It was the Royals annual Garage Sale and NHL Street Ball Hockey Wrap up at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Center Tuesday July 25th.
For myself, it was a chance to meet the new VP of Hockey Operations Joey Poljanowski, who brings new found enthusiasm and excitement to the club and the market.
“Joey joins the Royals from the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL, where he has served as their Manager of Hockey Operations since 2019. Spanning over 15 years, his extensive background in hockey has included key roles with organizations such as Hockey Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the London Knights prior to joining Arizona.”
Poljanowski is intent is to bring fast, skilled and competitive hockey, and sees the future very bright for the organization.
Earlier in the day, the Royals announced a new Associate General Manager in Jake Heisinger, making his way over from the Winnipeg Ice.
Heisinger brings a plethora of scouting knowledge in his six years with the WHL Ice organization. He was coveted by NHL clubs, so Victoria is lucky to have him as their eye to the future.
“Jake is an excellent talent evaluator and has a significant background in building winning franchises, as was showcased in his success as one of the primary architects of the Winnipeg ICE,” stated Poljanowski.
Heisinger is the son of Craig Heisinger, assistant GM and director of hockey operations for the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL, and GM of the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.
“Heisinger will have a primary focus on scouting and player development; a role he is very familiar with, having been an integral part of the group in Winnipeg that scouted first-round NHL Draft Picks such as Connor Geekie, Matthew Savoie, Carson Lambos, and Zach Benson.”
The Zone’s afternoon show was broadcasting on site, and our very own Pol Plastino was able to have a chat with the Royals Head Coach Dan Price.
POL: When do things get going again?
PRICE: “Training camp will open up September 1st and then move quickly into the preseason after that. Usually it’s about 4 days at camp, then a little bit of transition time heading into the preseason.
After 4 preseason games on the road this year, we then open the regular season on the road before the home opener against Prince George at the end of September.”
POL: What’s got you excited about the upcoming season?
PRICE: “A big core of returning players…we got names you’d be familiar with like Schuurman, Parker, Kipkie, and then some really exciting players coming in as well.
Everyone’s talking about Cole Reschny, he’s 16 this year, our first round pick from a couple of years ago.
So it’s a great balance, of youth and veteran leadership, and we’re really excited to get back at it.”
POL: You’ve really been building something here over the last few years, what’s it going to be like this season?
PRICE: “The last few years have been…hard work, the team’s been young, obviously dealing with a lot of injuries as well. So that combination of youth and injury adversity has made for some tough sledding, but it’s also allowed us to really develop young players, and get them a lot of minutes.
Now, several of them have been drafted (Kipkie & Parker), and it’s allowed us to draft high as well and pick really important players like Cole Reschny, Keaton Verhoeff, Cruz Waltze, etc. So that’s that balance, that’s where we really need to get to now.
Any team that’s in that arc, that sort of upward trajectory, to getting to a point where they’re ready to win and win consistently – you’ve got to go through that.
Now here we are, finally the wave is beginning to crest and, we really believe we’re going to be one of the most competitive teams in the league this year.”
