Kevin Sundher expected to be playing a Western Hockey League (WHL) game in Brandon, Manitoba Saturday night.
What the 19-year-old Surrey native didn’t expect was to be in the black-and-gold uniform of the home team.
The four-year WHL veteran began this season with the Victoria Royals, a franchise with which he has spent his entire Major Junior hockey career, and had climbed to seventh in the league scoring race with 22 goals and 64 points in 40 games played.
But as the Royals were boarding a bus for a long, six-game road trip in the prairies, Sundher was pulled aside and told he had been traded to the Brandon Wheat Kings, who will host Victoria Saturday night.
After saying goodbye to his teammates, the six-foot, 180-pound forward packed his bags to join his new team in Manitoba. He was scheduled to make his debut in Brandon last night against the Saskatoon Blades.
Both the Royals and Wheat Kings occupy the final playoff position in their respective conferences, but it is Brandon which has a superior record. The Wheat Kings have 46 points in 41 games, and have a six-point lead on the Red Deer Rebels in the Eastern Conference.
The Royals, who got younger with the trade, have just 31 points in 42 games in the Western Conference, just three points better than the Prince George Cougars.
The Wheaties paid a heavy price to acquire Sundher, sending 18 year-old defenceman Jordan Fransoo, 17 year-old forward Dakota Contry and a first round selection in the 2-12 WHL Bantam Draft to Victoria.
“It’s never easy to trade a player or a person of Kevin’s calibre,” said Royals head coach Marc Habscheid. “His contributions to this organization on the ice are cemented in our record book, and what he brought to the rink everyday will be missed by his teammates and the entire organization.”
Sundher began his WHL career with the Chilliwack Bruins, who relocated to the provincial capital this past summer. He played six games as a 15 year-old in the 2007-08 season, then joined the team full time a year later, scoring 19 goals and 39 points in 67 games played.
A consistent 20-goal scorer, he has totaled 90 goals and 241 points in 255 career games, while amassing 315 minutes in penalties.
Drafted in the third round, 75th overall, by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2010 National Hockey League Entry Draft, Sundher was signed to a three-year entry-level contract last month. He is expected to join a professional team in the Sabres system this spring, following the conclusion of his season in Brandon.