Regina Pats dominate annual WHL awards
Steel named player of the year, Paddock wins top coach and top exec honours
There’s a sign hanging in the Regina Pats’ dressing room that reads: “The main ingredient to stardom is the rest of the team.”
Those words rang true on Wednesday when the Pats were front and centre during the WHL’s awards luncheon in Calgary.
The headliners were centre Sam Steel and head coach/GM John Paddock.
Steel received the WHL’s player-of-the-year award over Mathew Barzal of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Paddock was a double winner as the league’s coach of the year and executive of the year, beating out Portland Winterhawks head coach Mike Johnston and Kelowna Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton.
Paddock guided the Pats to the best record in franchise history and their first regular-season title since 1974.
To cap it off, Regina also landed the WHL’s business and marketing award in recognition of the team’s off-ice success.
“It was a special day for the organization,” said Paddock. “The Regina Pats’ name was mentioned a lot of times and that’s probably the most important compliment. It was a big day for everybody.” Including the chief architect. “It’s a team award,” continued Paddock, whose was previously named the WHL’s top coach in 2014-15. “I have great people working with me. Without those people, the Pats wouldn’t be as successful and I wouldn’t be recognized like this.”
Paddock also expressed gratitude to his players for helping take the club to a new level. Leading the charge was Steel, whose efforts netted him the WHL’s most prestigious player award — the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy.
“He’s a focused and dedicated guy,” said Paddock. “He’s on the ice doing everything he can to get better (after practice) … when other guys are already off the ice and dressed. He’s completely focused on being the top player so that gives him a good chance to be a top player.”
Steel also received the Bob Clark Trophy for winning the league’s scoring title with 131 points in 66 games. He finished second in goals with 50.
“It’s definitely an honour to be recognized but without the team success and everybody who has helped me it wouldn’t be possible,” said the 18-year-old centre, who nearly doubled his point total from the previous season (70). “I definitely didn’t think about (these awards) coming into the year but I had a lot of faith in the team. I have faith in myself too. I’m not going to say I expected it, but to see it come to fruition is great.”
Steel also thanked Paddock, who was hired prior to his rookie season of 2014-15. Under Paddock’s watch, Steel has realized his potential after being chosen second overall in the 2013 bantam draft.
“To see what (Paddock) has done with the organization is obviously outstanding,” said Steel. “He has definitely developed me as a player and put me in situations to succeed. I can’t thank him enough for what he has done for my career and for every other player on that team.”
Although Steel did his best to enjoy the festivities on Wednesday, he was admittedly distracted by Regina’s pending date with Seattle in the league final.
The series opens Friday at the Brandt Centre.
“You definitely have to enjoy things like this because you never know if it’s going to happen again,” Steel added. “At the same time, I’m in a little bit of a different situation than a lot of the guys at the awards here today. I’m definitely grateful that we’re still going and not satisfied yet, but really proud of what we’ve done. I definitely enjoyed (the recognition) but the main focus is on getting back to Regina and trying to finish this thing off.”
EXTRAS: Seattle’s Ethan Bear, a product of Ochapowace, beat out Regina’s Connor Hobbs for the top-defenceman award … Aleksi Heponiemi of the Swift Current Broncos received the rookie-ofthe-year award while teammate Tyler Steenbergen was named the most sportsmanlike player … Tyler Wong of the Lethbridge Hurricanes was named the humanitarian of the year for the third season in a row. He beat out Prince George Cougars D Sam Ruopp, a product of Zehner.