The Victoria Royals have the Vancouver Giants on the weekend but their eyes are focused more on the long term during the week as the Western Hockey League U.S. priority draft was held Wednesday to be followed by the main prospects draft Thursday.
The Royals potentially loaded up their future blue line by selecting defencemen Hudson Bjornson ninth overall in the first round of the U.S. priority draft and Tyler McGowan 36th overall in the second of two rounds.
Bjornson is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and plays for the Phoenix Junior Coyotes U-15 team. He has three assists in eight games this season. McGowan is a blue-liner from Irvine, California, who plays for the Anaheim Junior Ducks U-16 team and had four goals and 11 points in 36 games last year.
The issue about American players is their inclination and attachment to the NCAA Div. 1 route.
“It comes down to if it’s a program of fit,” said Royals head coach and GM Dan Price.
“Both these players are very open to the WHL and Victoria.”
The Seattle Thunderbirds selected first and took forward Macklin Celebrini out of Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres Prep.
Meanwhile, the Royals will not have a first-round selection today in the main prospects draft of U-15 players. That’s because the Brandon Wheat Kings are sitting pretty thanks to previous trades. They have the third overall selection today, acquired from the Royals in the trade for Tanner Kaspick, and also the fourth overall selection, acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors in the trade for Kale Clague. That means those deals conducted in 2017-18 could reverberate through 2026-27 for the Wheat Kings if those players drafted today play to age 20 in the WHL. The Wheat Kings also have their own first-round pick, which is 22nd overall.
Kaspick, meanwhile, is now a 23-year-old pro with the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League and Clague in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens.
Kaspick was an impactful late-season addition for Victoria with 13 goals and 27 points in 25 games but was injured two games into the 2018 first-round playoff series against the Vancouver Giants and his Royals career was over as he didn’t return for the remainder of the post-season, which concluded in the second round. The Warriors were hoping Clague would help them in their terrific rivalry that season against division-foe Swift Current but the Warriors lost in the second round to the eventual WHL-champion Broncos in seven games. Now comes time to pay the piper, leaving the Wheat Kings set for the future.
The Royals and Warriors aren’t alone, however, as trading future first rounders for an immediate veteran hit is simply too tempting a quick fix for many WHL GMs. Several teams are in that situation today, although the Warriors are also beneficiaries, with the Saskatoon Blades’ first-round selection, 16th overall, belonging to Moose Jaw. The Kelowna Rockets’ first-round pick, 13th overall, belongs to the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Portland Winterhawks’ first-round selection, seventh overall, belongs to Swift Current.
“It’s a situational decision each year and depends on all the variables,” said Price.
The Spokane Chiefs, who won the draft lottery, will select first and the Tri-City Americans are drafting second.
The Royals will have the first selection of the second round, by dint of finishing last in the 2020-21 WHL pandemic season, and the first selection in each subsequent round.
The top-rated U-15 prospect is centre Berkly Catton from the Saskatoon Contacts of the Saskatchewan U-18 League.
The WHL draft is usually held in May. But with U-15 hockey largely suspended last winter and spring due to the pandemic, the draft was pushed back to December to allow scouts more time to evaluate talent through the fall.
ICE CHIPS: The Spokane Chiefs have traded captain and second-round NHL Tampa Bay draft pick Jack Finley to the Winnipeg Ice for younger forwards Chase Bertholet, James Form and a second-round selection in the 2024 WHL prospects draft. That follows the trade of Canadiens NHL first-round draft pick Kaiden Guhle from the Prince Albert Raiders to the Edmonton Oil Kings for two younger players, a first-round selection in the 2021 WHL draft, a first-round selection in the 2023 draft and a conditional third-round pick in the 2025 draft.
The CHL No. 1- and No. 2-ranked Ice and Oil Kings have gone all in on their Memorial Cup dreams for this season. Also-rans Spokane and Prince Albert have opted to build for the future. That shifts the spotlight to other teams, including the Royals, whose 20-year-old captain Tarun Fizer could be a valuable commodity for a contender. The Royals, however, have perked up of late and are suddenly in the hunt for a low-seed playoff berth. The club was also in that position in 2011-12 when then-GM and head coach Marc Habscheid looked to the future and traded established star forward Kevin Sundher to the championship-minded Wheat Kings for younger players Jordan Fransoo and Dakota Conroy and Brandon’s first-round draft pick in 2012, who became future Royals blue line mainstay Chaz Reddekopp. The Royals still made the 2012 playoffs as the seventh conference seed without Sundher but were swept in four games in the opening round by Kamloops.
Price said he had no comment regarding the trade deadline, which is next month.
