The back of the Victoria Royals training camp T-shirts read: “Leave a Legacy.”
For touted rookie forward Cole Reschny, that adage is writ large. The prospective saviour has arrived on Blanshard.
The 16-year-old from Macklin, Sask., considered the future face of the Royals, is already being talked about as the next Joe Hicketts and Matthew Phillips of the Western Hockey League franchise.
But he is taking the off-ice pressure with the same easy stride he takes on the ice.
“I try to do my best and not worry about that. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure, but I just try to keep that behind me and not think about that too much,” said the projected star.
“People talk. I try to keep it in the background. … What I do is what matters. I try to give my best all the time.”
The Royals opened training camp Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with fitness testing. Practices begin today from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Scrimmages start this afternoon with Reschny and his Team Joe Hicketts opening against Team Tarun Fizer at 3:30 p.m., with Team Matthew Phillips playing Team Griffen Outhouse at 5:30 p.m.
Scrimmages on Sunday and Monday are at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. All scrimmages are open to the public. The annual intra-squad Blue versus White game is Tuesday evening at 6:05 p.m. Admission will be by donation to the Victoria Royals Foundation. The Royals open the four-game pre-season next Friday against Prince George in Port Coquitlam.
Missing the playoffs the past two seasons allowed the Royals to select high in the WHL prospects draft and the club took Reschny with the third overall pick in 2022 and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., with the fourth overall selection this year. They are the building blocks of the Royals. It is hoped they give Victoria a one-two punch for the future, as when the then-lowly Prince George Cougars got Koehn Ziemmer fourth overall in the 2019 WHL draft followed by Riley Heidt second overall in 2020. Heidt was selected in the second round of this year’s NHL draft, 64th overall by the Minnesota Wild, and Ziemmer in the third round, 78th overall by the Los Angeles Kings.
Verhoeff is on Team Tarun Fizer in training camp but will be limited to five WHL games this season as a 15-year-old. If he has anything approaching the year Reschny had last season, the Royals will be smiling as they look to the future. Reschny was the revelation of the tournament in leading Saskatchewan to the silver medal in the 2023 sa国际传媒 Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.
“That was a special moment in a multi-sport Games setting. Those Team Saskatchewan players are friends for a lifetime,” said Reschny.
He was also a standout rookie for the Saskatoon Blazers in the 2023 Under-18 Triple A Canadian championship tournament in Quebec despite being three years younger than most players in the tournament, earning the nickname Macklin Magic Man on Twitter, for his 72 points in 37 games for the Blazers and named Saskatchewan U-18 Triple-A rookie of the year.
“It was a great year for me but I definitely have more to prove,” said Reschny.
Asked to describe his style, the five-foot-nine, 161-pound Reschny responded: “I am a 200-foot centre man, who likes to play both ends of the ice and makes sure the puck is out of our end, and I like to score goals. I think we’ve got a good group of guys and hopefully we’ve got a good squad that can make a statement this year.”
Reschny is already being projected for the first or second rounds of the 2025 NHL draft but he realizes nothing will be given. It has to be earned.
“Obviously, in the back of your mind, that’s where you want to be when you’re older. It’s a goal I’ve always wanted to achieve. But you’ve got to put in the work. It’s not going to be easy,” he said.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Royals fans, who have suffered through recent desultory seasons, will be only too happy to be part of that journey.
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