The Victoria Royals will be missing five players away at NHL camps when they open the 2024-25 WHL campaign against the Tri-City Americans tonight and Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The Americans have six of the 134 WHL players in NHL camps.
“We hope for the best for all five of our guys at NHL camps,” said Royals head coach James Patrick.
“It makes us not as strong this weekend, but in the long run, it makes us a stronger team because the experience these players are getting being thrown into the fire right off the bat. The longer they are around NHL players and NHL speed, our players are going to benefit.”
That makes roster depth crucial in the early going of WHL seasons.
“Depth is so important. If we’ve made any strides this season, depth is the biggest area that you will notice, and it will be really important his weekend,” said Patrick.
Helping in that regard for Victoria are the off-season acquisitions of WHL veterans Cosmo Wilson, a 19-year-old defenceman in a trade for forward Deegan Kinniburgh, and Vaughn Watterodt, a 20-year-old forward in a trade for forward Ben Riche. They were brought in because of their long previous playoff runs. Wilson last season played for the Moose Jaw Warriors, who won their first WHL championship in the 40 years of franchise history. Watterodt made deep playoff forays the last two years with the Eastern Conference finalist Saskatoon Blades and who last season lost in seven games to Wilson and the Warriors in the Eastern final.
“I had great success last season in Moose Jaw but I’m super- excited to come to Victoria,” said Wilson.
The Vernon native knows why he was brought here: “To teach the young guys how to win. If the young guys need a guy to look up to, I’m here for them.”
He has plenty of WHL wisdom to impart in the room: “It’s just a grind. The biggest thing is your mindset — stay ready and be in the moment.”
Wilson’s Warriors were just that in beating Watterodt and the Blades last spring in the Eastern Conference final. Now they are teammates in common cause with the Royals.
“We’ve had a lot of battles throughout the years, so it’s nice to play with [Wilson],” said Watterodt, who has played in 39 WHL playoff games with seven goals and 18 points.
Both take on leadership roles in Victoria.
“It’s about bringing it every day,” said Watterodt.
“It starts in practice to build a winning culture. That’s what we did in Saskatoon. I’m going to try to take the lessons I’ve learned over the last three seasons and apply them to this Royals team. It’s about bringing it every day. It takes intensity every day and a commitment to get better.”
The native of Rosetown, Sask., likes what he has seen heading into tonight’s season opener against the Amerks: “We have the group to do it. I can see it in the guys’ eyes. We want to win and we are going to win a lot of games this season and it’s really exciting.”
Missing this weekend will be the Royals’ blue-line anchors, Justin Kipkie and Nate Misskey, NHL drafted players skating in the camps of Utah HC and San Jose Sharks, respectively. Fourth-year Royals forward Reggie Newman is a free-agent invite in Utah HC camp.
Royals forward Markus Loponen of Oulu, Finland, is in the Winnipeg camp after being selected in the fifth round of this year’s NHL draft by the Jets. The Royals selected the Finnish U-18 and U-20 international in the first round of this year’s CHL import draft out of Kärpät U-20.
Off-season Royals acquisition, forward Deagan McMillan, is opening some eyes as a free-agent invite in the Vancouver Canucks camp in Penticton. The Royals had to give up blue-liner and 2020 top-10 WHL prospects draft pick Austin Zemlak to get McMillan in a trade with Tri-City.
“Yesterday was a bit weird walking in here [to the Memorial Centre visitors dressing room],” said Zemlak, before the Americans took to the ice for a practice Thursday.
“I was a little bit shocked [by the trade]. I wasn’t expecting it. But I thought about it and am now settled in and excited for the change and looking forward to the games this weekend.”
Although McMillan’s performance in Canucks rookie camp, and invitation to main camp, is showing Victoria perhaps won the trade, it was a difficult one to make. Zemlak is a stand-up guy who did a lot of outreach for the Royals in schools, youth leagues and service clubs around the Lower Island and won the Royals’ Community Service Award.
