New defender Wytinck embraces opportunity with struggling Pats

Zach Wytinck said all the right things on his first day with the Regina Pats.

Instead of lamenting the fact that he had been traded to a lastplace team (1-7-0), the 20-yearold puck-moving defenceman expressed excitement about a fresh opportunity to continue his WHL career for one final season.

“At the end of the day it’s an honour and a privilege to play in this league,” said Wytinck, who was acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in the 2022 bantam draft.

“There’s a lot of people aspiring to play in this league. To be on a team here and to be in a great organization, you have to really reflect and be thankful for your opportunities. At the end of the day there’s going to be ups and downs to everybody’s season but if you’re not enjoying your team you’re kind of wasting it, in my opinion.

“I think we’re going to have some fun here and just enjoy the experience.”

Wytinck was Brandon’s top-scoring defenceman last season with 43 points in 65 games. In addition to his offensive game, he should add some leadership and stability to Regina’s youthful defence.

“First and foremost I just want to be a good guy in the locker room — someone that other guys can look up to and be a good veteran presence,” Wytinck said. “As far as on the ice, I want to do what I’ve done my whole career. I’m going to be a mobile guy and a guy that hopefully can create some offence from the back end and help with anything I can, really.”

Meanwhile, veteran blue-liner Nikita Sedov is ahead of schedule after missing Regina’s past five games due to injury. There’s a chance he could return at some point this weekend when the Pats play host to the Vancouver Giants (Saturday) and Lethbridge Hurricanes (Sunday).

“Getting him back shortly is going to be very important,” said head coach Dave Struch, whose team has lost seven straight games. “We always talk about the fatigue, the amount of time we’re killing penalties right now. It’s wearing on our guys. Hopefully (adding Sedov and Wytinck) will put us in position to have the puck more, take less penalties and it’ll take back some minutes from those other guys.”

To make room for Wytinck, the Pats placed 20-year-old forward Dawson Holt on waivers prior to Thursday’s overage deadline. He had just three assists in eight games.

“We were looking for an impact in our game offensively,” Struch explained. “We feel bad that it didn’t work out but, in the end, it becomes a situation where Zach became available and we were needing something on the back end.”

Regina acquired Holt from Vancouver in the off-season for import forward Sergei Alkhimov. The move was made for two reasons: To fill a vacant 20-year-old spot and to create room for a high-end European from the 2019 import draft.

It didn’t work out that way. Regina used the seventh-overall pick on Russian sniper Daniil Gushchin, who has decided — for now, at least — to remain with the USHL’S Muskegon Lumberjacks.

“Those are the unfortunates of what we’ve done throughout the process,” Struch said. “Hopefully in the end, the import that we did take, we can recruit him. Then it makes things a little bit easier for us because that becomes the goal we were after. We’ll know that in time. We hope within that time we’re a patient group and it works out for us.”