Examining four Victoria Grizzlies recruits for 2024-25

While the 2023-24 season is ongoing, B.C. Hockey League teams have started recruiting players for next season. This list includes the Victoria Grizzlies. As of this writing, the Grizzlies have recruited four players, according to the BCHL website.

Coming from the Pacific Coast Hockey Academy U18 Prep team are defender Rowan Guest and forward Jordan Ramsay. Recruited from the Northern Alberta Extreme U18 Prep team is forward Finn Kallay. Finally, signing on from the Shattuck-St. Mary’s U18 Prep team is forward Drew Waterfield.

These three forwards and one defender are the first of several recruits joining the Grizzlies for the 2024-25 season. Each player is from noted hockey programs that other teams also often recruit from.

This article is about the four recruits unveiled so far. Before that, I will note other BCHL players recruited from these same schools.

BCHL players from these schools

The last Grizzlies player recruited from Pacific Coast Academy was forward Landon Mackie, who played at the school from 2019 to 2023. During the 2022-23 season, Mackie joined the Grizzlies for five games as an affiliate player while still at PCHA.

Mackie is one of the recent recruits from the three schools, but they have seen several players recruited by BCHL teams in recent years. In 2020, the Northern Extreme 18U Prep team sent three players to BCHL teams and last year, the Extreme saw two alumni join BCHL teams.

As for the Pacific Coast Academy’s 18U Prep team, they’ve sent many players to BCHL teams, including four last off-season, like Mackie.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s 18U Prep team has had several players recruited to the BCHL recently. Two examples this season include defender Will Jones and forward Anthony Yu of the Powell River Kings.

One player from the program’s 18U Prep team to be recruited was defender Samuel Duerr, who played during the BCHL’s 2020-21 pod season with the Vernon Vipers.

Coming from Minnesota

Waterfield is from Aurora, Illinois, and has played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s for the last four years. Before that, he was with Team Illinois’ 13U AAA squad. During the 2020-21 season, Waterfield played for Shattuck’s 14U AAA team before advancing to the 15U AAA team the following season.

After playing the 2022-23 season with the school’s 16U AAA team, Waterfield joined the 18U Prep team and put up solid point totals every step of the way. In 2020-21, Waterfield notched 38 points in 50 games before tallying 40 points in 61 games the following season and earning an NCAA commitment to Yale University.

For 2022-23, he improved to 59 points in 54 games and last season, put up 42 points in 49 games.

Coming from Northern Alberta

Kallay is from St. Albert, Alberta. From 2020 to 2023, Kallay spent time with his hometown Sabres hockey program in the Alberta Elite Hockey League. He also got into some games for the St. Albert Flyers 16U AAA team.

He made appearances for five different teams between 2021 and 2023. After playing for the St. Albert Raiders U18 AAA team, Kallay joined the Northern Alberta Xtreme U17 Prep team.

For this season, Kallay played for the Northern Alberta Xtreme U18 Prep team as well as the Sherwood Park Crusaders. These appearances as an affiliate player for the Crusaders occurred before Sherwood Park joined the BCHL.

Kallay is another offensive forward joining the Grizz next season. In the 2021-22 season, Kallay notched 44 points in 34 games for the St. Albert Sabres U15 squad. One year later, he had 48 points in 31 games with the Xtreme U17 club. L

Coming from Vancouver Island

Guest was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Before coming to the West Coast, Guest played for a handful of Saskatoon minor hockey teams. Starting with the 2019-20 season, he was an affiliate player for the Saskatoon Bandits U15 AA team as a regular roster player with the Saskatoon Aces U15 A team.

The following season, Guest moved to the Saskatoon Generals U15 AA team but only played four games as COVID-19 restrictions limited the 2020-21 season. For 2021-22, Guest joined the Saskatoon Contacts U18 AAA team and tallied eight points in 39 games. Afterward, he moved west to join Pacific Coast Academy.

Over the last two seasons, Guest played 58 games for PCHA’s U18 Prep team. In 2022-23, he had 21 points in 33 games and eclipsed those totals this season with 32 points in 27 games. Guest already has a college commitment and is set to start at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in September 2025.

Ramsay is the lone local player on this list, as the Victoria, B.C.-born forward is set to join his hometown BCHL club this September. He grew up playing minor hockey with the Victoria Racquet Club before joining PCHA for the 2020-21 season.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions in B.C., he only played two games with the Pacific Coast Academy U15 Prep team that season, posting three assists. In 2021-22, Ramsay broke out with 43 points in 27 games for the same U15 squad.

Last season, the adjustment to the PCHA U18 Prep team saw Ramsay’s offensive totals dip to 17 points in 33 games, but he bounced back in a big way this season by putting up 48 points in 29 outings to finish second in scoring on the Sea Devils.