‘We were sold a bad bill of goods’ – Rockets’ GM Bruce Hamilton

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Among those good parts is forward Zach Benson, who was third in WHL scoring last season with 98 points, and was promptly selected in the opening round, 14^th overall, by the Winnipeg Jets.

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“It will be interesting the plan they follow”, Hamilton added. They traded away a ton of draft picks, as did Seattle, as did Kamloops, so those teams will probably have another good year and then probably hit the wall.”

The Winnipeg franchise, before moving to Wenatchee, loaded up at the 2023 trade deadline, acquiring Vancouver Giants captain Zack Ostapchuk for three first-round draft picks.

“I think Wenatchee [population of just over 35,000] is going to be an interesting city”, Hamilton said. “Their team is going to be competitive for sure, and from our perspective, it is a four-hour trip, which is a trip you can make the same day which is really nice.”

For years, the Rockets’ only day trips were to nearby Kamloops (two-hour drive) and to Langley (three-and-a-half-hour drive).

Rumors surfaced early last season that the WHL was putting pressure on the owners of the Winnipeg franchise to sell, mainly due to failed promises to build a new arena. In mid-June, it was indeed sold to David White, of the California-based Shoot the Puck Foundation.

“We probably got sold a bill of goods”, Hamilton who is also the chairman of the board of the WHL. “The deal when we moved the team from Cranbrook was there going to be a brand-new building [in Winnipeg]. That didn’t happen.”

After four years in Winnipeg, playing out of the less-than-stellar Wayne Fleming Arena on the University of Manitoba campus, the team moved to Washington State.

“The guys in Wenatchee [David and Lisa White] certainly have the wherewithal, as are most of the team’s now owned in this league, they are mostly corporate team’s”, Hamilton concluded.

“They are hockey fanatics, yet it will be run like a business, and that is why they are successful people because they have done a good job running other businesses.”