WHL blog: Royals surprising all, Point less so

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With 53 assists, Hicketts tied for second among WHL blueliners. (Derek Leung/Getty)

Before the WHL season began, not much thought was given to the Victoria Royals. They had lost a number of their best players and the general feeling was that they would be in a dog fight just to qualify for the Western Conference playoffs.

Those theories are quickly being made to look foolish.

The Royals swept through the Eastern Division this past week—including a 4-1 win at Brandon on Friday night—and find themselves with the best record in the entire WHL. How have they done it? Can they maintain this level of play?

They are scoring a lot of goals and have several players who are off to the best starts of their careers. Chief among those is 20-year-old Alex Forsberg. The former top Bantam pick has had an up-and-down career with three different clubs but he’s over a point-per-game for the first time. They also are getting contributions from Dante Hannoun. Coming off a three-goal rookie season, the Royals former top bantam pick has 11 in his first 20 games this year.

Along with the goal scoring, goalie Coleman Vollrath has been lights out for Victoria. He’s started 18 of their 20 contents and leads the league in goals-against (1.86) and is second in save percentage (.933). He’s carried the brunt of the work load so far, with back up Griffen Outhouse barely seeing the ice, and you do have to wonder if the 20-year-old Vollrath can keep from wearing down.

In fact that’s the big question with the entire squad. Is this Victoria team for real or is there a massive regression coming?

So far they’re one of the better possession teams in the league, but they are sporting a league-high PDO of 104.2. That number would suggest that they would eventually come back to the pack, but one thing is clear: they are not going to be the bottom feeder we all thought they would be when the season began. Look for them to stay in the B.C. Division race and give the Kelowna’s and Prince George’s all they can handle.

Here’s the rest of this week’s WHL musings:

Want a goalie?

The early season trade craziness continued this past week in the WHL. Prince George and Vancouver all made moves involving goaltenders and in total, three found new homes. This is not the first time a netminder has changed teams this season.

If you go back to the summer when Seattle traded for Red Deer goalie Taz Burman, eight goalies have landed on new teams either via trade or release and sign. That’s a lot considering we are only in the second week of November.

Vancouver started the season with Payton Lee, Cody Porter and Ryan Kubic as their three goalies. They moved Porter to Calgary and then sent Lee to Edmonton after they picked up Daniel Wapple from Regina.

Why is this happening?

Parity in the league may be the main culprit. Right now the conferences are wide open and making the playoffs is in the eye sight of nearly every team. Vancouver has lost seven games in a row but are still only three points out of the last playoff spot in the West. If you can get a goalie and get in, why not make a move now?

With two months to go before the trade deadline, will we see more goalies on the move?

Team WHL injuries

The league schedule is light this week as all eyes will be on Kamloops and Kelowna as Team WHL will take on the Russians in the Canada Russia Series. A number of injuries have caused some changes to the WHL’s lineup.

Most notably out are Calgary’s Travis Sanheim, Kelowna’s Dillon Dube and Brandon’s John Quenneville. Added to the rosters have been Edmonton defenceman Dysin Mayo, Calgary’s Jake Bean and Kamloops’s Collin Shirley and Deven Sideroff.

The games are Monday and Tuesday and both can be seen on Sportsnet.

WHL Player of the Week

Brayden Point, C, Moose Jaw Warriors
Point is well on his way to being the WHL Player of the Year and he turned in another big week. He scored four more goals while adding five assists for nine points in the Warriors’ three games this past week. He leads the WHL in scoring and is averaging 2.4 points-per-game. Needless to say he has a date with Team Canada in the world juniors locked up.

2016 Draft Eligible Player of the Week

Noah Gregor, C, Moose Jaw Warriors
When you play on a team with Brayden Point you may not get all the headlines, but Gregor is turning in a fine season to date. The Beaumont, Alta., product has 22 points in 18 games and is coming off a big week. In three games, Gregor potted three goals to go with three assists as the Warriors went 2-1.

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