![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/brandon-magee-credit-jon-howevictoria-royals.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cRight from the day I first started playing hockey I always watched NHL games with my parents and I just loved the game,\u201d says Magee, currently second in scoring on the Royals with 54 points in 59 games this season. \u201cIt\u2019s all I\u2019ve really thought about to do with my life: play hockey. I\u2019ve never really thought anything past that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old is currently in his third year in the WHL. His strength on the puck and his impressive vision on the ice has done him well in his almost 200 games in the west\u2019s premier junior hockey league.<\/p>\n
But without a formal backup plan beyond eventually playing in the National Hockey League (NHL), the 5\u20198\u201d centre has a lot riding on making the big leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I really don\u2019t worry about it, not right now,\u201d says Magee. \u201cI\u2019ve made hockey my number one priority in life and that\u2019s the only thing I really know, and that\u2019s the only thing I really want to do with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Royals head coach and former NHL player Dave Lowry thinks Magee has a solid chance at making the big leagues, as long as he sticks to what has brought him success so far in his hockey career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a heart and soul guy. He plays hard every night and competes hard. He\u2019s got skill and he can finish,\u201d says Lowry. \u201cHe has pro aspirations and he just has to make sure he continues to work at the pace that he plays at and wants to improve every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Oilers organization agrees with Lowry. They invited Magee to their development camp over the summer and gave the skilled center a hard look.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not a big guy in stature, but he\u2019s kind of hefty in the way he plays on the ice,\u201d says Stu MacGregor, head amateur scout of the Edmonton Oilers, \u201cand that combined with his will and desire to compete makes him a very unique player.\u201d<\/p>\n
The development camp experience was extra special for a kid who spent his formative years smack in the middle of an Oilers dynasty (the NHL team won the Stanley Cup five times between 1983\u01101990).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing to play on the same ice as those guys; guys like Nail Yakupov who already has five NHL goals,\u201d says Magee of the development camp, \u201cand it doesn\u2019t seem that far away to hopefully one day be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t chosen in last year\u2019s NHL entry draft, but MacGregor says Magee has a good chance of getting drafted this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s certainly a player everyone will be considering for the draft and he\u2019s obviously improving,\u201d says the Oilers scout, \u201cand everyone\u2019s looking for players that are doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Magee doesn\u2019t get picked in the NHL draft, which takes place in New Jersey on June 30, he says another option would be if a team signed him as an un-drafted free agent.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys do that,\u201d says Magee. \u201cMy agent and I talk, but we haven\u2019t really touched on the draft too much; we\u2019re just taking it game by game and focusing on helping the Royals win. The draft is there, obviously, but it\u2019s not a huge deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
But talking to Magee about his future in hockey, it\u2019s clear that playing in the NHL is monumental for him and pressures are high for him to succeed, especially when it\u2019s common to see pro scouts at Royals games checking out young talent on the rapidly improving WHL team. (The Royals currently sit tied at eighth overall in the WHL, versus an 18th<\/sup> place finish last season).<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you have one off night, that could put an X beside your name for that scout,\u201d says Magee, \u201ceven though you want to bring it every night and play your heart out every game and hope they notice you.\u201d<\/p>\n Coach Lowry appreciates Magee\u2019s attitude and perseverance. Magee is a coach\u2019s dream: a hard worker who doesn\u2019t hesitate to block a shot in the last minute of a close game, but with the talent to speed down the ice and pot the game winner.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great kid,\u201d says Lowry. \u201cHe\u2019s very coach-able and he\u2019s got a great personality and he wants to win. That\u2019s the kind of player you want on your hockey team.\u201d<\/p>\n As for that dream to someday turn hockey into an NHL career, Magee claims it doesn\u2019t occupy his thoughts too much. It\u2019s pretty evident, however, that nothing would please him more than donning an NHL sweater. And if that sweater were an Edmonton Oilers one, wouldn\u2019t that be a dream come true?<\/p>\n Still, when answering questions about his potential NHL future, Magee downplays his hopes and dreams for what the Royals organization would agree is the smart and safe answer: the success of his current team is paramount right now.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t really thought about my chances of making the NHL too much. I just keep playing day by day here and I want to be successful with the Royals first,\u201d he says. \u201cTeam success brings a lot of personal success. I\u2019ve learned that. Our team\u2019s been winning lately and it\u2019s been fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hockey is life. Life is hockey. It\u2019s a catchphrase that\u2019s probably been used by a few hockey equipment companies over the years, maybe even a couple of beer ads. But for Victoria Royals star centre Brandon Magee, it\u2019s been a personal mantra since he was three years old. Magee\u2019s enjoying a banner year in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6291,"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":[8,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-february-20-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6290"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6505,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions\/6505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}