NCAA exodus hits Giants, as Colton Roberts jumps to Colorado College

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Mazden Leslie told the Vancouver Giants last February that he was going to the NCAA rather than returning to the team this coming season, and now fellow rearguard Colton Roberts has done the same.

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Roberts, 19, let the Giants know this week that he’s going to suit up instead for the Colorado College Tigers this fall. The 2024 San Jose Sharks fifth-round draft pick has two more years of junior eligibility remaining.

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The WHL doesn’t publish ice time stats, but Roberts was likely third on Vancouver last season. He seemed destined to play even more this coming campaign, the most logical successor to take over Leslie’s spot on the first pairing alongside Ryan Lin, 17, last year’s rookie standout.

Leslie, 20, announced midway through last season that he wasn’t  going to come back to Vancouver this year, and would play for the Bowling Green State University Falcons if he didn’t land a pro contract.

The Giants traded Leslie’s WHL rights in May to the Kelowna Rockets. The Rockets are hoping he gets an NHL deal and then is reassigned to the Rockets. Kelowna is guaranteed to play deep into next spring because they’re hosting the Memorial Cup national championship tournament.

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Vancouver has plenty of company with its WHL rivals  in regards to losing players who would have been key contributors to the American collegiate ranks. The Victoria Royals are among the most notable teams right now, having forward Cole Reschny, 18, and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, 17, cut ties with them to join the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

Reschny is expected to be a first-round pick in next week’s NHL Draft. Verhoeff is touted as a possible top-10 selection in next year’s NHL Draft.

Medicine Hat Tigers winger Gavin McKenna, 17, is already being pegged as the No. 1 choice for next year’s draft. He’s said to be looking at schools for the fall. Former Vancouver Canuck Byron Ritchie is McKenna’s family adviser and his son Ryder Ritchie, 18, recently told the Tigers that he’d be playing with the Boston University Terriers this coming season. He’s a winger who was a 2024 Minnesota Wild second rounder.

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The NCAA announced last fall that for the first time they’d be opening up scholarship opportunities for this coming season to players from Major Junior leagues like the WHL. There was a school of thought in some junior circles that it would be mainly 20-year-olds who take advantage of that, but the NCAA has chased after the best and brightest.

Roberts, for one, has two years of junior eligibility remaining. Verhoeff has the potential for four more years, although you’d expect him to play pro early as well.

The Giants are trying to navigate all this without a coach or a general manager. The team announced in late April that it had agreed to part ways with GM Barclay Parneta, whose contract was up. In May, team announced that coach Manny Viveiros wouldn’t be back for the third and final year of his deal because he had signed on as bench boss of Red Bull Salzburg, an Austrian pro team.

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A committee featuring vice-president of operations and assistant general manager Pete Toigo, director of player personnel Greg Batters and head scout Terry Bonner led the way for the Giants with the WHL Draft and the expansion draft involving the new Penticton Vees franchise. There’s no word on who handled the Giants’ side of the Leslie deal.

The 6-foot-1, 202-pound Leslie was the second leading scorer among WHL defencemen last season with 72 points, including 21 goals. He could still get picked in next week’s draft — NHL Central Scouting has him as the No. 133 North American skater — but at his age a free-agent deal is the better bet. He’s been passed over in the past two drafts but has got free-agent invites to camps afterwards from the Toronto Maple Leafs and then Vegas Golden Knights.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Roberts had six goals and 36 points for Vancouver this season.

Giants forward Ty Halaburda, 20, has committed to Colorado College for the 2026-27 campaign.

SEwen@postmedia.com

@SteveEwen

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