Since January of 2020, Brayden Tracey has been traded to the Victoria Royals before the Western Hockey League playoffs were cancelled, begun his pro career in the American Hockey League, and now sits in a Kelowna hotel room in quarantine awaiting to again don a Royals jersey.
“It’s been crazy,” he said.
And surreal.
Best exemplified by the 24-hour drive from San Diego, where he played in the AHL for the Gulls, to Kelowna, where the Royals open their abbreviated 24-game Western Hockey League season March 26 against the host Rockets.
Explaining to the border guards he is a pro hockey player – an NHL first-round draft pick at that — returning to play junior is something right out of a movie. But it’s a script that, before March of 2020, would have been rejected as being too preposterous.
Tracey is taking the re-assignment, which has buoyed Royals’ hopes, in stride. He was excited to make his pro debut in San Diego – he had no points in 12 games – and now is happy to help the Royals in any way he can. Which is in a lot of ways.
“The experience in San Diego was huge for me and I learned a lot,” said Tracey, selected 29th overall in the 2019 NHL draft by the Anaheim Ducks.
“They told me to stay at the pro height and keep the pro pace and don’t play down [to junior standards],” said Tracey.
The biggest difference he said is that in the pros everything must be “done the right way – any mistake results in a scoring chance in your end.”
Rustiness won’t be an issue for Tracey, as it will be for his Royals teammates, and pretty much the rest of the players in the B.C. Division.
“I’ve been fortunate to get my feet wet and play games while most guys on our [Victoria] team and in our [B.C.] division have not played in more than 365 days.”
With only 24 games and all against divisional opponents in either Kelowna or Kamloops, and no fans or playoffs, this WHL season will be unlike any other. It’s a straight sprint for the top of the table with the first-place finisher taking all.
“A fast start will obviously help,” said the winger Tracey, 2018-19 WHL rookie of the year with 36 goals and 81 points for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
In the 10th day of his 14-day quarantine in his Kelowna hotel room, he has had plenty of time to plot that planned quick start for the Royals and the crucial role he will play in it. Well, that kills some time, but there’s still a lot left over.
“I’ve been Facetiming my Royals teammates and my family, playing video games and listening to music,” he said.
“It’s going to be nice to get out, that’s for sure.”
The Royals deal to land Tracey and goaltender Adam Evanoff was a blockbuster with Logan Doust, Nolan Jones, Brock Gould and four bantam draft picks, including a first-rounder this year and second-rounder in 2022, going to the Warriors.
The surprising Royals were 22-13-2 at the time, and holding their own in the B.C. Division against the heavily-fancied Kamloops Blazers and Vancouver Giants, prompting then- Victoria GM Cam Hope to go all-in by trading away a bit of the future for Tracey and Evanoff.
“I felt we were poised to do lots of damage in the playoffs,” said Tracey, the only first-round NHL draft pick ever to skate in Royals blue, and who had had seven goals and 23 points in 24 games for Victoria in 2019-20.
But the pandemic put paid to those hopes.
A big bonus for the Royals regarding Tracey is he is eligible to return next season as a 20-year-old over-ager.
The 20-year-old Evanoff, meanwhile, is expected to repay that confidence the Royals had in him. Not only has the undrafted Evanoff shown his upside by signing a pro contract with Stockton of the AHL, but he will be expected to keep the Royals in games in a goaltender talent-laden division that includes Langford’s Dylan Garand of the Blazers and Taylor Gauthier of the Prince George Cougars – two of the three Canadian goalkeepers on silver-medallist Canada in the 2021 world junior championship – and Avalanche draft-pick Trent Miner, reassigned to the Giants from the Colorado Eagles of the AHL.
“Adam [Evanoff] and I started out together on the Warriors and are good buddies and he deserved his pro contract with Stockton,” said Tracey.
