PDA

View Full Version : Hodges' time to shine for Royals



CdnSailor
09-15-2011, 11:54 AM
When you are a Western Hockey League club’s first-round pick in the bantam draft, as Steven Hodges was when taken ninth overall by the Chilliwack Bruins in 2009, you will be given every opportunity to stick with the team in your first full season of eligibility at age 16.

The rest is up to you. The rinks are littered with broken dreams, but Hodges, now of the Victoria Royals, made the most his rookie chance last season when the WHL franchise was located in Chilliwack.

The five-foot-11,

165-pound forward showed enough for GM and head coach Marc Habscheid to keep him around for 58 regular-season games and three playoff tilts in which he accounted for a total of five goals and 11 points.

Hodges played for Team Pacific in the 2011 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge with last season’s other notable 16-year-old Bruins forward Brandon Magee.

“In my first year in the league, I was playing a role and getting used to things,” said Hodges, as the Royals prepared for Friday’s exhibition game against the Kelowna Rockets, the fifth and final game of the preseason and the only one to be played at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

“I’ll be expected to take more of a leadership role this season and produce more on the ice.”

This is Hodges’ NHL draft season and he’s not considered a blue-chipper, which doesn’t bother him one bit.

“The NHL draft is not my main focus for the year. I don’t worry about the [draft] rankings. I focus just on the team. This is not a team of superstars. All three lines have depth. And all work hard. What happens about other stuff, happens. I’ll see where it leads me. A future in hockey is my goal. I believe I have skating and passing ability.”

The move from Chilliwack means a transfer of schools, and Hodges will take his Grade 12 year at Vic High. But these are sacrifices players make when they decide on the WHL.

“I look at it as a fresh start in Victoria. The city is first-class,” said Hodges.

The Delta-raised Hodges considers himself fortunate that he still gets to play in B.C. near his home.

The Royals have two forwards away at NHL rookie camps — third-round draft pick Kevin Sundher with the Buffalo Sabres and free-agent signing Curt Gogol with the San Jose Sharks. Forward Brendan Persley and defencemen Zach Habscheid and Tyler Stahl are out with injuries or ailments.

That leaves 23 skaters and three goaltenders for coach Marc Habscheid to choose from for Friday’s contest against Kelowna, after which cutdowns loom.

Admission for the exhibition contest is $5.

Victoria opens the regular season Sept. 23 against the Vancouver Giants at the PNE Pacific Coliseum before raising the curtain at home the following night at the Memorial Centre against the Giants



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Hodges+time+shine+Royals/5404380/story.html#ixzz1Y2qeQDRM