'I don't think it ever goes away': Royals players pack up after second round loss (2025)

Goodbyes among teammates are rarely easy, but it’s even tougher when you feel your season was cut short. “I don’t think it ever goes away. I’ll be thinking about it all summer, and until next season starts,” says Royals forward Cole Reschny.

Thursday morning the team gathered at Save-On-Foods-Memorial Centre one last time for exit interviews with the coaching staff and to sign merchandise.

The Royals have a young nucleus and many of their star players including Reschny and 16-year-old phenom Keaton Verhoeff will be back next season, but for 20-year-olds Brandon Boehm, Kenta Isogai, and Brandon Lisowsky, it’s the end of their junior hockey careers.

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“It’s been a pleasure,” says Lisowsky. “Junior hockey’s the best time of your life so you gotta just really enjoy it.”

The Royals’ playoff aspirations ended Tuesday night with an overtime loss on the road to the Spokane Chiefs. The series featured three overtime games, two blowouts, and a last-minute victory.

“You learn from that,” says Verhoeff, of the back-and-forth series. “It kind of eases next year when you get a chance to come out and compete again and get back to that same spot, but the sting is tough.”

Reschny says success in the Western Hockey League (WHL) is incremental, and that this year’s division title and first round series victory is a building block.

“You look at a team that’s won it [the Memorial Cup], they have some success one year but they build on that the next, so I think we’re heading in the right direction.”

The summer is crucial for Reschny, but his stock is soaring. The 18 year-old forward is projected to be a first round pick in the upcoming NHL draft, thanks in part to 25 points in 11 playoff games.

Thursday he also received notice that he was selected, along with Verhoeff, for Canada’s U18 World Championship team that’s competing in Texas.

“It’s a big summer for me and I’m looking forward to it,” Reschny says. “After these worlds it’s the combine and then the draft. It’s what I’ve worked my whole life towards.”

The Royals acquired goaltender Johnny Hicks from the Brooks Bandits of the BCHL before the trade deadline. With the NCAA clearing the way for CHL players to play U.S. college hockey last November, it cleared the way for Hicks to test himself against WHL competition while trying to attract the attention of American schools. “It was a leap of faith,” says Hicks, who racked up several accolades including WHL Goalie of the Week in February, and the same honour in the playoffs after posting two shutouts in the Royals opening round victory over the Tri-City Americans. It didn’t take long before Hicks became a fan favourite.

“Ever since I came in mid-season it’s been a very special experience with these guys,” says Hicks. “I’ve enjoyed every second of it.”

With players heading their separate ways, each takes something different from the season. For Verhoeff he’s got a souvenir in the form of a gash across the nose suffered from an errant stick in the Spokane series. If it meant continuing the playoff run, he’d put up with much more than that. “Playoff hockey’s not about staying pretty. You want to be as ugly as you can at the end of the season.”