The Victoria Royals continued addressing their 20-year-old situation by trading a fifth-round bantam draft pick in 2021 for veteran defenceman Will Warm from the Edmonton Oil Kings.
It follows a move in which the Royals traded for 20-year-old goaltender Shane Farkas from the Portland Winterhawks to replace graduating Griffen Outhouse in the crease.
If over-age defenceman Scott Walford returns, the Royals鈥� will be set at the 20-year-old slots. Each WHL team is allowed three over-age players.
The Montreal Canadiens, who selected Walford in the third round of the 2017 NHL draft, passed on signing him. That means he will re-enter the NHL draft next weekend in Vancouver.
鈥淭his [deal for Warm] gives us more flexibility, depending on what happens,鈥� said Royals GM Cam Hope. 鈥淭here is some uncertainty surrounding Scott Walford re-entering the NHL draft and [forward] Igor Martynov.鈥�
Hope said he is 鈥�95 per cent certain鈥� Martynov will accept a pro offer in his native Belarus.
Warm, meanwhile, is a stay-at-home rearguard who was invited to the NHL training camp of the Las Vegas Knights in 2017 as a free agent.
鈥淗e was expecting to get drafted that year,鈥� said Hope. 鈥淏ut much like Scott [Walford], he suffered significant injuries during his career. Both those guys have had rough rides.鈥�
They are also friends who train together in the summer. Walford is from Coquitlam and Warm from Whistler.
鈥淏oth those guys would be impact players in our league next season.鈥�
The six-foot, 177-pound Warm has 10 goals, 28 assists and 152 penalty minutes in 153 regular-season games with the Oil Kings since 2016. Just as importantly, he played in 16 post-season games with Edmonton this spring leading to the Eastern Conference final.
Warm was named Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy winner this past season as WHL Humanitarian of the Year for his visits to Ronald McDonald House in Edmonton as part of his Will Warms The Community initiative.
