2026 WHL Graduates: Victoria Royals
The Western Hockey League is celebrating the WHL Graduates from the 2025-26 season in a 23-part, team-by-team series.
Today, we’re tipping the crown to the outgoing Victoria Royals veterans.
Reggie Newman (F)
Hometown: Kamloops, B.C.
WHL Career Stats: 289 GP – 56 G-96 A – 152 points
WHL Draft: 2020 – Fourth Round, 72nd Overall (Victoria Royals)
The career Royal goes out as a captain and one of the highest-tenured players in franchise history.
Newman took his first strides as a Royal on October 2, 2021, and netted his first point, an assist in a 6-3 win over the Kelowna Rockets, in his second match.
The youngster came away from his rookie season with 15 points (4G-11A) in 57 games, and as his game grew, so did the team’s expectations.
2022-23 saw the Royals miss the postseason for the second year in a row, but Newman’s production cranked up with 24 points (8G-16A) in 51 outings and the hardworking winger’s efforts were about to start paying off.
The 6-foot-2, 207-pound winger broke out with 19 goals (including three game-winners) and 21 assists for 40 points in 64 games, tying for fourth on the team in goals and leading the Royals with 98 penalty minutes.
Newman and company clawed their way into the 2024 WHL Playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference, bowing out to the Portland Winterhawks in four games.
2024-25 saw him named an alternate captain as the Royals stormed the league with a 40-19-4-7 record to clinch the B.C. Division title for the second time in team history, with Newman chipping in 33 points (13G-20A) and 89 PIMs along the way.
The Royals made it to Game 6 of the second round, where two games required double overtime. Newman netted his first playoff goal against the eventual Western Conference Spokane Chiefs and wrapped up the postseason with seven points (2G-5A) in 11 games and even snagged an invitation to train with the Winnipeg Jets over the summer.
While the team faced a season of change in 2025-26, Newman was named the 10th captain in team history and skated to his most productive season in the league.
Four of Newman’s 12 goals stood as game-winners, while the overager also added 28 assists for 40 points in 57 games, including nine multipoint efforts.
In addition to earning the captaincy, Newman was named the team’s hardest-working player for three consecutive seasons.
He graduates from the major junior ranks with 56 goals and 96 assists for 152 points in 289 games.
Newman ranks fourth in all-time regular-season games played by a Royals skater.
Cosmo Wilson (D)
Hometown: Vernon, B.C.
WHL Career Stats: 218 GP – 11 G-45 A – 56 points
WHL Draft: 2020 – Seventh Round, 136th Overall (Moose Jaw Warriors)
Of the 22 players selected in the seventh round of the 2020 WHL Prospects Draft, three went on to win a WHL Championship.
Cosmo Wilson is one of them.
The Vernon, B.C. product eagerly made tracks for Moose Jaw, Sask. and made his Warriors debut on April 9, 2022.
He wouldn’t make the team on a full-time basis until 2022-23.
It was a slow start with the teen only posting one assist in his first 18 games, but a mid-season hot streak saw him erupt for five helpers in six outings.
Wilson closed out his rookie campaign with 11 points (2G-9A) in 56 games.
2023-24 saw him match his 11 points (1G-10A), but he went from a -22 in his rookie year to +6 as the Warriors worked to a respectable third-seed ranking in the Eastern Conference.
Wilson missed the first three games of the playoffs, but didn’t look back after he slotted in to Moose Jaw’s first-round series against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The 6-foot, 172-pound blueliner muscled out a +5 rating in 12 games as the Warriors survived a wild Eastern Conference Championship against the Saskatoon Blades that saw six of seven games go to overtime and went on to sweep Portland to win the WHL Championship for the first time in franchise history.
Wilson would also net an assist in four games at the 2024 Memorial Cup.
With vital championship experience under his belt, the Royals traded for the sturdy defender ahead of 2024-25.
He put forward a career-best year with 28 points (7G-21A), ranking third in scoring among Royals defenders, and registered his first playoff points with four assists in the 2025 WHL postseason.
Wilson’s final WHL season was truncated by injury, but he made the most of it and was even named the third star of the night in his season debut on December 5, 2025 — a 3-2 shootout loss to the powerhouse Prince George Cougars.
The Vernon, B.C. product totalled 56 points (11G-45A) and a championship ring in 218 games played with the Royals and Warriors.
He’s slated to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2026-27.
Roan Woodward (F)
Hometown: Nipawin, Sask.
WHL Career Stats: 308 GP – 77 G-93 A – 170 points
WHL Draft: 2020 – Fourth Round, 87th Overall (Everett Silvertips)
Roan Woodward’s WHL career saw him tour some of the most successful clubs in recent history.
The Nipawin, Sask. product broke into the league as a fourth-round pick of the Everett Silvertips and debuted against the Portland Winterhawks on October 8, 2021.
He’d add a goal and four assists in 42 outings in his rookie season, but found more opportunity – and points- in 2022-23 with six goals and 10 assists in 65 games.
Just six games into his third WHL season, the Edmonton Oil Kings came calling.
Woodward’s first season in Alberta’s provincial capital saw him add plenty of offence to his 200-foot game with 16 goals (including four game-winners) and 22 assists for 38 points in 59 games.
He appeared in all 68 games for Edmonton the following year and surpassed 20 goals for the first time.
With 53 points (22G-31A), Woodward finished fourth on the Oil Kings in points, goals and assists and even added a pair of shorthanded goals.
Woodward snagged two helpers in seven playoff games, though a major series comeback from the Prince Albert Raiders spoiled the Oil Kings’ return to the postseason.
The Royals brought in Woodward for a final spin in the league and were rewarded with a breakout season from the 5-foot-10, 175-pound winger.
He paced the team with 32 goals and 24 assists for 56 points in 68 games, leading the team in goals and points, while tying for sixth in powerplay goals among all WHLers with 14.
His standout season was highlighted by three hat tricks, including a four-goal, one-assist outburst in a 9-4 rout of the Vancouver Giants on September 27, 2025.
Woodward’s five WHL seasons saw him log 77 goals and 93 assists for 170 points.
He also ranks eighth among graduating WHLers in regular-season games played with 308.
