Not when he was a Burnaby Winter Club star forward coming here to play academy teams on the Island — nor when he came through Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre earlier this season with the Saskatoon Blades — could Brandon Lisowsky have imagined he would be finishing his junior hockey career in Victoria.
“There were definitely a lot of emotions leaving the Blades after that long, but I knew what direction they are headed [getting younger after going all-in the past two seasons], so it was kind of a mutual agreement,” said the Toronto Maple Leafs 2022 seventh-round draft pick Lisowsky.
“But I had no idea, when [the Blades were at the Memorial Centre Nov. 3] where it would be. When I heard it was Victoria, I was super excited because I am from Port Coquitlam, and this is close to home. My family didn’t get too many opportunities to watch me live in the other conference and now they do. The Royals have a great team looking for a championship. So, there are a lot of pros to it [versus cons] and I couldn’t be happier to be here. I am familiar with the Island from coming here to play Shawnigan Lake School and Pacific Coast Hockey Academy [of Langford], and in tournaments, and we would go to Royals games afterwards.”
Lisowsky, in his final season of junior at age 20, played five seasons in Saskatoon and his 143 career goals are fourth all-time on the Blades career list in a franchise history stretching to 1967. He had 267 points in 255 games for the Blades and came to Victoria in a trade Jan. 2 in exchange for veteran forward Tanner Scott and two second-round WHL prospects draft picks. “This is obviously one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make in my time as GM,” Blades president and GM Colin Priestner said in a statement. “Brandon was one of the best goal scorers the club has ever seen.”
Lisowsky is the sort of natural points producer the Royals had been lacking. He scored his sixth goal in his sixth game since being acquired by Victoria, and his 28th goal of the season, on Wednesday in the 5-4 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings that snapped Victoria’s six-game Western Hockey League winning streak.
On Friday night at the Memorial Centre, Lisowsky was held off the scoresheet but Cosmo Wilson struck for two goals and two assists to lead the Royals to a 7-1 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. The two teams play again tonight in Victoria.
Lisowsky made deep playoff runs the past two seasons with the Eastern Conference finalist Blades, who last year lost in seven games to the 2024 WHL-champion Moose Jaw Warriors. You can’t teach that. You have to live it, and that matters to the Royals almost as much as Lisowsky’s scoring touch. Victoria is pretty much assured a playoff berth this season and is battling for a top-four seeding
“Being a 20-year-old and having a chance to go on another long playoff run make me super excited,” said Lisowsky.
“I’ve played in three Game 7s in my WHL career, including going to overtime in Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference final. That didn’t go our way but obviously you gain a lot of experience going through something like that. Going three rounds the last two years was a lot of hockey and teaches you a great deal about the emotions and the ups and downs of the playoffs.”
Lisowsky is also a trailblazer as he is among the first batch of players taking advantage of the rule allowing former WHL players to play U.S. collegiate hockey in the NCAA. The five-foot-nine winger has committed to Colorado College.
“When I was 15, the choice was between the WHL or NCAA. I had some thoughts about going to the NCAA but ultimately picked the WHL. But to have that opportunity now to do both made it a no-brainer decision for me. I talked to multiple schools to see what was the right fit. Colorado College offered all the things I was looking for, and criminology is always something I’ve wanted to study. I’m excited to finish my WHL career in Victoria and start my new career in the NCAA in the fall.”
