Pats ready for annual import draft crapshoot
John Paddock would love to hit the jackpot in Thursday ’s CHL import draft, but he’s not betting on it.
The Regina Pats head coach and general manager is the first to admit selecting players from across the pond is a crapshoot. All you can do is roll the dice and hope it doesn’t come up snake eyes.
“Crapshoot is the best word to describe it,” said Paddock, who’s heading into his fourth European draft. “It’s very similar (each year). You just didn’t know in that first one what it was really about. Until you experience it, you don’t know how frustrating it can be.”
The process is challenging for several reasons.
First, CHL teams often have to lean on second-hand information and third-party scouting reports. Second, they have to sort through which players are willing — and contractually able — to play in North America. It’s also a guessing game to determine which ones might be trying to manipulate the system and end up with a certain team.
In those cases, most of the power lies with the agents.
“We don’t really have any say in the process,” Paddock said. “It’s all just asking questions and taking notes and going back and talking to somebody again and trying to find more info on players. You talk to NHL people: ‘Do you know anything about this guy?’ When you’re drafting in the bantam draft the scouts know (the players). With this, you don’t know what’s going to happen at all. You can’t count on (getting a quality player) because you just don’t know.”
Regina will select two players in Thursday’s draft after losing both of its Europeans — Libor Hajek and Emil Oksanen — to the pro ranks.
Replacing them won’t be easy since the Pats are picking late in the two-round draft (47th and 107th).
Those slots are expected to improve slightly as teams forfeit because their two-man European quotas are already filled.
The Pats could also benefit from the CHL’s decision to end its fouryear ban on import goaltenders, adding more depth to the talent pool.
“I don’t know how many, but there’s going to be goalies taken, so that moves us up,” said Paddock, who would ideally like to select a forward and a defenceman.
“It will have to be a perfect scenario (to get both) because we just don’t know what’s going to be there. (All else being equal) we would probably go with the better player.”
Since they’re headed for a rebuild, the Pats are looking to draft younger players who can hopefully grow with the club. That approach worked well in 2014 when they selected defenceman Sergey Zborovskiy (39th overall).
The Pats had hoped to duplicate that success last year with Egor Zamula (60th overall) but they had to release the 17-year-old defenceman to make room for Hajek, who was acquired from the Saskatoon Blades.
“Egor was a good pick at that age,” said Paddock, whose team played host to the 2018 Memorial Cup.
“When he’s 19 years old he’ll be a real good player in our league. It just didn’t work for us last year. We needed a better player (right away) so we ultimately paid a price. But it’ll be somebody like that (who they draft this year) — somebody that is going to be OK this year and it’s up to us to make him better.”
NOTE: As previously reported by the Regina Leader-Post, the Pats are expected to introduce assistant coach/assistant GM Dave Struch as their new head coach on Thursday. Paddock will focus on the GM duties.