Prince George Cougars goaltender Ty Young’s last appearance in the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre crease proved productive last weekend during Vancouver Canucks training camp as Young was signed to an NHL entry-level contract.
While this weekend at the Memorial Centre won’t be as career-defining for Young, it’s all part of those game-by-game small steps that need to be taken if he hopes to play in the NHL and not have just a good story to tell his grandkids about signing a contract and almost making it.
The six-foot-three goaltender from Coaldale, Alta., was selected in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL draft by the Canucks, and will be looking to stymie the Royals in Victoria’s Western Hockey League home openers tonight and Saturday.
“It’s just like every other goalie. You’ve got to get pucks through and eventually they are going to go in,” said Victoria blue-liner Kalem Parker, who also just returned to the Royals after making the main camp of the Minnesota Wild, and firing shots at Marc-Andre Fleury.
“We’ve got to get bodies in front of [Young]. We’ve got a lot of big forwards on this team now and we’ve got to get in front of his eyes. That limits his ability to see the puck and pucks will find their way through.”
Parker and Young are among the players sifting back to junior hockey from NHL camps wiser and better players.
“Trying to box out a guy like [six-foot-three, 235-pound Wild forward] Pat Maroon from in front of the net was a big wake-up call for me,” said Parker, the 2023 Wild sixth-round draft pick, who represented Canada in the IIHF world U-18 championship in Germany.
“It’s a lot faster up there. All the guys are bigger and stronger.”
To make it from NHL rookie camp to main camp is a big deal for juniors like Parker and Young.
“It felt good to go to main camp for the week,” said Parker.
“Training with those older guys, and trying to learn from every single thing they do, was pretty cool.”
With players such as Young and Parker missing, renders the first weekend of junior a guessing game in many regards. With Young in Victoria at Canucks camp, the Cougars went 1-1 with Zac Funk named WHL player of the week for his three goals and seven points over the two-game split. The Royals went 0-2 with Parker in Minneapolis.
Parker is the second-to-last of the five Royals players to return from NHL camps, joining undrafted blue-liner Nate Misskey from Edmonton Oilers rookie camp and forward Reggie Newman from Arizona Coyotes rookie camp in time for the first two games and drafted defenceman Justin Kipkie from Coyotes main camp in time for Victoria’s second game Saturday in Everett. Royals captain and 2022 Sharks fourth-round draft-pick Gannon Laroque is still with the San Jose system in NHL preseason and remains the lone Royals-eligible player still with an NHL team. The Sharks will decide whether to return Laroque to junior in Victoria or to their AHL affiliate Barracuda in a decision that could alter the trajectory of the Royals season.
