The Victoria Royals are hoping Russian lightning strikes twice and that Yan Khomenko will be the second coming of Vladimir Bobylev.
Khomenko鈥檚 numbers in the Western Hockey League are modest. But so were Bobylev鈥檚 until he hit his stride in Victoria, becoming a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick, after the WHL鈥檚 Vancouver Giants had given up on him.
鈥淵an Khomenko has not yet shown what he can do in this league,鈥� said Victoria GM Cameron Hope, who traded a sixth-round bantam draft pick to the Moose Jaw Warriors to land the 19-year-old winger.
Hope had the same hunch about Bobylev and was proven correct.
Khomenko made his WHL debut in 2015-16 with five goals and eight points in 46 games with the Everett Silvertips before splitting last season with 10 goals and 20 points in 36 games for the Prince George Cougars and five goals and 11 points in 32 games for the Warriors. The 19-year-old has two assists in 14 WHL playoff games.
But the lean-looking six-foot-one, 175-pounder was a credible combined plus-15 last season with the Cougars and Warriors.
鈥淚 am a skill guy who can make good passes and also back check,鈥� said Khomenko, as he skated in the Royals鈥� training camp this week at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Royals fans can see for themselves tonight in the annual Blue-White game at 7 in the Memorial Centre. Admission is by donation with proceeds going to the Salvation Army鈥檚 sa国际传媒 forest fire relief fund.
After a couple of seasons of relative stability with Russians Bobylev and defenceman Marsel Ibragimov, the Royals came into the 2017-18 season knowing they had some decisions to make regarding their two allowable imports. Bobylev and Ibragimov were among seven potential returning Victoria 20-year-olds, but only three 20-year-olds are allowed per WHL team. Those Royals over-age spots for this season are reserved for Anaheim Ducks-drafted Tyler Soy, Los Angeles Kings-signed Chaz Reddekopp and forechecking forward Regan Nagy.
Ibragimov is now in minor-pro in Russia with Zvezda Chekhov while Bobylev already has KHL experience and is itching to pursue his pro career, either in the Maple Leafs鈥� AHL/ECHL minor-pro chain, or in Russia.
So enter Khomenko and Igor Martynov, the latter the five-foot-10 winger who Victoria selected in the 2017 CHL import draft, and who led Belarus in scoring at the 2017 IIHF U-18 world championship and who also helped the U-20 team qualify for the 2018 world junior championship this winter in Buffalo.
Both are third-round KHL draft picks with Khomenko going 62nd overall to Ak Bars Kazan in 2015 and Martynov 73rd overall to Dinamo Minsk in 2016.
鈥淢y first goal is to play in the NHL . . . but I just want to play pro . . . and I will work hard toward that goal,鈥� said Khomenko, who was born in Novosibursk, Siberia, but raised in St. Petersburg.
Khomenko arrived in North America in 2015 knowing no English and is now fairly fluent. Belarussians also speak Russian and Khomenko said he is more than willing to help Martynov, who knows only a few English words, through the latter鈥檚 transition phase because he remembers what it was like.
Easy going in demeanour, Khomenko said he likes to unwind by watching movies. Proving that some things are cross-cultural, he added with a chuckle: 鈥淚 used to have a Spiderman action figure when I was a kid.鈥�
The Royals are hoping he becomes an action figure of a different kind on the ice.
ICE CHIPS: The only player not in camp for the Royals is Reddekopp because the NHL鈥檚 Kings are holding an optional rookie pre-camp that he is attending. . . . The other drafted Royals 鈥� Soy (Ducks), Matthew Phillips (Calgary Flames) and Scott Walford (Montreal Canadiens) 鈥� will be available for the first two Royals exhibition games Friday and Saturday in Kamloops and Kelowna before departing next week to their NHL rookie camps. . . . The Royals on Tuesday signed a pair of blue-liners 鈥� 15-year-old Kaden Reinders, selected in the third round of the 2017 bantam draft, and 16-year-old free-agent Remy Aquilon.
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