The only misfortune of Keaton Verhoeff’s outstanding rookie season for the Victoria Royals is that for comparison purposes, he entered it with fellow Western Hockey League rookie defenceman Landon DuPont of the Everett Silvertips. DuPont is a prodigy and only the second player after current Chicago Blackhawks sophomore forward Connor Bedard to receive exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old and the ninth in Canadian Hockey League history on a list that includes Connor McDavid, John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad.
But Verhoeff is giving DuPont all he can handle in the race for the WHL rookie of the year award. Verhoeff on Monday was named WHL rookie of the week for his two goals and two assists in the weekend sweep of the cross-strait rival Vancouver Giants (14-13-4), including a goal and assist in Saturday night’s late-finishing 6-3 victory by the Royals (17-10-5) at the Langley Events Centre.
Verhoeff has 12 goals and 23 points in 27 games and a rating of plus-3 and this is the second time this season the rangy, six-foot-four native of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., has been named WHL rookie of the week. He is also an international, who represented sa国际传媒 in the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics in South Korea and captained sa国际传媒 White to 2024 World Under-17 gold, as he continues evolving his wide stick span on both offence and defence in staking his claim for the first round of the 2026 NHL draft. Verhoeff is second on the Royals in goals behind forward Teydon Trembecky’s 14 and is tied for second among goals by all defencemen in the league. DuPont leads in rookie points by a blue-liner with 32, including six goals in 29 games, with Verhoeff second in rookie defencemen points. DuPont is tied for fourth among defencemen points overall with Verhoeff tied for 15th. The five-foot-11 DuPont, more diminutive than Verhoeff and a year younger, is an astounding plus-20, but much of that is due to being on a deep Everett team that leads the league by a wide margin.
“Keaton has shown he is a top player in his age group,” said Royals GM Jake Heisinger.
The Royals continued getting offensive production from all their defencemen as blue-liners Verhoeff and captain Justin Kipkie, an NHL draft pick of Utah HC, each had a goal and assist, and San Jose Sharks draft-pick Nate Misskey two goals Saturday in Langley. Verhoeff, Kipkie and Misskey are in the top-15 in league points among blue-liners. The other goal Saturday came from Caleb Matthews, who is part of Victoria’s hard-churning fourth line.
The Royals, who enter the Christmas break with points in seven of their last 10 games, return to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Dec. 27-28 for a two-game set against the Prince George Cougars.
“The team is a hard-working group that competes each and every night, and we know it is only going to get harder in the second half,” said Heisinger.
“We have had a number of players take positive steps this season and we expect this to continue as the season progresses.”
ICE CHIPS: The Royals have two special-status slots open on their roster. Forward Vaughn Watterodt, 20, who had three goals and six points in 26 games, has joined the Mount Royal University Cougars of U Sports while Czech forward Simon Pohludka, who had two goals, left the team after 10 games. WHL teams are allowed three 20-year-olds and the Royals are left with two in forwards Tanner Scott and Brayden Boehm. WHL teams can have two imports and Victoria now has only Finnish forward Markus Loponen, a fifth-round NHL draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets. “We will continue to evaluate our group leading up to the trade deadline and assess what makes the most sense for our team,” said Heisinger.
