The Victoria Royals made drastic changes to their front office this off-season. After Mark Habscheid decided to step down as Head Coach and General manager of the hockey club to pursue a position in the Royals owner company RG properties, Royals owner Graham Lee was left to fill the vacant jobs.
Lee looked to the NHL to fill the vacancy at GM. He was able to convince former New York Rangers Assistant GM, Cameron Hope, to take the reins of the Victoria junior hockey club. Lee was told by many other executives throughout hockey that Hope would be a great GM. Hope even admitted that he was caught off guard when the Royals owner called about the job. Cameron Hope spent four seasons (2007-2011) as assistant General Manager of the New York Rangers. Hope's experience in the professional ranks will pay dividends to a young Royals team that was bounced quickly in the first round of the 2012 WHL playoffs.
Once Cameron Hope took the general manager job, he had the duty of picking his coach to teach his junior players. Many names were thrown around in the job search, such as former Ottawa Senators head coach Cory Clouston. In the end though, it was Dave Lowry who was hired by the new GM. Lowry joins the Royals after being an assistant coach for the NHL Calgary Flames the past three seasons. Lowry said that the Royals' decision to make the GM and head coach positions seperate played a big part in his decision to take the job. Lowry comes back to the WHL with previous experience in the league, as well as a good track record in the WHL. The 47 year old's last stint in the WHL was as head coach of the Calgary Hitmen in 2008-09 season. As head coach of the Hitmen, Lowry led the team to a record of 59-9-3-1, with 330 goals scored, and came within two games of winning the Ed Chynoweth cup that season.
Now that we know the new GM and Head Coach, it's time to look at what this means for the Royals. The Royals were an inconsistent team last year. They would go on great stretches of play, and follow it up with terrible runs of luck. Victoria was swept in the first round of the WHL playoffs by the Kelowna Rockets. The Royals' second period play was a main concern in the playoffs as they were outscored 16-3 in the middle of frames of the four games. The new coach will instill a sense of hard work and fun once training camps start.
Lowry's track record shows that he works great with young players. This is a very young Royals team that will need that kind of mentor. Look for Lowry to set up an offensive strategy to utilize the big bodies of the scoring forwards, as well as showing off defenseman who specialize on the offensive side of the puck. Players such as Nelson, Crooks, Hicketts, and Hodges will excel under Lowry's new system. I suspect that the powerplay will improve dramatically. This isn't to say that the Royals will be poor defensively, that's far from the truth. Defensive minded players such as Kanzig, Pilton, Walker, and Traber will be utilized more to their strengths.
It's an exciting pair of hires for the Royals to make. Hope and Lowry both come in with lengthy track records in the business. The idea to split the jobs of General Manager and Head Coach was also a smart move. I've always found it better when the GM can focus on GM duties and the Coach can just focus on the lineups and getting the team ready to play. If this summer is any indication of things to come, Royals' fans are in for a very exciting season.
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