Excitement building ahead of debut season for Rimbey Royals

RIMBEY -- Junior-B hockey is returning to Rimbey for the first time in 15 years.

This comes following a recent announcement that the new "Rimbey Royals" will be suiting up as part of the Heritage Junior Hockey League starting in the 2026-2027 season. This will bring Junior-B hockey back to the township for the first time since the 2010-2011 HJHL season, when the former Rimbey Rock were ousted by the league. Speaking to 89.7 The One, Royals Vice President Garrett Dick talked about the process for bringing a team back to the Town of Rimbey.

"We had seen that there was an opportunity to try to grow the league, and we had reached out to people in the surrounding Rimbey area beforehand," said Dick. "Thankfully, we had full support from the Town of Rimbey, so we decided to pull the pin and make it happen."

In a statement, the team says that the Royals were created to give local and regional athletes a junior opportunity closer to home, and to give fans exciting, affordable hockey they can bring the whole family to. Home games will be played at Vern Poffenroth Memorial Arena, with a standard NHL-size ice surface and seating for up to 1,000 fans. Dick says he's confident the team can ice a competitive team in their inaugural season.

"We do have a scouting staff that is working with us," said Dick. "You have to go above and beyond. You can't just rely on players coming to you; you have to put in the work to recruit these players and provide the 'wow' factor for them to come to these smaller centres."

He says Bill Moody, Head Coach and General Manager of the Royals, has been putting in extensive work over the past several months in terms of scouting for possible talent ahead of the upcoming season. Meantime, the next few months are expected to be busy for the new franchise. The team will be hosting its spring ID camps in Edmonton on May 9 and 10, while the team's main camp will begin on Aug. 27 in Rimbey.

"The Town of Rimbey has been fantastic, and the league is excited to have us in," said Moody. "We've had a few of the other teams reach out and congratulate us, and they're looking forward to the competition. We're just looking forward to having our camps be full and then go from there."

Royals players will train at Power Zone Athletics, a 5,000 square foot, 24-hour training facility in Rimbey.