The Victoria Royals have embarked on a four-week quest of research and discovery, which if done accurately and mixed with a dollop of luck, could land them a top prospect for the 2025 NHL draft.
The Royals will have the No. 3 selection in the WHL prospects draft May 19 as they didn’t move up or fall from their third spot heading into the draft lottery held Thursday among the six teams that missed the playoffs. The lottery did not change the original seeding for the draft, based on placings in the regular season, with the Medicine Hat Tigers to select first and Tri-City Americans second.
There are lots of good players in the top 10,” said Royals head coach and GM Dan Price.
“The selections will be based on each team’s personal preferences. We will take the best player available.”
Just who the Royals assess that to be will be decided as Price, assistant GM/coach J.F. Best, director of player personnel Ed Fowler and the club’s four regional scouts watch provincial U-15 championship tournaments, beginning with the B.C. Cup in Salmon Arm this weekend and Alberta Cup next weekend, to distil their draft list.
“It will not be my directive. We use a very collaborative approach between myself, J.F., Ed and our scouts,” said Price.
It is the highest draft slot in Royals history and, if they want, are guaranteed to land one of the top prospects that have emerged on pre-draft lists — forwards Gavin McKenna of Rink Academy in Kelowna, Cole Reschny of Northern Alberta Xtreme, Jordan Gavin of Delta Academy and defenceman Will Sharpe of Yale Academy in Abbotsford.
The top-ranked American prospect, defenceman Henry Brzustewicz of Shattuck St. Mary’s in Minnesota, will be selected in the separate WHL draft of U.S. prospects that takes place a day ahead of the main draft, on May 18. That U.S. draft order is from a random draw that included all 22 WHL teams, and the Royals will select seventh overall in it, giving the club two top-10 selections over the two days of the bi-sectional WHL draft.
Meanwhile, the Royals landed three players on the B.C. Division all-star teams with returning defenceman Gannon Laroque and graduating forward Bailey Peach named to the first team and graduating captain Tarun Fizer to the second team.
The 18-year-old WHL-undrafted Laroque made his pro debut Wednesday night for the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League, main farm team of the San Jose Sharks, who selected Laroque in the fourth round last year in the NHL draft.
“Gannon will learn a lot in the AHL about playing with speed, size and strength. Managing bigger, stronger athletes is completely different from junior,” said Price.
Fizer has signed pro with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL while Price said he believes Peach, currently committed to the Acadia University Axemen of U Sports in his native Nova Scotia, is also good enough to play pro.
“Tarun Fizer bet on himself in the ECHL. He will be in the AHL in no time. The NHL is a realistic goal for him,” said Price.
“I believe Bailey Peach can play in the AHL. The [U Sports] scholarship package is valuable, however, so he will have to do the math on that.”
It’s fair to ask that with three divisional all-stars, who beat out others in a B.C. Division full of NHL prospects, how did the Royals miss the playoffs? The answer is that with Victoria’s almost unholy injury situation and Fizer’s AHL stint to start the season, the Victoria all-star trio were rarely in the line-up at the same time.
“We hardly ever saw what the lineup truly was or what it could have been. There were huge pieces missing for long stretches,” said Price.
“Had we won our final game last Saturday [4-2 loss to Spokane], we would have placed as the sixth seed for the Western Conference playoffs. Instead, we fell all the way to ninth place with just that one loss. That shows the parity and how close it was.”
ICE CHIPS: Dallas Stars-signed forward Logan Stankoven of the Kamloops Blazers is the B.C. Division nominee for WHL MVP, Laroque the division nominee for league top defenceman and the Blazers’ NHL New York Rangers-signed Canada U-20 crease-man Dylan Garand of Langford the divisional nominee for top WHL goaltender.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
