![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/CamHope.jpg\" "\\"CamHope\\"")
<\/a>One of Hope\u2019s primary orders of business is to find a new head coach to replace former coach and general manager Habscheid, who has moved on to an executive role in parent company GSL Holdings.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first priority is to get a coach in place,\u201d says Hope. \u201cThe coach assesses the club and once you\u2019ve done that, then you decide what kind of style you can play and get the best results out of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royals seem pleased to have landed Hope. Despite having no previous Western Hockey League (WHL) experience, the Royals\u2019 ownership group has been busy pumping Hope\u2019s tires since he was announced as new GM on July 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have talked to many very credible people in hockey who know Cam and they have all highly recommended him as very knowledgeable hockey person with a high level of integrity,\u201d said Royals owner Graham Lee in a press release. \u201cI believe he will be a very strong addition to our team and will bring his NHL experience at the highest level in developing players and providing an environment for players to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Royals president Dave Dakers echoed the sentiment that Hope could be the answer to the Victoria hockey team\u2019s growing pains in his own prepared statement. Last year, the team went 24-48 in regular season play before a first round playoff exit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very fortunate to have a person of Cam\u2019s caliber join our organization,\u201d said Dakers. \u201cI look forward to working together with Cam to help mold and shape the Victoria Royals into one of the model franchises in the WHL.\u201d<\/p>\n
The uphill battle to make the Royals a serious contender in the WHL is not lost on Hope, who knows he has his work cut out for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t follow the team very much last year, but just what I\u2019ve learned in the short time I\u2019ve been here, talking to the scouts and the returning guys a little bit, it looks like we have a lot of work to do,\u201d says Hope.<\/p>\n
Returning players are key this year, according to Hope. 2012 National Hockey League draft picks Logan Nelson and Steven Hodges are back in the fold, but Hope also points to players like Jamie Crooks, Brandon Magee, and big Tyler Stahl to step up and take a leadership role this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cTyler Stahl, for instance, he\u2019s a hard-hitting guy and it would be great if he could get his feet back under him and have a great year,\u201d says Hope. \u201cIt would be wonderful to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his lack of experience at the WHL level, Hope admits there will a be a learning curve, but ultimately he feels confident in his new role with the Royals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHockey is hockey. And managing a hockey team is very similar in broad terms,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there are some specific challenges associated with WHL hockey and some unique circumstances that make it really interesting. You\u2019re grabbing a hold of some young athletes that are at an important time in their life, and if you can do things right and help them achieve their goals, whatever those goals are, that\u2019s fantastic. That\u2019s what we\u2019re all doing this for. In the meantime, if you can also win, that\u2019s also great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Victoria Royals have a new hockey mind to shape the team this year as former New York Rangers assistant general manager Cameron Hope has been hired to replace the outgoing Marc Habscheid. Hope, who spent seven years with the Rangers, is a resident of Edmonton, AB and grew up watching the Gretzky-era Oilers. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3699"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}