The next season, as Kelowna's captain, Gorges won the Memorial Cup and the George Parsons Memorial Trophy as the tournament's most sportsmanlike player. He also contributed to Canada's silver medal at the World Junior Championship. After that success, many experts predicted that Gorges would be selected first overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. However, on June 25, 2004, the Canucks chose not to select Gorges with their first-overall pick. Gorges played four seasons with Kelowna, winning a WHL championship in 2008. During his time with the Rockets, he was awarded the Jim Piggott Trophy as the league's top defenseman three times. In total, he appeared in 175 games over four seasons, scoring 18 goals and adding 80 assists. He was drafted second overall by the Islanders in 2003, but never played for them due to injury. On March 5, 2005, the Islanders traded Gorges' rights to Kelowna in exchange for Pavel Valentenko. After one season with Kelowna, Gorges joined the Islanders full-time in 2006-07. That year, he helped them reach the 2007 Eastern Conference Final before being eliminated by the Boston Bruins. Gorges scored his first career NHL goal against Martin Biron of the New York Rangers on October 24, 2007. He finished the season with 15 points in 23 games.