The Victoria Royals’ prize rookie defenceman Keaton Verhoeff is emerging in both blue and grey and red and white jerseys.
Verhoeff will take care of club affairs tonight and Saturday in WHL games against the Wenatchee Wild and will be turning to country to represent Canada at the World U-17 Challenge from Nov. 3-9 in Sarnia, Ont.
“I’m super-honoured to wear the Maple Leaf. I’m going to try to do what I can for the Royals and then go away and hopefully get a medal for Canada,” said the six-foot-four blue-liner, who has three goals and six points in six games for Victoria this season.
After the touted American team of LeBron James and Steph Curry survived in a harried semifinal rally against Serbia in the Paris Olympics this summer, USA Basketball defiantly tweeted: “We don’t play for bronze.” It’s much the same attitude for Canada when it comes to hockey, and Verhoeff knows what is expected in Sarnia
“That’s the main thing with Hockey Canada. They always want to win. That’s what they select players to do and what they selected me to do,” he said.
That’s exactly what teammate and Royals sophomore forward Cole Reschny did as co-leading scorer for Canada in leading the national U-18 team to the gold medal in the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. In the stands this summer in Edmonton watching Reschny win gold was Verhoeff, who on form and pedigree, is himself likely to play for Canada in next year’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
The U-17 worlds will be Verhoeff ’s second time to don the Maple Leaf this year. He was assistant captain for Canada in the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea, in January with three points in four games. But Canada missed the podium and that’s something Verhoeff wants to rectify in Sarnia.
“We didn’t come out of Korea with what we wanted, and were not happy with the outcome, but it was an unreal experience to be part of a multi-sport Games with different countries, different sports, different cultures and to see how all the different athletes prided themselves on doing their sports,” said Verhoeff.
“I took a lot of stuff from that experience that I will be able to use for the upcoming U-17 tournament. The guys from that Youth Olympics team in Korea will be leaders at the U-17s and take what we learned from that experience [not medalling] and making sure we don’t do it again. We now know what it takes in a short-term international competition.”
Seventeen first-overall NHL draft picks have played in the U-17 worlds since 2001, including Ilya Kovalchuk, Rick Nash, Marc-André Fleury, Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes and Macklin Celebrini. From there they went on to represent their nations in the U-18 and U-20 (world junior) levels.
“The [Hlinka Gretzky and world juniors] are obviously in my list of goals, but I’ve got a long ways to go, and I’m not even looking that far ahead and right now am just focusing on these world U-17s,” said Verhoeff.
The 44 Canadian players, including defenceman Giorgos Pantelas from Victoria, will play on Canada White and Canada Red teams at the World U-17 Challenge with Verhoeff’s and Pantelas’ Canada White opening against Czechia on Nov. 3 and Canada Red against Finland.
Verhoeff and Pantelas, who plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings, are among the 15 WHLers selected for the World U-17 Challenge on the two Canadian teams.
Meanwhile, it’s league play that will concern Verhoeff tonight and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre as Victoria (4-1-1) meets Wenatchee (2-2-2) as part of a rare three-consecutive-games set, which opened with the Royals blanking the Wild 3-0 last weekend in Washington state.
“It’s been a good start to the season for us with four wins but with things still to improve on,” said Verhoeff.
“We learned last weekend that Wenatchee is a quick team. It will be about us wearing them down and playing our game to try to get these four points this weekend. But it’s always tough to play a team three times in a row, let alone beat them three times in a row.”
ICE CHIPS: Prize 16-year-old forward Noah Kosick from Victoria has signed with the Calgary Hitmen, the team which drafted him 11th overall in the first round of the 2023 WHL prospects draft. Kosick is committed to the University of Michigan Wolverines of the Big Ten and began this season with a goal in four games with Sioux Falls of the USHL. His move to the Hitmen is likely in anticipation of the impending deal that will allow players to move from CHL major-junior teams to the NCAA.
