The exodus to NHL training camps hurts Western Hockey League rosters early in seasons, but enhances them later when the junior players return with invaluable experience, having skated against older, stronger and faster pros. Not to mention that it reflects well on the WHL as a producer of future NHL talent.
Many of the 134 WHL players who went to NHL camps this year have returned. That includes four of the five Victoria Royals who were in big-league trials, with only defenceman Justin Kipkie remaining in the camp of Utah HC.
Returning are Royals forwards Deagan McMillan from the Vancouver Canucks camp, Reggie Newman from Utah HC, Markus Loponen from the Winnipeg Jets camp and blueliner Nate Misskey from the San Jose Sharks. All of them missed the opening-weekend home split of overtime games against the Tri-City Americans last weekend.
The Royals’ blue-line anchors, Kipkie and Misskey, were drafted by Utah HC and the Sharks, respectively. Loponen was selected by the Jets in the fifth round of this year’s NHL draft. The Royals took the Finnish U-18 and U-20 international in the first round of this year’s Canadian Hockey League import draft out of Kärpät U-20. Newman and McMillan were free-agent invitees to the Utah HC and Canucks NHL camps, respectively.
“You’re happy for your players to get that opportunity and they are going to be better for it,” said Royals head coach James Patrick.
“In the short term it can hurt your team but in the long term it will make us better.”
There’s also a ripple effect among players who didn’t go to NHL training camps, noted Patrick: “Our young players who were forced into bigger roles [last weekend] will be better for it.”
But the list of NHL returnees cuts both ways, as the Kelowna Rockets this week received back Caden Price from the Seattle Kraken, Jakub Stancl from the St. Louis Blues, Ethan Neutens from the Los Angeles Kings and Hiroki Gojsic from the Nashville Predators.
Early opponents of the Rockets, however, receive a break because the highly touted pair of Andrew Cristall and Tij Iginla are both still in NHL training camps, along with forward Max Graham with the New Jersey Devils. Iginla, the son of Calgary Flames legend and Canadian Olympic gold-medallist Jarome Iginla, was selected sixth overall in the first round of the 2024 NHL draft by Utah HC and Cristall 40th overall in the second round in 2023 by the Washington Capitals.
It is that level of talent that has the Rockets ranked in the Canadian Hockey League national top-10 poll.
ON THE ICE: The Rockets and Royals met Friday night at Prospera Place in Kelowna with Victoria prevailing 2-1 on goals by Loponen and Misskey. Victoria is in Kamloops tonight to play the Blazers.
