Victoria Royals Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Victoria Royals

City	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
League	Western Hockey League
Conference	Western
Division	B.C.
Founded	2006
Home arena	Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
Colours	Royal blue, silver, white, black
Owner(s)	Graham Lee (Chairman - GSL Group)
General manager	Jake Heisinger
Head coach	James Patrick
Franchise history
2006–2011	Chilliwack Bruins
2011–present	Victoria Royals

The Victoria Royals are a Canadian major junior ice hockey team. They are based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Royals play in the B.C. Division. This division is part of the Western Conference. They are in the Western Hockey League (WHL). The team started playing in the 2011–12 season. This happened after the league moved the Chilliwack Bruins team to Victoria. It was exciting because the WHL returned to Vancouver Island. The last WHL team, the Victoria Cougars, had left 17 years before. The Royals play their home games at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

Team History
Season Records
Players
- Team Captains
- NHL Alumni
Coaches
- List of Coaches
Awards and Honours
- Team Awards
- Individual Player Awards
See also

Team History

Victoria did not have a WHL team after 1994. That's when the Cougars team moved to Prince George. In 2004, the city got a professional ECHL team. They were called the Victoria Salmon Kings. This happened when the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre opened. But Victoria still wanted a WHL team back.

In 2011, the WHL approved a big change. They allowed the Chilliwack Bruins to move to Victoria. Some owners wanted to keep the team in Chilliwack. But most partners voted to sell the team. The new owners planned to move the team. The WHL wanted to protect the Victoria market. They were worried another hockey team might move there instead.

The Royals started strong in Victoria. They made the playoffs in their first eight seasons. They were also on track for the playoffs in 2019–20. But that season ended early. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their best season was in 2015–16. The Royals won 50 games for the first time. They also won their first Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy. This award goes to the best team in the regular season. They lost in the second round of the playoffs. They were playing against the Kelowna Rockets. The Rockets tied the game with less than a second left. Then they won in overtime.

Season Records

Here's how the Victoria Royals have done each season. Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime losses, SOL = Shootout losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	Points	Finish	Playoffs
2011–12	72	24	41	3	4	233	325	55	4th B.C.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final (0–4, KAM)
2012–13	72	35	30	2	5	223	252	77	3rd B.C.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final (2–4, KAM)
2013–14	72	48	20	1	3	238	181	100	2nd B.C.	Won Western Conference quarter-final (4–0, SPO) Lost Western Conference semi-final (1–4, POR)
2014–15	72	39	29	3	1	244	219	82	2nd B.C.	Won Western Conference quarter-final (4–1, PRG) Lost Western Conference semi-final (1–4, KEL)
2015–16	72	50	16	3	3	281	166	106	1st B.C. 1st WHL	Won Western Conference quarter-final (4–2, SPO) Lost Western Conference semi-final (3–4 KEL)
2016–17	72	37	29	5	1	239	219	80	4th B.C.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final (2–4, EVT)
2017–18	72	39	27	4	2	287	264	84	2nd B.C.	Won Western Conference quarter-final (4–3, VAN) Lost Western Conference semi-final (0–4, TRI)
2018–19	68	34	30	2	2	199	227	72	2nd B.C.	Won Western Conference quarter-final (4–2, KAM) Lost Western Conference semi-final (0–4, VAN)
2019–20	64	34	24	6	2	176	190	72	2nd B.C.	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	22	3	17	1	1	48	96	8	5th B.C.	No playoffs due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021–22	68	23	39	5	1	193	275	52	5th B.C.	Did not qualify
2022–23	68	17	43	6	2	199	323	42	5th B.C.	Did not qualify
2023–24	68	29	30	5	4	221	272	67	4th B.C.	Lost Western Conference quarter-final (0–4, POR)

Players

Team Captains

Hayden Rintoul, 2011–2012
Tyler Stahl, 2012–2013
Jordan Fransoo, 2013–2014
Joe Hicketts, 2014–2016
Ryan Gagnon, 2016–2017
Matthew Phillips, 2017–2018
Phillip Schultz, 2019–2020
Tarun Fizer, 2021–2022
Gannon Laroque, 2022–2023

NHL Alumni

These players from the Victoria Royals have also played in the National Hockey League.

Noah Gregor
Joe Hicketts
Brayden Pachal
Matthew Phillips
Brayden Tracey

Coaches

Dave Lowry coached the Royals for five seasons from 2012 to 2017.

Marc Habscheid was the first head coach and general manager. He worked for the Royals in their first season. In June 2012, he left both jobs. The Royals then chose Cam Hope as their new general manager. They named Dave Lowry as head coach for the 2012–13 season. He coached the Royals for five seasons. He helped the team reach new highs in wins and points. They won the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy in 2015-16. He left the team in 2017.

In 2017, Dan Price became the new head coach. He was an assistant coach before. Price was the third head coach in the team's history. On November 6, 2023, the Royals fired Price. This happened after a loss to the Wenatchee Wild. They then named James Patrick as their fifth head coach. He used to coach the Winnipeg Ice.

List of Coaches

#	Coach	Years
1	Marc Habscheid	2011–2012
2	Dave Lowry	2012–2017
3	Dan Price	2017–2023
4	James Patrick	2023–present

Awards and Honours

Team Awards

Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy
WHL Regular Season Champion

2015–16

St. Clair Group Trophy
WHL Marketing/Business Award

2015–16

WHL Scholastic Team of the Year

2016–17

Individual Player Awards

Brad Hornung Trophy
WHL Most Sportsmanlike Player

Tyler Soy: 2015–16

Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy
WHL Rookie of the Year

Matthew Phillips: 2015–16

Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy
WHL Coach of the Year

Dave Lowry (2): 2013–14, 2015–16

Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy
WHL Executive of the Year

Cam Hope: 2013–14

WHL Western Conference First All-Star Team

Joe Hicketts: 2015–16
Matthew Phillips: 2016–17, 2017–18

WHL Western Conference Second All-Star Team

Joe Hicketts: 2014–15
Tyler Soy: 2015–16
Scott Walford: 2018–19

Victoria Royals facts for kids

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