It must be the home cooking or all that flower counting. Or maybe it鈥檚 the winds off the strait.
The Victoria Royals made a hometown defenceman their first-round selection in the Western Hockey League bantam draft for the second consecutive year.
The Royals took Racquet Club-product Jason Spizawka 19th overall Thursday in the 2019 draft conducted in Red Deer, Alta. The Royals then doubled down, literally, by selecting identical twin brother Ryan Spizawka with the 137th selection in the seventh round.
鈥淭here are no words to describe it, to be honest. It didn鈥檛 think it was real when it happened,鈥� said Jason Spizawka.
Parents Tim and Maureen Spizawka were season ticket holders and the twins practically grew up in Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre watching first the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL and then Royals of the WHL.
Hometown had nothing to do with it and is an 鈥渁dded bonus,鈥� said Royals GM Cam Hope.
鈥淚t was very similar to last year. [Jason Spizawka] was just the next guy on our list. We had him ranked much higher. But then players started coming off the board and he fell to us.鈥�
The puck-moving blue-liner had two goals and 23 assists for 25 points in 28 games this season for the Canadian Sport Schools League-champion Yale Hockey Academy Bantam Prep team in Abbotsford.
鈥淛ason thinks the game at speed and has the athleticism to back it up,鈥� said Hope.
The Spizawkas, now at Spectrum for the spring semester, will be playing Major Midget next season for the South Island Royals. Ryan is a forward who recently converted to defence. The siblings might as well get used to wearing those colours.
鈥淲e are competitive and push each other 鈥� sometimes in practice it might get a little rough 鈥� but we realize it鈥檚 just a game,鈥� said Jason, with a chuckle.
His selection came after the Royals made Nolan Bentham of Victoria, also a Racquet Club graduate, their 2018 first-round selection, taken 13th overall. Bentham will be pressing to make the Royals roster for the upcoming season as a 16-year-old.
Bentham and Jason Sipzawka could be anchoring the Victoria blue line well into the future, but in different fashions. Bentham is six-foot-two and Spizawka five-foot-11, 160 pounds.
鈥淸Bentham] and I grew up playing together and we train together,鈥� said Jason.
Spizawka doesn鈥檛 think being a hometown first-rounder adds expectation: 鈥淧ressure is something you make up in your own mind.鈥�
Spizawka becomes the Royals鈥� eighth first-round selection since the franchise moved to the Island in 2011. Joe Hicketts was taken 12th overall in 2011, Tyler Soy eighth and Chaz Reddekopp 13th in 2012, Dante Hannoun 11th in 2013, Scott Walford 18th in 2014, Eric Florchuk 13th in 2015 and Bentham 13th in 2018.
Because of trades, the Royals did not have first-round selections in both 2016 and 2017.
The Royals, based on season finish, would have selected 10th overall in the first round, but that slot went to the Brandon Wheat Kings as part of the 2018 trade for forward Tanner Kaspick. The Royals acquired the 19th pick from the Saskatoon Blades in the 2018 trade for forward Eric Florchuk.
Victoria selected defenceman Kalem Parker of Clavet, Sask., and winger Carter Dereniwsky 32nd and 39th overall, respectively, in the second round. Victoria鈥檚 next selections were centre Tanner Scott from Sherwood Park, Alta., 48th overall in the third round, and centre Brayden Schuurman of Abbotsford 69th overall in the fourth round. The Royals in the fifth round went for forward Carter Briltz from Regina 102nd overall, and in the sixth round, defenceman Lukas Shipley of Powell River 112th overall, followed by Ryan Spizawka in the seventh. Victoria concluded the draft by selecting Charlie Stramel of Rosemount, Minnesota, 208th in the 10th round.
The Winnipeg Ice took a chance and selected forward Matthew Savoie first overall. Savoie, considered a can鈥檛-miss future NHLer, has committed to the University of Denver of the NCAA. The Ice also had the second selection and took the consensus runner-up best player for the draft 鈥� home-province Manitoban Conor Geekie.
The Prince George Cougars selected defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk and forward Koehn Ziemmer with the third and fourth picks.
The Island continued its strong run of recent years after two Islanders were chosen among the first 23 selections and three in the first three rounds in 2018. This year, Jason Spizawka went in the first round to the Royals, Brayden Boehm of Nanaimo 37th overall in the second round to the Medicine Hat Tigers, centre Julian Cull of Victoria 109th overall in the fifth round to the Vancouver Giants, defenceman Dayton Craik of Brentwood Bay 171st overall in the eighth round to the Spokane Chiefs, defenceman Easton Sandberg 187th overall in the ninth round to the Tri-City Americans, winger Cam Smith of Victoria 235th overall in the 11th round to the Chiefs and goaltender Evan May of Nanaimo 240th in the 11th round to the Everett Silvertips.
Meanwhile, the Royals prepared for the post-Griffen Outhouse era by acquiring 20-year-old goaltender Shane Farkas from the Portland Winterhawks for a fourth-round draft pick and conditional compensation. The six-foot-two native of Penticton has played three seasons in Portland, going 30-12-6 with a 2.71 goals-against average, .906 save percentage and four shutouts in 50 games last season.
鈥淗e is a stable, veteran goaltender,鈥� said Hope.
Note to readers: This story has been corrected. A previous version had an incorrect name for the Spizawka twins' father; he is Tim Spizawka.
