Cameron Hope considers it a lucky omen that Victoria Royals head scout Ryan Guenter was assigned a room on the 13th floor of the hotel they are staying at in Red Deer for the 2018 Western Hockey League bantam draft.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all coming up 13s,鈥� said Hope, general manager of the Royals.
That鈥檚 the slot from which the Royals will select in the first round today. It has not been an unlucky number in the past for Victoria but one that has come with mixed results. The Royals have twice picked 13th in the seven WHL drafts since the franchise moved to the Island in 2011.
The 2012 draft netted defenceman Chaz Reddekopp from the 13th slot and he played five seasons with the Royals and graduated this spring as a signed player with the Los Angeles Kings. Centre Eric Florchuk was chosen 13th overall by the Royals in 2015 but was traded this season to Saskatoon. The Blades gave up their 2019 and 2021 first-round draft picks to Victoria, and fourth-round selection this year, to obtain Florchuk. The Blades obviously believe Florchuk, the 110th-ranked North American skater for the 2018 NHL draft, still has big potential.
The bottom line is you could get a player of some note at No. 13.
鈥淭here are up to 15 players in this bantam draft that can be considered elite, and we should get one of them,鈥� said Hope.
The Royals return to the first round after not having an opening round draft pick the last two years. Victoria traded its 2017 first-round selection to the Blades in 2014-15 for veteran forward Alex Forsberg, himself the top overall WHL bantam draft pick (to the Prince George Cougars) in 2010.
So Victoria鈥檚 first pick last year wasn鈥檛 until the second round where they took forward Dallon Melin from Camrose, Alta., with the 32nd overall selection.
Forsberg helped lead the Royals to the WHL regular-season title and the Scotty Munro Trophy in 2015-16, which left Victoria with the 22nd and final first-round pick in 2016. Being so low in the rotation that year, the Royals decided to trade out of the first round entirely and selected defenceman Luke Reid 27th overall in the second round. Reid, however, has declared his intention to play in the NCAA for North Dakota. That left defenceman Jonathon Lambos as Victoria鈥檚 effective first 2016 selection at 49th overall in the third round. Lambos, however, was traded to the Brandon Wheat Kings this season (along with the Royals鈥� 2019 and 2021 first rounders) as part of the deal that brought veteran forward Tanner Kaspick to Victoria. That leaves forward Tarun Fizer, 69th overall in the fourth round, as the Royals鈥� highest remaining bantam draft pick from 2016.
That makes 2016 and 2017 two successive dark draft years for the Royals, although Fizer did crack the Royals roster this season as a 16-year-old and showed flashes of promise. The Royals鈥� next 2016 selection was Luke Mylymok, 81st overall in the fourth round. Mylymok scored a hat-trick and added an assist last weekend to lead the Notre Dame Hounds of Saskatchewan to a 5-1 win over Magog, Que., in the Telus Cup national midget championship game.
How the past two drafts will affect the Royals moving ahead remains to be seen, especially with the organization bidding for the 2020 Memorial Cup, and needing a competitive team as potential host. Much will depend on how the Royals鈥� later-round selections from 2016 and 2017 pan out.
Yet, the word crapshoot has often been used to describe the bantam draft.
鈥淵ou are basically selecting 14-year-olds,鈥� said Hope.
鈥淵ou never know what you really have until two years down the road.鈥�
That is highlighted by a striking statistic: 鈥淥ne-third of WHL rosters consist of players who were listed after the bantam draft,鈥� said Hope.
The list of players overlooked in the WHL bantam draft includes Jamie Benn, Jarome Iginla, Shea Weber, Shane Doan, Dan Hamhuis and several other future NHLers.
Another adage of the bantam draft is that teams never select for need, because that could change dramatically in the future as major-junior rosters turn over about every three seasons. WHL teams almost always select the best player available.
鈥淭hat is true in terms of position [forwards-defencemen-goaltenders] but we do look for players who have pace and high hockey intelligence and who fit our style of play,鈥� said Hope.
Defenceman Carson Lambos of Winnipeg, younger brother of former Royals pick Jonathon Lambos, is the consensus prediction for the first overall selection this year in the WHL bantam draft.
A draft lottery was held among the six WHL teams that missed the playoffs this season. The Edmonton Oil Kings will select first today, followed by the Kootenay Ice, Prince Albert Raiders (in a trade from Prince George), Calgary Hitmen, Kamloops Blazers and Saskatoon.
