Former Grizzlies blue-liner Hockley in Predators camp
There aren’t many players who start out in hockey who end up getting selected in the NHL draft. Victoria Royals captain Justin Kipkie has now done it twice. Kipkie, who was top-five in WHL scoring by defencemen last season, is skating in the Minnesota development camp after being taken 141st overall in the fifth round by the Wild in last week’s 2025 NHL draft. The six-foot-three, 210-pound blue-liner was originally selected 160th overall in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL draft by the Arizona Coyotes, who are now the Utah Mammoth.
The Mammoth did not sign Kipkie, making him an unrestricted free agent for the taking, and eligible to re-enter the draft this year. Players overlooked as 18-year-olds in their draft year often re-enter the draft the following year, but a two-year gap between drafts is unusual.
Regardless, one of the biggest off-season questions for the Royals is whether the Wild believe Kipkie will be better served by playing with their minor-pro AHL affiliate Iowa Wild or by returning him to the major-junior WHL with the Royals as an over-age 20-year-old. Pro scouting reports indicate they relish his offensive ability, and wicked shot from the blue line, but want to see Kipkie play more physically in his own end.
Most players in this situation are sent by their NHL clubs to develop against older, bigger, stronger players in the AHL.
The same question hangs over fellow Royals blue-liner Nate Misskey, a six-foot-four 2024 fifth-round NHL draft pick of San Jose, who is skating in the Sharks’ development camp at Tech CU Arena in the Bay Area.
Kipkie and Misskey are among nine Royals-associated players skating this week in NHL development camps, including three in the Winnipeg Jets camp — last season’s breakout forward Teydon Trembecky, defenceman and hometown Langford-product Seth Fryer as free agents along with Jets-drafted Finnish-import forward Markus Loponen.
The explosive speed of graduating Royals forward Kenta Isogai, a native of Nagano, Japan, didn’t go unnoticed by the Kings and he received a free-agent invitation to the Los Angeles development camp taking place in El Segundo, California.
Forward Reggie Newman is quietly unheralded, but his ruggedly-effective play on the Royals third line was noticed by at least the Maple Leafs, and he is skating in their development camp as one of 23 invited free agents who have joined four Leafs prospects signed to NHL contracts, four on AHL contracts and 17 Leafs draft picks.
Royals goaltender Jayden Kraus is facing shots as a free agent in the Avalanche camp in Centennial, Colorado.
The starriest of the Royals-associated players in NHL development camps is forward Cole Reschny, selected 18th overall in the first round of the draft by the Calgary Flames, but he made national headlines by announcing he is bolting the WHL and committing to play next season in the NCAA for the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Former Victoria Grizzlies BCHL defenceman Drew Hockley received an invitation to Nashville Predators development camp. Goaltender Vladimir Nikitin of the BCHL Nanaimo Clippers is in the Ottawa Senators camp and former Clippers defenceman Isa Parekh in Flames camp, alongside his highly-touted 2024 first-round defenceman brother Zayne Parekh.
Forward Ollie Josephson of Victoria is performing in the Seattle Kraken development camp, which runs through Thursday with the annual Stucky Cup three-on-three tournament named in honour of the club’s assistant equipment manager James Stucky. The six-foot-centre Josephson — a product of the Spectrum Secondary hockey academy, South Island Royals and the Langford-based Pacific Coast Hockey Academy Sea Devils program — was selected in the fourth round of the 2024 draft by the Kraken out of the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels.
The Vancouver Canucks, meanwhile, have begun their prospects camp at UBC with 2025 first-round selection Braeden Cootes skating to much attention after being drafted out of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
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