For the second straight season, Jayden Kraus is hoping to win a roster battle at Victoria Royals training camp.
Last season, the former Prince Albert Minto won the battle to serve as the backup goaltender behind overager Braden Holt. With Holt graduated from the WHL and now playing in the USPORTS ranks with the University of Manitoba, the number one netminder position is open for the taking in Victoria.
With training camps set to open across the WHL at the end of the month, Kraus says he is looking forward to the new season and expectations are high on Vancouver Island.
“I’m super pumped. I think it’s going to be a really good year for our team. We’re all getting a year older and we got some playoff experience last year that most of the guys hadn’t experienced yet. I think there’s lots to look forward to this year and we’re going have a really good season together.”
Last season for the Royals, Kraus appeared in 26 games posting an 8-13-0-1 record, a 4.29 Goals Against Average and a .870 save percentage.
While his numbers might not jump off the page, Kraus had several standout performances throughout the season. On Dec. 9, 2023, Kraus earned third star honours in a 1-0 Victoria road loss against the Prince George Cougars on teddy bear toss night and a 39 save performance in a 2-0 Royals loss in Kelowna on Feb. 7.
Kraus, who doesn’t turn 18 until Nov. 18, says he has put in the work this offseason to improve off his rookie campaign in the WHL.
“As a goalie, there’s lots of aspects of your game that you’ve got to be on top of, some of the biggest couple things for me that are going to get me on top of my game where I really took a deep dive in my mental game. I think that’s a really big area that gets pushed aside for lots of goalies. Getting prepared physically, flexibility-wise, and then obviously the on-ice stuff is the most important. I spent a lot of time on the ice with a couple different goalie coaches, and then I actually flew out to Victoria to work with our team goalie coaches, which was really good.”
It won’t be easy for Kraus to win the number one netminder position with Victoria. Ryan Tamelin, who stands at six-foot-eight, is also battling for the spot after spending the majority of last season with the Okanagan Hockey Academy’s U18 Prep team. Tamelin made his WHL debut allowing five goals against the Saskatoon Blades on Jan. 13.
With his birthday falling late in the year, Kraus will be eligible for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft next summer. With the roster battle and potential to hear his name called by an NHL team, Kraus says he is taking things one game at a time and is hoping to let his hard work do the talking.
“At the end of the day, you just got to go play and I trust my process. I put in the work for a reason. There’s a saying that I don’t know exactly how it goes, but through pressure, at the end of the day, you fall back on your skills. I feel like I’ve put in the work and put myself on a good spot going into that position. I’m just going to go and enjoy it and work as hard as I can and then see what happens from there.”
Growing up in Prince Albert Minor Hockey, Kraus didn’t always play the goaltender position. He says once he got a chance to play the position, he fell in love with it and has never looked back.
“When we had season tickets here in PA, I went to a lot of games and I played as a player a little bit. I like to score some goals, but I hopped in goalie for the first time while I was still wearing player gear and there was just something about it. I like competing for pucks. I was like ‘there’s no way these guys are scoring on me.’ I just fell in love with that and then slowly started to progress faster than I did as a player. I was like ‘this is definitely for me’ and I just stuck with it.”
Kraus and the Royals open their season on Friday, Sept. 20 when they host the Tri-City Americans.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
