REGINA PATS DID RIGHT THING BY RETAINING HERAUF
Coach deserves opportunity to `see this through'
True confessions.
The Leader-post sports department was told last week there was a major announcement coming within the Regina Pats' hockey operations. So we overreacted, which is typical for a sports columnist, and began writing this in anticipation of a worst-case scenario:
“Unbelievable! Regina Pats general manager Alan Millar has fired Brad Herauf, after the GM ransacked the WHL team's roster and left his first-year head coach with absolutely nothing to work with last season.”
Fortunately, it didn't happen. Herauf kept his job and, along with assistant coach Ken Schneider, has signed a multi-year contract extension. Herauf should have been retained, despite the Pats finishing last in the 11-team Eastern Conference with a 22-40-6 record.
The Pats did announce they parted ways with assistant coach Evan Mcfeeters and goalie coach Daniel Wapple. It's always sombre when people lose their jobs, but every coach knows the day they sign a contract puts them one day closer to being fired.
So the Pats' hierarchy is looking for two assistants to help the team climb back to respectability. Millar particularly wants another experienced coach to help Herauf, whose first year in charge can be described as a learning experience with a weakened roster.
Millar traded numerous Pats who were having decent seasons, hoping to replenish the WHL team's draft cupboard, then left Herauf to do the impossible. Borya Valis, Parker Berge, Matteo Michels — all dispatched. All the Pats had remaining, basically, was winger Tanner Howe, a potential first-round NHL draft choice who constantly found himself isolated against an opposing team's shutdown line because they didn't have to worry about anyone else.
Maybe by 2025-26 the Pats will have a roster to reckon with, when the draft picks Millar has stockpiled should turn into something. The 2024-25 season is still a question mark.
Herauf spent eight seasons as an assistant to John Paddock, who retired following the 202223 campaign after nine seasons as Regina's head coach/general manager. On Paddock's recommendation, Millar was hired as general manager. Also on Paddock's recommendation, Millar promoted Herauf.
They seemed to be an OK mix. Whenever asked, Millar and Herauf said their philosophies meshed, that they had the same vision for the team and were amicably working toward those goals. Indeed, Millar recently told L-P sports editor Taylor Shire he likes Herauf 's “runway.”
“I think he more than deserves the opportunity to see this through,” said Millar. “And at the same time there's a responsibility on me to give him a better team over the next few years.”
Millar is absolutely correct on both counts. At the year-end getaway, Millar said he was going to conduct a top-to-bottom assessment of the team. Asked if that meant Herauf's job was in jeopardy, Millar pooh-poohed the notion and said his post-season review was standard operating procedure.
Millar had a lot to assess.
The Pats won only 22 times in 68 games. By itself, that performance can rationalize a coaching change. But anyone who saw the Pats perform should have appreciated the team's work ethic. If there was a harder-working team in the WHL, it didn't appear at Regina's Brandt Centre.
There were occasional blowouts, but most times the players worked their tails off, respected their teammates and appreciated their opportunity to play for one of Canada's most esteemed junior hockey franchises. Herauf, a Regina product who deeply respects the team's tradition, could only do so much.
The season started OK, with the Pats winning 12 of their first 20 games while many opponents were short-handed because their top players were attending NHL training camps. The Pats, who weren't missing any NHL prospects, then lost six straight games to drop below .500, where they stayed for the rest of the season.
With a wait-til-next-year-orthe-year-after roster, the Pats lost 15 of their last 16 games, including every one of a six-game excursion through the U.S., and were drubbed 11-1 in their finale by the hometown Moose Jaw Warriors.
Herauf got tossed from that game for standing atop the boards and yelling at Moose Jaw's bench, afterwards saying he felt the Warriors had disrespected the Pats by playing their best players in every situation. Millar vowed future revenge. They're on the right track, but that may take a little while.