s perfect.”
The Royals will hold a pared-down intra-squad game tonight at 7 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The game is still open to fans, but won’t have the same production values of previous years’ intra-squad games.
That’s because the Royals don’t usually host exhibition games but will this year on Sept. 25 against the Prince George Cougars.
That will serve the role the intra-squad game did in previous years in introducing the team to fans before the regular-season opener.
“Because we have a home exhibition game this year, [tonight’s] intra-squad game will be more an extension of training camp and scrimmages,” said Price.
Victoria’s opening pre-season games are Sept. 15 against the Blazers at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops and versus the Rockets at Prospera Place in Kelowna on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18. Those were the double-bubble sites of the Royals’ pandemic-abbreviated 22-game 2021 WHL season, in which the club finished last among the 22 WHL teams.
Victoria’s lone exhibition home date against Prince George on Sept. 25 will be the first Royals game in the Memorial Centre since a regular-season 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Giants on March 1, 2020.
The Royals’ 2021-22 regular season opens Oct. 2 against the Giants, 581 days after that last WHL game on Blanshard Street against Vancouver.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
