Retooling Pats face unanswered questions
It’s going to be a short off-season for the Regina Pats, but it’ll be even shorter for John Paddock.
Even when he’s enjoying down time at the lake, Paddock’s gears are always turning in preparation for the 2018-19 WHL season. There’s a significant challenge ahead as he picks up the remaining pieces of an elite team that will graduate several high-profile players.
At this time last year, Paddock was busy adding talent for the 2018 Memorial Cup in Regina. There’s still a price to be paid for those moves — some of which mortgaged the team’s future — but Paddock’s immediate concern is the start of the upcoming season.
Although he’s not expected to be active on the trade market this summer, there’s plenty of work ahead as the Pats enter a transition year — mixing younger players into the current group of veterans.
“We are in the starting phase of a retooling,” said Paddock, whose team is slated to open training camp Aug. 22. “There’s going to be changes. There’s people gone but we have (quality) returning players.”
When the dust settles, the Pats are slated to begin next season with 10 players who dressed for the 2018 Memorial Cup final, losing 3-0 to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. In total, Regina could bring back roughly 16 players who were on the season-ending roster.
Despite that luxury, Paddock is the first to admit there are plenty of “wild cards” in the mix.
“Is Koby Morrisseau going to take the step that it looks like he has the ability to take?” asked Paddock. “Is Austin Pratt going to be the guy who played (well) in the Memorial Cup and scored 16 goals as a 17-year-old (with Red Deer in 20016-17)? If those two things are answered positively, wow, we just took one huge giant step.”
The questions don’t end there. Paddock wonders if defensive prospect Ryker Evans, who lacks size but not talent, will be ready to contribute next season. He’s also curious to see if his two selections in this summer’s import draft — Russian forward Sergei Alkhimov and defenceman Nikita Sedov — can make a smooth transition to the WHL level.
“Those are the kind of wildcard questions we have,” continued Paddock. “They’re not all going to turn out positively but they’re not all going to be negative. There’s a lot to just (wait and) see. Is (dynamic rookie forward) Cole Dubinsky going to be the same Dubinsky we saw (during a brief call-up) at Christmastime? If the answers are all ‘no’ we’re going to be in big trouble, but I think the answer probably lies somewhere in between.”
Either way, Paddock expects most of his young players to blossom as the season goes along. That was the case during his first year with the Pats, who had a nice mix of talented youngsters in 2014-15 who eventually matured into impact players.
“Sammy (Steel) was an exceptional guy but (James) Hilsendager and (Connor) Hobbs and (Sergei) Zborovskiy and (Austin) Wagner, they all got better,” recalled Paddock. “They were 17 at the time. Our 17-year-old players this year — guys like (Carter) Massier and (Logan) Nijhoff — they’re going to be better at Christmastime than they are in September and they’re going to be better next year than they are this year.”
The Pats are also preparing for a change behind the bench as former assistant Dave Struch takes over for Paddock behind the bench.
Much has been made about the fact that Struch walked into a similar situation five years ago with the Saskatoon Blades, whose roster was decimated after they hosted the 2013 Memorial Cup.
That team finished with just 16 wins and Struch’s contract wasn’t renewed.
“I think we’re in a better position,” said Paddock. “It doesn’t mean it’s a championship team. Nobody thinks that but it’s a better situation. There’s more stability throughout. We think we have a goalie (Max Paddock) that covers up for a lot of sins. We have some (young) players that if they turn out are going to be really good. You have (veterans like) Nick Henry and Jake Leschyshyn and Cale Fleury and Liam Schioler and Aaron Hyman and (Robbie) Holmes.
“There’s a lot of good players there.”