Anthony Bishop described his journey to the Memorial Cup over the spring with the 2017 Western Hockey League-champion Seattle Thunderbirds as 鈥渙nce in a lifetime.鈥�
The Victoria Royals hope not. Bishop making it twice in a lifetime would suit the Royals just fine.
Bishop鈥檚 playoff experience was the main reason the Royals traded veteran forward Blake Bargar to Seattle for the veteran blue-liner Bishop.
鈥淚 believe I bring that leadership quality because I鈥檝e gone through it and know what it takes to win . . . we [Thunderbirds] were dedicated and intensely focused every day through that run . . . it was an unreal experience,鈥� said Bishop, as the Royals main camp opened Monday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
The five-foot-10 puck-moving rearguard had seven points in 66 regular season games and played in 11 playoff games. Bishop leaves a major rebuild in Seattle as the post-Mathew Barzal era has begun down there. Bishop, a native of Kelowna, comes to a veteran-laden Royals team that looks locked and loaded, much like the Thunderbirds were when he arrived there last season after beginning his WHL career in 2015-16 with the Saskatoon Blades.
Another WHL veteran addition in Royals camp is former Kootenay Ice winger Jared Legien, who revitalized his career in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League last season, by scoring 30 goals and racking up 56 points in 51 games for the Yorkton Terriers.
The Royals saw he was available and added him to their protected list this summer. So for basically nothing, they got a guy who could be a late-career junior bloomer, as was Vladimir Bobylev, whom the Royals also picked up for a song three years ago, and who went on to be drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Another comparison might be Alex Forsberg, the former WHL top bantam draft pick, who resurrected his WHL career in Victoria.
Royals GM Cam Hope has had a knack of either trading for, or digging up, these older-junior finds like Forsberg, Bobylev, Bishop and Legien.
Legien came to Kootenay as the ninth overall pick in the 2013 WHL bantam draft in a top 10 that included Tyler Benson, Sam Steel, Josh Anderson of Duncan, Nolan Patrick, Brett Howden, Kale Clague, Tyson Jost, Dante Fabbro and David Quenneville. Those players are expected to be future pros.
鈥淚t was difficult and stressful and there definitely was a lot of pressure to keep excelling and to do big things right off the bat,鈥� said Legien, who turns 19 on Saturday.
But everybody develops in their own way.
鈥淚 will stay at my own pace and continue to do what I feel I do best,鈥� said the six-foot-one Legien.
The native of Pilot Butte, Sask., admitted it 鈥渢ook some thought鈥� when Hope contacted him this summer and explained how the second chances in Victoria had worked out for Forsberg and Bobylev.
鈥淚 did not want to look back with any regrets,鈥� said Legien.
鈥淭here is a lot of talent on this [Royals] team and I feel I can complement it.鈥�
Royals main camp continues today at the Memorial Centre with scrimmages at 2 p.m., 3:45 and 5:30, followed by the annual Blue-White intra-squad game Wednesday evening at 7 p.m., before Victoria opens the preseason Friday and Saturday in Kamloops and Kelowna.
ICE CHIPS: As a formality in camp Monday, the Royals officially signed 18-year-old forward Igor Martynov. He was Victoria鈥檚 selection, taken 30th overall, in the 2017 CHL import draft. He helped lead Belarus in qualifying for the 2018 world junior championship in Buffalo, New York. . . . The Royals on Monday also signed 15-year-old prospects Ty Yoder, a five-foot-nine forward selected in the fifth round of the 2017 WHL bantam draft, and Noah Lamb, a five-foot-seven defenceman taken in the sixth round.