“Trades are emotional at the junior level. It’s the worst part of the job. Austin [Zemlak] is one of the best character players I’ve been around,” said Royals bench-boss Patrick.
“Austin was a pleasure to coach and good player. He got overshadowed by Kipkie and Misskey on our blue line and it was hard on him. We are strongest on the back end and needed someone [McMillan] to help up front. That’s the reason the trade happened. We are competing for points but you want other people you know to do as well as they can. I want Austin to have the best year possible and earn a pro contract because he’s a really good player but an even better person.”
McMillan was also well regarded out of bantam and went 25th overall in the second round to the Americans in the 2020 WHL prospects draft. He was ranked for the 2023 NHL draft by Central Scouting but not selected. It is thought that new surroundings will help both McMillan and Zemlak realize their early promise. That is one of the intriguing storylines as the new WHL season begins.
Another is that Bob McKenzie of TSN has ranked Royals sophomore forward Cole Reschny, co-leading scorer for gold-medallist Canada at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky U-18 tournament, as 16th overall for the 2025 NHL draft.
A new season is upon us and the Victoria Royals have announced their 2024-25 opening roster, naming 17 forwards, 8 defencemen, and 3 goaltenders to the team.
Forwards
#2 Layne Schofield (’08)
#7 Cole Reschny (’07)
#8 Vaughn Watterodt (’04)
#9 Tanner Scott (’04)
#15 Daniel Morozov (’07)
#16 Wyatt Danyleyko (’07)
#17 Nolan Stewart (’08)
#20 Markus Loponen (’06)*
#21 Simon Pohludka (’06)
#22 Teydon Trembecky (’05)
#25 Reggie Newman (’05)*
#26 Caleb Matthews (’07)
#27 Cruz Waltze (’08)
#28 Logan Pickford (’06)
#29 Deagan McMillan (’05)*
#32 Kash Alger-East (’08)
#34 Escalus Burlock (’06)
Defencemen
#3 Justin Kipkie (’05)*
#4 Seth Fryer (’06)
#5 Kyle Marsden (’06)
#12 Cosmo Wilson (’05)
#14 Jerrett Ross (’07)
#18 Keaton Verhoeff (’08)
#23 Nate Misskey (’05)*
#24 Matthew Keller (’06)
Goaltenders
#31 Ryan Tamelin (’06)
#33 Jayden Kraus (’06)
#35 Spencer Michnik (’06)
- – Away at NHL Camp
Italicized players are returnees from last year.
The Royals will return 12 players from last year’s team, highlighted by Cole Reschny, Justin Kipkie, and Nate Misskey.
Let’s take a look.
It looks like the Royals saw a clear need at forward over the offseason, and given that they’re returning only 6 forwards who played at least 30 games last season, that makes sense. With both Dawson Pasternak and Tyson Laventure ageing out of the league, and Robin Sapousek not returning for an overaged season, it was clear they were going to need to inject some talent.
And so they did.
The Royals spent both of their CHL Import Draft picks on forwards, bringing in Winnipeg Jets 5th rounder Markus Loponen and Simon Pohludka.
Loponen, in particular, will be interesting to track. The Royals have never brought in an NHL drafted player through the Import Draft before, so it’s pretty exciting that they were able to do so. The Import Draft might be the closest thing the WHL has to NHL free agency – given that you can add impact-level 18 year old players – and they did well with their recruiting there.
Given Loponen’s NHL draft pedigree, you can expect him to make a big impact once he gets settled in Canada. He has great shooting ability and could be an excellent complement to Cole Reschny on the power play.
Another big move the Royals made was trading top-four defenseman Austin Zemlak for a forward. Dealing from a position of strength, the Royals converted Zemlak into forward Deagan McMillan, who figures to play in the top six this year.
McMillan is away at the Vancouver Canucks rookie camp, but will be an important player as the Royals retool their top six forward group. Cole Reschny, Tanner Scott, and Reggie Newman will remain as proven top six talent last season, but the Royals will need more.
Between Loponen, Pohludka, and McMillan, hopefully they’ve found enough.
