Royals play the numbers game on specialty slots
The five specialty slots on Western Hockey League rosters are like dessert after the main course. Filled right, they can add a lot of sweetness to the season. Get them wrong, and a season can collapse like a soufflé gone bad.
Each WHL team is allowed up to three over-age 20-year-old players and two European imports. Those positions require a lot of off-season thinking and planning over the summer, and usually remain set throughout a season. Other times, general managers have to juggle better than circus buskers to manage them.
Victoria Royals general manager Cam Hope was suddenly thrust into the latter role when import forward Yan Khomenko left to sign a pro contract with Kazan of the KHL in his native Russia after recording two goals and 11 points in 20 games for Victoria. That leaves Belarusian forward Igor Martynov as the Royals’ lone import player.
Add to that the finger injury that will keep over-age forward Regan Nagy, who has 18 goals, out for four to six weeks. Hope responded to the Nagy situation by acquiring over-age defenceman Kade Jensen from the Brandon Wheat Kings, in a trade for a fifth-round bantam draft pick, to shore up Victoria’s defence. The six-foot-three, five-season WHL veteran earned good reviews in his Victoria debut Friday in the 10-3 home victory over the Kootenay Ice.
“[Jensen] was a seamless addition and one of our better players in the game. He was steady and made intelligent decisions,” Hope said.
Victoria head coach Dan Price cited Jensen for his “veteran leadership,” saying: “He’s a great acquisition.”
But there’s always that quandary of the numbers game regarding the specialty positions. What happens when fourth-year Royals forward Nagy returns, leaving the Royals one over the limit with four 20-year-olds?
“That’s a good question,” Hope said. “It’s too soon to say.” Something will have to give. Hope is in a different situation regarding the European import quota, where he finds himself one below the limit of two, after Khomenko’s departure.
The Royals GM must contend with the rule prohibiting new European players from coming into the WHL midseason, meaning he must find one who is back in Europe after previously having played in the WHL, or trade for a European player currently skating for another team in the WHL. Both are limited pools from which to choose.
Hope also said a lot of teams are standing pat at the moment to fully analyze what they have.
“I’m talking to a lot of teams. It could open up,” said Hope, who is working the phone lines within the league and overseas in the hopes of unearthing a European player who can help the Royals.
“A lot of action usually occurs around the WHL trade deadline [second Tuesday in January], so I think we will see some shuffling around the league at that time.”
The other option is just to go with Martynov as the lone Royals import.
The Royals (19-10-3) are in Prince George for games today and Tuesday against the Cougars. The long bus trip was made palatable by Friday’s blowout victory over the Ice on Blanshard Street in which the Royals set a franchise record by scoring 10 goals. The Royals, and their predecessor Chilliwack Bruins, had scored nine goals in a game on three previous occasions.
The Friday game was also the first in the 12 seasons of franchise history in Chilliwack and Victoria in which the Royals/Bruins did not commit a penalty.
The Royals were plenty dangerous, meanwhile, as their own power play struck for three goals against Kootenay.
“We have to continue playing our fast game,” said Victoria forward Eric Florchuk, who was involved in half of the record-setting 10-goal output, and recorded a career-high two goals and three assists for five points against the Ice.
“It’s a long trip [to Prince George] and we also need a recovery day, so we’ll get some sleep on the way up.”
Prince George bet heavily on last season, and went all-in with a veteranheavy team loaded with 19-year-olds, only to lose in the first round of the playoffs. Graduation hit the team hard, and the Cougars are now last in the Western Conference at 11-14-4, but have won their last two games.
Today will be the last game for Cougars defenceman Dennis Cholowski, before heading to the 32-player Canada selection camp beginning Tuesday in St. Catharines, Ont., ahead of the 2018 world junior championships starting Boxing Day in Buffalo, New York.
Victoria and Prince George will each be contributing a forward to the Belarus Under-20 team for the world juniors — Martynov of the Royals and Vladislav Mikhalchuk of the Cougars.