Pats’ last 15-year-old soured on the game
Rick Herbert is more than just a footnote in the storied history of the WHL’S oldest franchise.
Although his junior career didn’t live up to the initial hype, Herbert still holds a place in the Regina Pats’ proverbial record book as their last player to appear full-time at age 15.
After carrying that distinction for 37 years, Herbert will pass the torch this fall to Connor Bedard, assuming COVID-19 doesn’t delay the arrival of hockey’s newest sensation.
Bedard’s much-anticipated intro to the WHL is a conclusion of sorts for Herbert, who debuted in 1982.
It was a different time and a different situation, but his experience as a 15-year-old could still serve as a cautionary tale.
“It turned me off for life,” reveals Herbert, 52, who lives in Kelowna. “I haven’t put on my skates to play in a hockey game in 30 years. I don’t pay attention to it."
Although he loves watching sports, Herbert rarely has much interest in Canada’s pastime, unless it’s something like the Olympics or Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
It all goes back to a beleaguered start in the WHL, which totally soured him on the sport.
“It sure did,” he continues. “The love of the game, that flame just went out. (Even) when I was at a more appropriate age to play in the Western Hockey League, I couldn’t get it ignited again. I was still good enough to get drafted, but I ended up being a fifth-round draft pick when I should have been a top-five draft pick.”
Herbert arrived in Regina with considerable fanfare after the team gave up seven players to pick him third overall in the 1982 priority selection draft.
The Pats acquired that pick from the Kamloops Oilers for three players and sent four more to the Kelowna Wings, who agreed to pass on Herbert with the first-overall selection.
The blue-chip defenceman played 63 games as a 15-year-old in 1982-83, finishing with no goals and seven assists. His numbers improved the next season (three goals, 21 points, 58 games), but his overall experience did not.
“I didn’t get to play a whole lot and part of that was because the team was quite good,” says Herbert, who went to the league final at age 16, losing in seven games. “When there are lots of really good players that deserved to get to play a lot, the younger guys might not get to play as much.”
Although Herbert moved on long ago, he does wish he had debuted two years later at age 17. That might have helped him develop at a lower level and made it a shorter step into the WHL.
“I think it’s fine to play at your own level and dominate,” he says. “It’s harder to do that when you’re five years younger than everybody else.
"It’ll be really interesting to see what (Bedard) can do — if it will make him better or if he’ll regress — because it didn’t help me.”
Herbert’s negative recollections don’t come with a negative tone, nor does he express any ill will toward the Pats. He simply believes it was the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Exactly,” says Herbert. “You’re living away from home in a strange city at 15, not getting to play a lot. You’re going on a five- or six-hour bus ride to play two or three shifts in a game. It’s disheartening.
“I probably should have just stayed home (after Christmas) and finished the season at junior A closer to home.”
When things didn’t improve the next season, Herbert wondered if a change of scenery might be best. He asked for a trade and was dealt to the Portland Winterhawks, a move that improved his situation “to some degree” but not enough to rekindle his love for the game.
Herbert went on to play for two more WHL teams — the Spokane Chiefs and Brandon Wheat Kings — before wrapping up a solid sixyear career in the B.C. junior A ranks.
Aside from a brief stint at the University of British Columbia, he never suited up again.
“I don’t miss playing or anything like that,” says Herbert, who works for an information technology company. “I live in a lovely neighbourhood, have a happy marriage, good kids, good job — everything is good. But it would have been nice to have hockey be a bit more of a springboard than it was.”
Although his experience with the Pats wasn’t stellar, Herbert only has good things to say about the city and the fans, calling Regina a “really good place to play.”
It just wasn’t the right place for him at that time.
Based upon those memories, Herbert admits that if his own son was looking to play in the WHL at age 15, the first instinct would be to say “not a chance.”
That said, he realizes the sport has evolved.
“I go to a Kelowna Rockets game once in a while and I can’t believe how much the game has changed from when I played," says Herbert, who remembers stepping on the ice some nights when it felt like ”taking your life in your hands.
"There were players at that time whose sole purpose was to cause you pain. I don’t know if that’s the case anymore. I almost feel sorry for defencemen nowadays. Some of the penalties that get called now, I laugh out loud when I’m watching. That would have been nothing in my day but now it’s changed into such a skill and finesse kind of game. That might be a saving grace for a young guy today compared to when I played.”
League rules now prevent teams from turning most 15-year-olds into full-time players. Bedard is the first WHLER to receive exceptional status from Hockey Canada, which conducted a lengthy evaluation last season to determine his readiness from a mental and physical standpoint.
Herbert believes that’s a good thing.
“I would have to participate in the process to really understand what they were asking and what they were getting him to do, but I think that’s probably a proactive step in the right direction," he says. "(The whole thing has) piqued my interest in this young guy enough that I’m going to follow what happens.
"I’ll be watching from Kelowna.”