Junior hockey camps set to open on Island
Grizzlies, Royals, Junior B teams set to begin preparation for 2018-19 season
There will be a hint of nostalgia hanging in the air, along with the smoke, as Island hockey camps are set to open amid the wildfire haze.
The Victoria Grizzlies’ training camp begins Monday at Juan de Fuca Arena, leading to the B.C. Hockey League season opener Sept. 8 in Powell River, and home opener Sept. 15, when the jerseys of NHL-playing brothers and Grizzlies alumni Jamie and Jordie Benn will be retired and hoisted to the rafters of The Q Centre. The training scrimmages will feature Team Jamie Benn, Team Jordie Benn and Team Tyler Bozak, the latter the dynamic Grizzlies alumnus and former Toronto Maple Leafs forward now with the St. Louis Blues.
A veteran and deep Grizzlies team will open camp led by captain Alex Newhook, touted for the first round of the 2019 NHL draft.
The Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League, meanwhile, announced they will honour all incarnations of the Victoria Cougars — the 1925 Stanley Cup champions to the WHL junior version from 1971-72 to 1993-94 — and the former ECHL Victoria Salmon Kings when training camp opens Tuesday. Teams will be named Salmon Kings, Cougars and Aristocrats (the precursor nickname to Lester Patrick’s eventual Cougars) for all scrimmages at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“It’s a bit of an homage,” said Royals GM Cameron Hope.
On the ice, the first day will be players selected in the 2018 bantam draft, including hometown Victoria first-round selection Nolan Bentham.
Rookie camp, for players born in 2002 and 2003 as well as the 2018 draft picks, begins next Thursday and runs to Aug. 26. The returning veterans join the mix for main camp Aug. 27-28.
“We were just at league meetings last week in Alberta, coinciding with the [Hlinka/Gretzky Cup] U-18 tournament. And now we’re heading into training camp. It seems like there is no summer anymore in hockey,” said Hope.
The Royals look to be entering a season of transition and may have to face a future without captain Matthew Phillips if the Calgary Flames decide to place him with their American Hockey League affiliate in Stockton, California, rather than returning him to the Royals for his over-age 20-year-old junior season.
“There are a lot of unknowns,” said Hope.
“The door is wide open for younger guys to take on bigger roles.”
So look for the rookie camp to be almost as integral as main camp.
“We are in a position to give younger guys a much longer look this year,” said Hope.
All training camp sessions are open to the public.
The annual Blue-White intrasquad game is Aug. 29 at the Memorial Centre ahead of the first Royals WHL exhibition game Aug. 31 in Kelowna against the Rockets.
Meanwhile, the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League heralds another harbinger of summer’s numbered days. The Westshore Wolves opened training camp on Wednesday night at Juan de Fuca Arena with Nevan Flay of Sechelt and 16-year-old Cole Moffat touted as key additions to a returning core that includes Keegan Durrance and Cam Kinsman. A scrimmage game will be held 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The other eight VIJHL teams open camps within the week and the first exhibition games are scheduled Aug. 24 with the Peninsula Panthers meeting the Kerry Park Islanders and Nanaimo Buccaneers playing the Oceanside Generals.