The Victoria Royals break training camp today with a sense of optimism that hasn’t been evident since before the pandemic. Remember those days?
Victoria opens the Western Hockey League preseason against the Vancouver Giants on Saturday and Sunday in Port Coquitlam and concludes it against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sept. 11 in Kent, Washington. The Royals will open the 2024-25 WHL regular season Sept. 20-21 against the Tri-City Americans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“I hope we see some growth in our returning players, to build off last year’s playoffs [Victoria’s first appearance since 2019],” said head coach James Patrick.
“They saw how hard you have to play at that time of year. We competed and tried our hardest against a better, more skilled, heavier team [eventual WHL-finalist Portland]. I am expecting us to play that way this season. If we do that, we are moving in the right direction.”
To further move down that road, the Royals acquired over the off-season two playoff-hardened WHL veterans. Defenceman Cosmo Wilson, 19, (in a trade for forward Deegan Kinniburgh) played last season for the Moose Jaw Warriors, who won their first WHL championship in the 40 years of franchise history. Vaughn Watterodt, a 20-year-old forward, comes in a trade for forward Ben Riche after having made deep playoff runs the last two seasons with the Eastern Conference finalist Saskatoon Blades and who this year lost in seven games to Wilson and the Warriors in the Eastern final. Watterodt has played in 39 WHL playoff games with seven goals and 18 points.
“Cosmo Wilson has been in a number of playoffs with good runs and won a championship last year and was a big part of it with really solid top-four minutes and in the Memorial Cup,” said Patrick.
About Watterodt, Royals GM Jake Heisinger says: “Vaughn brings close to 40 playoff games of experience to our group which will be extremely valuable.”
The Royals also sent veteran defenceman Austin Zemlak to Tri-City for veteran forward Deagan McMillan and two draft picks.
“We are hoping McMillan can build on his scoring totals in Tri-City,” said Patrick.
The new additions will be abetted by a legitimate budding star in Cole Reschny, who played a key role this summer in leading Canada to the gold medal in the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky U-18 Cup in Edmonton as Canadian co-leading scorer and the tournament’s tied for fifth-leading scorer with seven points in five games. Reschny is ranked for the first round in a number of early online projections for the 2025 NHL draft.
Patrick and Heisinger are no strangers to dealing with prodigies, having had NHL first-round draft picks Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie, Zach Benson and Carson Lambos in their lineup during their tandem time with the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL before Patrick and Heisinger came to Victoria.
“I don’t treat those players differently when it comes to coaching them, correcting them and motivating them,” said NHL-veteran and Olympian Patrick, himself a first-round draft pick in 1981.
“But it a real demanding year for players in Cole [Reschny’s] situation. It gets carried away with what NHL teams want now. There are 32 NHL teams and some of them want to have four or five interviews with players. There is not enough time in a year. I realize how unrealistic the demands of some of the teams are. You want to do everything you can to help a player but you also want to protect him. Outside of that, I want Cole to have fun. He will never have more fun than he is having these years. I tell all the drafted kids, enjoy these years. Don’t be in a rush to get to the next level. I tell Cole what I tell all the kids at this level — that is to work on your craft and come to the rink every day to get better, and the draft will take care of itself.”
And for this season to take care of itself overall?
“Eliminate opposition rush chances, play heavier and be harder in the battle,” said Patrick.
