A hockey rink in high summer is not always a busy place.
But as soon as Tanner Sidaway heard the trade news Tuesday morning, he rushed down to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to meet any Victoria Royals staff lingering around the facility, and to just look around the seating bowl.
Sidaway has become a rarity in major-junior hockey as a guy who gets to play for his hometown team. That became a reality when the Royals acquired the Juan de Fuca product from the Regina Pats for an eighth-round pick in the 2019 Western Hockey League bantam draft.
“I’m beyond excited for the opportunity to play at home,” said the 19-year-old former Westshore Wolves forward in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.
“My family couldn’t believe it and are really happy for me.”
Sidaway, the middle sibling in a family of five brothers, remembers attending Royals games as a kid and idolizing forward Brandon Magee.
“When I played for the South Island Royals [in B.C. Major Midget], I always hoped I would also put on a Royals jersey in the WHL,” he said.
But that’s not the way it works. Sidaway was put on the protected list of the Red Deer Rebels. His subsequent WHL career has taken him to Kootenay with the Ice and Regina with the Pats. He has three goals and 13 points with 137 penalty minutes in 130 career WHL games.
“I’m a two-way, physical, power forward,” said the six-foot, 182-pound Islander.
“I can chip and chase the puck in, and bang bodies in the corner. I bring speed and lots of hits and intensity.”
Sidaway, however, was left in the press box by the Pats and didn’t play a game over the spring in the 2018 Memorial Cup hosted by Regina.
“It’s tough, but you can’t let that stuff get to you, and you have to be supportive of your teammates on the ice,” he said.
It’s also what makes this homecoming so joyous on many levels: Sidaway is coming to a team that traded for him and wants him.
“[Victoria GM Cam Hope] phoned me right after and welcomed me to the organization,” said Sidaway, an all-rounder, who played basketball, volleyball, rugby and ran track at Royal Bay Secondary for the Ravens.
“I am going to keep pursuing hockey for as long as I can.”
Now, on a route that has taken him full circle back to the Island.
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
