The Victoria Royals clearly appear to have given up too early on defenceman Brayden Pachal, their second-round draft pick taken 40th overall in the 2014 Western Hockey League prospects draft, before being traded to the Prince Albert Raiders during his second season with the Royals.
Pachal not only made his NHL debut Tuesday night for the Las Vegas Golden Knights, but he did it against the Winnipeg Jets and head coach Dave Lowry, who coached Pachal in Victoria. Talk about rubbing it in. But to be fair, Pachal didn’t show much with the Royals before being traded midway through the 2016-17 season to the Raiders along with a sixth-round pick in the 2017 WHL draft, for defenceman Loch Morrison and a fourth-round selection in the 2017 WHL prospects draft. Pachal had one goal and eight assists with 73 penalty minutes in 74 career regular-season games with the Royals before blossoming in Prince Albert to become captain of the 2019 WHL-champion Raiders team.
“I saw Brayden play in bantam in Saskatchewan and we liked him so much that we took him in the second round. He was a good player but we had a deep, older blue line at that time and it was hard for a 16-17 year-old to get much ice time and he became dissatisfied,” said Cam Hope, who was general manager of the Royals at the time.
“It was a tough decision but you do what’s best for the player and we tried to put him in a place where he would succeed. And he has succeeded,” added Hope, now CEO of sa国际传媒 Hockey.
The undrafted Pachal, a native of Estevan, Sask., was signed as a free agent by the Golden Knights. The 22-year-old was called up from the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL, where he was the captain.
Pachal became the fifth former Royals player to reach the NHL since the franchise came to the Island in 2011-12, joining defenceman Joe Hicketts and forwards Matthew Phillips, Noah Gregor and Brayden Tracey.
Their total of NHL games played, however, is modest by major-junior team alumni standards at a combined 124, of which Gregor has accounted for 99 in the big league. World junior-champion Hicketts played in 22 NHL games while Phillips, Tracey and Pachal have played in one NHL game each to date.