One of the most interesting storylines this season will be who can grab hold of the starting goaltender position.
The Royals had a traditional set up last year when it came to goaltending, with overaged netminder Brayden Holt taking the lion’s share of the starts, and Jayden Kraus serving as his backup.
Given that Holt has aged out of the league, the Royals net was always going to be a question mark over the off season and into the preseason.
Jayden Kraus is the known commodity, having been drafted by the team (3rd round in 2021), and playing 26 games last season. His 4.29 GAA and .870 save percentage wasn’t world beating, but playing as a 17 year old goaltender on a bottom half team isn’t exactly a walk in the park, either. If Kraus can earn some starts this year, he should have a better team in front of him.
Ryan Tamelin, meanwhile, is less well known but hard to miss. He’s a 6’8 goaltender who was originally a 2021 9th round pick by the Spokane Chiefs, but never signed there. After a sizzling 6-0 start to his season in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League last season, the Royals signed him last November.
Every coach/executive loves size so he’ll be interesting to track this year with the Royals. He had an excellent season last year.
Spencer Michnik rounds out the three-headed goaltending beast, after being acquired this past offseason from the Seattle Thunderbirds. Like Kraus, he has experience as a backup goaltender in the league, playing 21 games last year. The Royals liked him enough to ship out a late round pick for him, so perhaps they see something in the young man.
In the Royals three game preseason, Tamelin played the entire first game, Kraus and Michnik split the 2nd game, and Tamelin and Michnik split the 3rd game.
You can read into that what you will, but it appears that Tamelin may have the edge over Michnik.
Regardless, given that they are all 2006-born and have up to three years of their WHL career ahead of them, the Royals ideally have their goaltender of the future right in front of their noses. Time will tell.
The Royals will run it back with two key pillars on the blue line: NHL drafted defensemen Justin Kipkie and Nate Misskey.
Both Kipkie and Misskey are 19 years old and are ready to once again be top pair, impact defensemen. Kipkie had a great season last year after being drafted in the 5th round in 2023, and Misskey earned himself an NHL selection this past summer after going undrafted two years ago.
Icing two NHL-drafted, 19 year old defensemen is a position many WHL teams would love to be in.
The Royals also brought in Cosmo Wilson over the summer, a trusted defensive minded veteran who won a championship last year with the Moose Jaw Warriors.
But it’s the blend of talent and age that Royals fans should really be excited about, as 2022 4th overall pick Keaton Verhoeff will play his first full season in the WHL at 16 years old.
Verhoeff was able to play many more games than the standard 5-game limit for 15 year olds last season due to the Royals’ injury woes, and showed quickly that he can handle the league. He’s a 6’3, 200 pound defenseman with an offensive mindset and poise with the puck. His offensive instincts and talent are obvious, and given his athletic toolkit, his potential is sky-high.
With Kipkie as a two-way transition menace and Misskey as a high compete, no nonsense defender, Verhoeff comes with the perfect complementary skillset and situation to grow and develop in.
Victoria’s blue line should be a strength all season and be a big part of any success they have.
WHL teams are allowed to carry three overaged players, which this season will be 2004-born players.
The Royals did great in the overaged market last year, with Dawson Pasternak impacting the organization far beyond his 70+ points, and Tyson Laventure being an excellent fit at the deadline.
With just Tanner Scott and Vaughn Waterrodt on the squad as ‘04s, the Royals will be able to assess the squad and then decide how to use that last slot. It’s an interesting option to have, and one that could go a few routes.
It can be used as a failsafe plan for an unsuspected injury, or be a means of bolstering whichever position needs it.
The Royals will be led offensively by Cole Reschny, and his notoriety is only growing in the hockey world, after he was ranked 16th on Bob McKenzie’s draft list.
He was ranked 12th by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler in August as well.
Reschny is in line to have a monstrous season this year, after scoring a point-per-game as a 16 year old. He handled the opposition’s top defenders all year, and after a summer in the gym, a full season under his belt, and the motivation of his NHL draft season, Reschny should be to ready to roll this season.
