When the Victoria Royals entered the Western Hockey League in 2011-12, it was assumed the Vancouver Giants would provide the greatest natural rivalry. But geography aside, it hasn鈥檛 worked out that way because it鈥檚 been hard for the Royals and their fans to build up animosity against mediocre Giants team that has missed the playoffs the past three years and four of the past five seasons. The 10 annual games the teams play against each other 鈥� the most either plays any other team 鈥� have often turned into a soft 20 points on offer for the Royals.
An opening-weekend cross-strait set between the Royals and Giants will highlight the opening weekend of the 2017-18 WHL season. The Giants visit Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Sept. 22, with the Royals at the Langley Events Centre the next night.
The 792-game WHL regular season schedule was unveiled Tuesday. The playoffs will begin March 23.
The Giants hope to finally make the post-season in the otherwise-squandered Tyler Benson era as the oft-injured Edmonton Oilers prospect is expected to lead Vancouver to somewhat of a resurgence.
The Royals have never missed the post-season during their six-season tenure on Blanshard Street and look to feature enough returning talent to again be in the playoff pack. Royals GM Cam Hope has long pointed to 2017-18 as a season to watch for regarding his club: 鈥淚t is the way we projected the upcoming 19-year-olds such as Matthew Phillips, Dante Hannoun, Ralph Jarratt and Griffen Outhouse to mature.鈥�
The Royals tradition of closing the season with the annual I-5 home-and-away set against the Everett Silvertips continues with Victoria in Everett and the 鈥橳ips in Victoria for the season-concluding weekend March 16-17. Those two teams established an historic legacy when they last met in April at the Memorial Centre in the longest playoff game in both WHL and Canadian Hockey League history.
Victoria will get its once-every-two seasons tire-buster through the Eastern Division of the Eastern Conference largely out of the way early, but it will be split in two parts. Victoria will visit Regina, Brandon, Saskatoon and Prince Albert from Oct. 20-25 and then Moose Jaw and Swift Current on Nov. 28-29. Those teams will not come to Victoria this season.
On the home front, Monday is the only day of the week in which the Royals will not play. There are 12 home dates on Fridays, 11 on Saturdays, four each on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and one on a Thursday.
There will again be eight games each 鈥� four home and four away 鈥� against sa国际传媒 Division rivals Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George and four games each, two home and two away, against each of the five teams in the U.S. Division.
The Royals do not visit Calgary, Kootenay or Red Deer this season, but the Hitmen and Rebels will be on Blanshard twice each and the Ice once.
IMPORT DRAFT: The 2017 import draft is today with Hope saying the Royals will make one pick. That will be in the 30th slot among the 60 CHL teams. Each CHL team is allowed two European players on the roster.
The Royals last month traded a sixth-round bantam draft pick to the Moose Jaw Warriors for 19-year-old Russian forward Yan Khomenko. The native of St. Petersburg will take one of the Victoria import slots with the other to be filled today through the draft.
The Royals鈥� two-allowable European imports from the past two seasons were forward Vladimir Bobylev and defenceman Marsel Ibragimov. Both those Russians are among seven returning Victoria 20-year-olds for 2017-18. Only three 20-year-olds are allowed per WHL team. Those Royals over-age spots for next season appear reserved for Anaheim Ducks-prospect forward Tyler Soy, L.A. Kings-signed blue-liner Chaz Reddekopp and forechecking-forward Regan Nagy.
Bobylev is a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick likely thinking about the pro game, either in North America or Russia. Ibragimov is a casualty of the Royals overage numbers game and likely headed to play pro in Europe.
BENCH MATTERS: Victoria head coach Dan Price has completed his bench with the addition of J.F. Best as his second assistant coach to complement returning assistant coach and former NHLer Doug Bodger of Chemainus.
Best graduated from Dalhousie University and has been performance analyst for Denmark the past two years, including at the 2017 world junior championship in Montreal and Toronto and 2017 IIHF world championship in Paris and Cologne. He has WHL experience as performance analyst for the Tri-City Americans in 2013-14 and was assistant coach in Junior A last season with the Kanata Lasers of the Central sa国际传媒 League.
鈥淸Best] is an interesting young guy who wants to tackle a lot of different aspects of hockey,鈥� said Hope.
