REGINA PAID A HEFTY PRICE, BUT IT WAS WORTH IT
As rebuild takes shape, current version of Pats borders on unrecognizable
When the Regina Pats’ losing streak swelled to five games, the immediate compulsion here was to craft the 3,476th column on the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterbacking situation.
Included in that opinion piece were more petty comments about the Roughriders’ general futility on offence — that side of the football being a more inviting target than, say, most of the CFL team’s receivers.
Uh, turning to hockey …
The Pats are coming off an 0-for3 weekend that has left them with an 8-20-0-0 record.
The “winning ” percentage (.286) could very well decrease now that the Pats have shipped their two best skaters — forwards Jake Leschyshyn and Nick Henry — to the Lethbridge Hurricanes as part of a full-scale rebuilding process.
The blockbuster trades are hardly novel. John Paddock has been very aggressive and proactive in all five of his seasons as the Pats’ general manager.
Over that time, he has added bigtime veterans (see: Cole Sanford, Josh Mahura, Cameron Hebig, Libor Hajek, Matt Bradley and Cale Fleury) and, with the objective of fortifying the team for the future, relinquished Leschyshyn, Henry, Morgan Klimchuk, Dryden Hunt, Kyle Burroughs and Connor Gay.
The wheeling and dealing was much more productive than (cue quarterbacking reference) the Roughriders’ trade for Zach Collaros.
A year ago, and the year before that, the Pats’ intractable focus was on winning WHL and Memorial Cup championships.
Every game seemed like an event during a 2016-17 season in which the Pats went 52-12-0-8 — posting the league’s best record — and advanced to the WHL’S championship series before bowing in six games to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The 2017-18 campaign was not a joyride from the outset, considering that the Pats hovered around .500 during the first half of the season, but Paddock again made the necessary moves and ultimately iced an entertaining, formidable team.
The blockbuster trades are hardly novel. John Paddock has been very aggressive and proactive in all … of his seasons as the Pats’ general manager.
Although the Pats were eliminated in Round 1 of the playoffs by the eventual Whl-champion Swift Current Broncos, Paddock ended up coaching his team in the Memorial Cup final — won 3-0 by the Acadie-bathurst Titan at the Brandt Centre.
Only seven of the 20 players who dressed for the Pats in that May 27 game remain with the team.
Such is the reality of chasing a championship in major-junior hockey.
A one-year run at a ring can be costly enough. But two seasons in succession?
Paddock twice put the team in position to thrive in May. The result was some of the most exciting hockey anyone in the greater Regina area will ever see.
The 2016-17 season, in particular, was a joy.
The skill level was so abundant that a penalty assessed to the Pats was something to applaud — because, really, what was more entertaining than Austin Wagner and Adam Brooks killing penalties?
Upon assuming control of the Pats’ hockey operations in 2014, Paddock resolved to build a team that would peak during star centre Sam Steel’s 19-year-old season.
As it turned out, Steel scored a Chl-best 131 points when he was classified as an 18-year-old. The Pats made a run at a 2017 Memorial Cup berth only a few months after being designated as the host team for the 2018 tournament.
Regina’s bid was so overwhelming that the CHL had little choice but to award hosting privileges to the Queen City.
Such was the norm during the 2016-17 season, when Regina was dominant on the ice and in the boardroom.
Fast forward to December of 2018. Only the Broncos, who carried a 4-21-1-1 slate into Tuesday’s home date with the powerful Prince Albert Raiders, stand in the way of Regina being last in the 12-team Eastern Conference.
Swift Current was all-in last season, with historic results, and is now paying an inevitable price.
Acute pain will likely be felt for several seasons, in Regina and Swift Current, as an unavoidable consequence of icing a team that reached the league final.
The current versions of the Pats and Broncos border on the unrecognizable, considering the wonderful hockey they provided while contending for or winning a title.
Just 16 games into this season, the Pats had already suffered as many regulation-time losses (12) as the 2016-17 edition.
There is also the matter of the aforementioned five-game losing streak.
But if you think that is a slump, try going 23 quarters — and counting — without throwing a touchdown pass.