Plenty of Alberta flavour to newest Royals

What is it about the winter air in Camrose, Alta.? It must be good for playing hockey. The Victoria Royals selected three Camrose Red Wings in the 2017 Western Hockey League bantam draft on Thursday in Calgary.

“We got three-fifths of the Camrose power play,” quipped Royals GM Cameron Hope.

The Camrose connection was headed by Dallon Melin, a sixfoot-two winger, who had 23 goals and 62 points in 36 regular-season games and three goals and four points in six playoff games for the Red Wings. He showed some grit with a total of 60 penalty minutes.

“Even without a first-round pick, we got a group of young fellas to build our future around,” said Hope.

The Royals had shipped their 2017 first round pick to the Saskatoon Blades in the 2014-15 trade for veteran forward Alex Forsberg, so had to wait until the second round to take Melin 32nd overall.

“[Melin] is a big guy . . . a power forward with good skill who hits hard and has a full-ice game,” said Hope. “He is an all-round player.” Also from that Camrose bantam team came five-foot-nine centre Ty Yoder, 93rd overall in the fifth round, and five-foot-seven defenceman Noah Lamb, 118th overall in the sixth round.

“All three of us talked on the phone today and are really excited about being picked by the same WHL team. It’s unbelievable that happened,” said Melin, the fifth generation on the family’s ranch.

Melin also played baseball and lacrosse and describes himself as a “physically strong down-low player who can pass and is responsible at both ends of the ice.”

“This is a dream come true,” he added.

The Royals took five-foot-11 defenceman Kaden Reinders 52nd overall in the third round out of the Grande Prairie Storm. Reinders and the Storm beat Camrose in the Alberta bantam playoffs and Melin remembers well going up against his soon-to-be Royals teammate.

“Reinders is really tough to play against,” said Melin.

Victoria had another thirdround selection and used it on five-foot-10 centre Ty Thorpe, 54th overall, from Brandon, Manitoba. The fourth round netted six-foot forward Alex Bolshakov 69th overall from the Seattle Sno-Kings.

The seventh round of the draft, 142nd overall, brought five-foot seven blue-liner Michael Benning to the Royals from the St. Albert Sabres of Alberta. He is the son of former NHLER Brian Benning and nephew of Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning. And his older brother Matt is patrolling the blue line for the Edmonton Oilers.

“He reminds me of his older family members,” said Hope, who played with Michael’s uncle Mark Benning, who skated at Harvard and then pro in Germany.

Victoria selected five-foot-10 defenceman Dylan Hewlett from the Port Moody Panthers in the eighth round at 164th overall, and then in the ninth round, another undersized defenceman at 186th overall in five-foot-nine Mark Gordon from the Arizona Bobcats. Carter Loney, a five-foot-seven forward from Winnipeg, was taken 202nd overall in the 10th round and five-foot-eight forward Nathan Morgan 230th overall in the 11th round from the Calgary Royals. Blue-liner Andrew Ramsay from Arizona rounded out the Royals draft class in the 12th round.

Defenceman Kaiden Guhle from Sherwood Park, Alta., was the first player selected and went to the Prince Albert Raiders.

The Royals’ biggest draft-day move may have been trading a sixth-round selection to the Moose Jaw Warriors for 19-year-old Russian forward Yan Khomenko. The 2017 bantam drafts won’t be heard from in the WHL for at least two years and most three. Khomenko, a native of St. Petersburg, offers immediate impact.

There is uncertainty surrounding the Royals’ two-allowable European imports from the past two seasons. Forward Vladimir Bobylev and defenceman Marsel Ibragimov, both Russians, are among seven returning Victoria 20-year-olds for 2017-18. Only three 20-year-olds are allowed per WHL team. Those Royals over-age spots for next season appear reserved for Tyler Soy, Chaz Reddekopp and Regan Nagy.

Bobylev seems itching to move on to the pros, either in North America or Russia. Ibragimov may end up a casualty of the overage numbers game, leaving the 19-year-old Khomenko as an opportune import slot filler.

Hope sees in Khomenko another potential Bobylev, the latter a player who came to Victoria unheralded but became a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick.

“Much like Bobylev, the best of Yan Khomenko is yet to come,” said Hope.