With new management and a coaching staff in place, the South Island Royals open play in the sa国际传媒 Major Midget League this weekend, entertaining the Greater Vancouver Canadians in a pair of games in the Victoria area.
Trent Brandvold 鈥� who played three seasons at the University of Lethbridge before skating in the minor pros for parts of five years (he played seven games with the Victoria Salmon Kings in the NHL lockout 2004-05 campaign) 鈥� takes over as head coach.
Brandvold was an assistant to Brian Passmore two seasons ago with the Peninsula Panthers of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and had previous coaching stints with Kerry Park and in the Juan de Fuca, Saanich and Racquet Club organizations.
鈥淭here are a lot of younger guys, a lot of 15-year-olds with a few 16s and 17s who didn鈥檛 play on the team last year,鈥� said Brandvold, who has just six players back from the 2014-15 squad, including goalie Austin Roden, who was expected back from the Westshore Wolves Junior B team late this week.
The other five include Taylor Redmond, Jarret Malloch, Ted Brennan, Jordan Guiney and Jake Wilhelm.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited for the season,鈥� said Brandvold, a Smithers native who played with Corpus Christi and Austin in the Central Hockey League. 鈥淭here is going to be a lot of learning for myself with these kids being elite players.
鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to Junior B, in a sense, in age group and skill sets. The biggest challenge will be to get everybody on the same page. If that happens we鈥檒l be OK.鈥�
Ron Lindsay takes over as manager for the young BCMML club.
鈥淎 lot of our 15-year-olds are skill guys so they won鈥檛 hamper us at all, but it will take a while to get to know them,鈥� said Brandvold. 鈥淟ike any team with systems, they come from various minor hockey programs so there is an adjustment period.鈥�
The Royals finished 18-17-5 last season and in seventh place, but then knocked off the Vancouver Northwest Giants in the first round of the playoffs after the Giants had finished second at 26-10-4.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a good group of guys. It will be a fast team, a small team, but that鈥檚 what we had last year, too,鈥� said Wilhelm, a returning 16-year-old defenceman who attends Spectrum.
鈥淥nce you get on the road, it brings the team together. Everyone is getting along pretty well. The Canadians are a skilled team, but no one is saying we can鈥檛 beat them,鈥� he added of the opening weekend.
These same two teams split the opening weekend last year.
This weekend鈥檚 games go Saturday at 4 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and Sunday at 10 a.m. at Shawnigan Lake Arena.
