It鈥檚 a deal, potentially, for the future so Victoria Royals general manager Cam Hope was willing to acquire the rights to unsigned 16-year-old American defenceman K鈥橝ndre Miller from the Saskatoon Blades for Arjun Atwal.
Atwal, a forward with the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, was shipped east along with a conditional draft pick to the Blades on Sunday for Miller and a sixth-round selection in 2019.
鈥淗e鈥檚 committed to [the University of] Wisconsin, but you never know,鈥� Hope said of Miller, who hails from Hopkins, Minnesota, and is a member of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program鈥檚 Under-17 team in the United States Hockey League. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a prospect that, if we were ever to convince him that this is a good path, I think he would be a terrific player in this league.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a big kid. I saw him play at the U-17 [world championship] where Eric Florchuk represented us and K鈥橝ndre Miller was on the U.S. team and he had a great tournament,鈥� Hope added of the six-foot-three, 193-pounder.
Of course, the Western Hockey League trade deadline arrives Jan. 10 and Hope, like many other GMs, is still listening.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to know,鈥� he said of being active on the market. 鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of chatter this year, even more than last year, I think. We鈥檒l see. It seems like everything changes every week; every team has a different need depending on injuries and what happens with their own club over these next eight days.鈥�
The Royals themselves are on a four-game win streak since coming off the Christmas break, the latest being a 6-1 victory in Kamloops on New Year鈥檚 Eve.
Jack Walker, Matthew Phillips, Tyler Soy and Regan Nagy all had a goal and an assist for the Royals, while Ethan Price and Dante Hannoun also scored. Vladimir Bobylev had a pair of assists and Chaz Reddekopp had a helper to extend his point streak to 11 games.
Defenceman Ryan Gagnon was a solid plus-4 on the night and goaltender Griffen Outhouse turned away 30 shots with just Nick Chyzowski beating him at 18:47 of the third period.
Outhouse had a spectacular week with four wins, allowing just three goals as he was named WHL goalie of the week. The 18-year-old had a 0.75 goals-against average in the four outings, a .979 save percentage and one shutout in making a total of 138 saves.
鈥淭hey came from the break ready to go. We鈥檝e got a couple guys back from injury in [Scott] Walford and Soy. Having key pieces back seems to be what we needed to get going,鈥� Hope said of the week.
鈥淚 said before the break, I have a lot of faith in these guys and even though we went into the break around .500, I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 indicative of what this team is. I鈥檓 glad to see them come out of the blocks in the second half here.鈥�
The Royals return to action on Friday when they visit Prince George for the first of back-to-back games with the Cougars.
As for Atwal, the Edmonton native 鈥� who had 14 goals and 17 assists in 33 games in the AJHL 鈥� suited up for the Blades on Sunday.
鈥淲ith our recent run of injuries we needed to add a forward and Arjun has had an excellent last two seasons of development. He will add some skill to our lineup and his potential upside is exciting,鈥� Blades鈥� GM Colin Priestner said in a statement.
