Christoper Kelsall, Victoria Sports News
B.C. Division, Eastern Division

Daily Dose of the Dub: Royals complete a pair of deals; New league trading restrictions; Former Blazers coach on the move

Written by Ryan Sinclair on

No Offseason for the Victoria Royals 

Welcome to the Daily Dose of the Dub – Victoria Royals Edition.  Well, not quite but the team from Vancouver Island continues to make daily news as general manager Cameron Hope is actively making moves to reshape their roster:

In an interesting move, the Prince Albert Raiders acquired 1998 born forward Noah Gregor from the Royals in exchange for conditional compensation. Drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round, 111th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Gregor signed an entry level NHL contract earlier this year. He is eligible to play in the American Hockey League (AHL) this season with the San Jose Barracuda, however a quick look at their current roster shows a lot of forward depth. The Raiders may end up seeing Gregor available, further boosting their very early league ranking. This past season he played in 60 games, split  between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Royals. Gregor tallied 65 points (29G-36A), including 10 power play goals, and five game-winning goals. Gregor saved his best hockey for the playoffs however, as he was one of Victoria’s best forwards in their first round, seven-game series win versus the Vancouver Giants. Gregor was available for the 2018-19 season as Victoria has an overstock of 1998-born players and needs to trim that number down to three overage players.

Later in the day, a second move saw the Royals acquire 1999-born defenceman Brayden Gorda from the Edmonton Oil Kings in exchange for conditional draft pick in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft. The six-foot-two, 193 pound product of Edmonton, AB has played in 151 career regular season games, all with Edmonton, and has recorded six goals and 26 assists to go along with 177 minutes in penalties.

The Royals defensive depth seems to be rounding out, and it remains to be seen whether Ralph Jarratt returns to the team as a 20-year-old.  If recent history is any indication, Victoria seems to value experience on the blue line,  with Chaz Reddekopp returning as an overager this past season, and Ryan Gagnon the season before. Here is a preliminary look at the current defensive corps for the Royals as we know it:

Left Defense Right Defense
Ralph Jarratt (98) Scott Walford (99)
Matthew Smith (00) Mitchell Prowse (00)
Remy Aquilon (01) Brayden Gorda (99)
Noah Lamb (02) / Nolan Bentham (03) Kaden Reinders (02)

 

New league trading restrictions of young players

As reported yesterday by Gregg Drinnan (@gdrinnan) of Taking Note, the WHL is looking to halt to the number of young players who get traded within the league. The league will prevent trades of any 15- or 16-year-old players who have signed WHL contracts. Further, the only time a 17-year-old will be allowed to be traded is if the player requests a trade. The move appears to be fallout from the flurry of deals that occurred up to last seasons trade deadline, where teams like the Swift Current Broncos, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Victoria Royals and others made moves to bolster their playoff contending rosters, offering younger prospects for current roster players. With the new rules, a young player will haver the security of the staying his first couple years with the team that drafts and signs him. Trades taking place will likely involve older players, draft picks or even the somewhat murky “conditional compensation”.

The move was likely in the works for a while, as Commissioner Ron Robison told Jon Keen in February of this year that changes would be coming:

 

Mike Needham joins Okanagan Hockey Academy

Former Kamloops Blazers assistant coach Mike Needham has joined the Okanagan Hockey Academy (OHA) as Skills and Development Coordinator.  After spending the last four seasons with the Blazers as part of former Head Coach Don Hay’s coaching staff, Needham was part of the sweeping changes early this summer by the Blazers.  The changes included Hay retiring from coaching, GM Stu MacGregor reassigned to the Dallas Stars organization, along with Director of Player Personnel Matt Recchi and Needham not having their contracts renewed.

 

Links and notes:

– Former Kamloops Blazers and Calgary Flames great Jerome Iginla is set to announce his retirement from hockey on Monday. Iginla played 20 NHL seasons spent largely with the Calgary Flames, registering 625 goals, 675 assists, 1,300 points and 1,040 penalty minutes in 1,554 games. In the WHL, he was a member of back-to-back Memorial Cup Champion Kamloops Blazer teams, including the 1995 team that won the championship on home ice and is considered one of the best teams in league history.

-The league wrapped up their Marketing Conference Wednesday as the WHL and representatives from its 22 teams met in the Seattle area. As Andy Eide described in his T-Birds Notebook, “Promoting the WHL through social media will be a hot topic over the three days of meetings this week. The Thunderbirds have one of the top, if not the best, social media presences in the WHL according to some observers. Along with social media, the league will be discussing upgrades to WHL Live along with promotional opportunities available to the league’s 22 members.”

-The ice looks to be ready to go for the Kootenay ICE with the countdown on to their 20th season in Cranbrook: