Royals vs. Rockets: a touch of gold?
Still not known if Kelowna will dress world junior champion Nolan Foote
The Kelowna Rockets haven’t indicated whether captain and leading-scorer Nolan Foote will play or sit out tonight for the WHL home game against the Victoria Royals following his gold-medal performance with Canada at the 2020 world junior championship.
“They may rest him, but we are planning for both eventualities,” said Royals head coach Dan Price.
“I think it would be great if Nolan Foote enjoyed his rest [tonight],” quipped Royals GM Cam Hope.
Foote was met by all his Rockets teammates Tuesday at Kelowna’s airport after arriving from the Czech Republic.
The Royals had their own homecoming moment in January of 2015 when a large queue of fans snaked through the corridors of Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to greet recently-crowned world junior champion gold-medallist defenceman Joe Hicketts and Canadian assistant-coach Dave Lowry. That probably ranks as the greatest moment to date in Victoria Royals history. (Although there were no grand homecomings the following year for Hicketts and then Canadian head coach Lowry following the disastrous sixth-place finish by Canada in the 2016 world juniors).
If the status of Foote tonight is not known, neither is that of Joel Hofer for the weekend in Victoria. The Royals might face the Canadian team 2020 world junior gold-medallist goaltender if the Portland Winterhawks don’t rest Hofer on Friday and Saturday at the Memorial Centre.
“There are so many good players in our league and our conference,” said Price.
It’s an emphatic answer to the 2019 world junior tournament in Victoria and Vancouver, when people were questioning the Canadian major-junior model following the U.S.-Finland final ahead of American Jack Hughes and Finn Kaapo Kakko going 1-2 in the ensuing 2019 NHL draft.
A year ago, everybody was talking up the U.S. collegiate NCAA route and the European model of coming up through pro clubs’ academies and then turning professional at junior age with those pro clubs. Now, Canada is again golden and major-junior back in vogue with Canadian junior team star Alexis Lafreniere projected No. 1 for the 2020 NHL draft.
“It’s good to see the Canadian Hockey League having success on the world stage,” said Price.
“I strongly believe the CHL is the best model leading to becoming a pro hockey player.”
All three models appear to work, however, as attested by the nearly 33 percent taken each from the CHL, NCAA/U.S. junior system and Europe in last summer’s 2019 NHL draft. “It’s cyclical,” said Hope. “There is great parity now and the development programs around the world are all very good.”
Including, still, the CHL. The Western Conference of the WHL alone provided Foote, Hofer and defencemen Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants and Ty Smith of the Spokane Chiefs to the world gold-medallist Canadian junior team.
“This season we get to see a lot of these guys in conference play, but unfortunately, not in our colours,” said Hope.
That will require another player the calibre of Detroit Red Wings-signed AHL pro Hicketts.
Meanwhile, the Rockets, 2-6 in their previous six games, have won their last two outings to move to 21-14-3 and a point ahead of Victoria into second place in the B.C. Division although the Royals have two games in hand.
The Royals (21-13-2) had a four-game winning streak, all against B.C. Division teams, snapped with a 5-1 loss Saturday in Kamloops to the divisionleading Blazers.
“Kamloops was more physical than us, which [physicality] is usually one of our strengths,” said Price.
“And we were not consistent defensively, which is also usually one of our strengths. We have to get back to playing our game and doing the things we do best.”
Royals captain and Danish international Phillip Schultz, who missed the last two games to injury, is listed by Price as day-today.
TRADE DEADLINE: It is Friday in the WHL. Expect the Royals, highly active the last two years as buyers of veteran depth at the trade deadline, to be relatively silent this year. The team is already older than most in the league and is eight games above .500. Hope rated the chances of the Royals making moves by Friday, either as buyers or sellers, as “slim.”
“We are always listening but have let it be known [to other teams] we are not interested in breaking up the roster,” he added.