Pats fire Struch, name Paddock head coach

The Regina Pats fired head coach Dave Struch on Thursday.

John Paddock, the Pats’ vice-president of hockey operations and general manager, will take over behind the bench for the remainder of the 2021-22 WHL season as well as the ’22-23 campaign.

“This was a very difficult day,” Paddock said during a conference call with media. “It just seemed like a time where there needed to be something tweaked.”

Paddock was the Pats’ head coach for four seasons before Struch succeeded him prior to the 2018-19 campaign. Struch had been with the Pats since 2014, when he was hired as an assistant coach.

Regina was 55-101-9-6 with Struch as head coach. The team didn’t qualify for the post-season in his first season and there weren’t any playoffs in either of his second or third seasons due to COVID-19.

Paddock admitted Struch was put into a tough spot because of the moves the team had to make ahead of the 2018 Memorial Cup, which the Pats automatically qualified for as the host team.

“Us, Swift Current (Broncos) and Moose Jaw (Warriors) are still paying the price for that,” Paddock said. “(Struch) was put in a tough spot and if we hadn’t been hosting, I would’ve done things a lot different with a couple of our big-time players, so the cupboard was bare.

“There’s no bad coach that’s ever fired because bad coaches aren’t hired, but there comes a time when somebody feels we have to do something and, in that case, it was me.

“I don’t know what our record will be these next six games. I know what I hope it is but we just can’t sit stagnant.”

In his previous stint as head coach, Paddock posted a 165-89-21-13 regular-season record and led the Pats to four straight playoff appearances.

“I’ll say I’m excited (to get back to coaching) because it’s the better part of a bad day,” he said. “Did I miss it? I’d like to say during this rebuilding time that a lot of times I was too busy to miss it. When people ask that, I’d say I miss it at 7 o’clock at night. I’d say I’m excited, but it’s a mixed bag right now for obvious reasons.”

One of the reasons Paddock chose to go back behind the bench was that he thinks he’s a good candidate for the job.

“I’m not trying to be funny or sarcastic here but I think I’m a pretty good coach. I think that would be the first reason,” Paddock said. “This is a team that we’ve been trying to form, especially under (forward Connor Bedard).

“All coaches are interim in every sport and that could mean one year or five years. It’s just business. I’ve been here eight years and that’s just the way it is.”

He also mentioned a familiarity with the players as a reason he would be the coach for a couple of seasons.

“We want to be an up-and-coming team and keep that progression going. We think it’s started. We want to take the best shot we can (at a Memorial Cup) and we want to help Connor the best we can,” Paddock said.

Regina is 6-10-0-0 this season. After the Pats won their first two games, they lost seven straight, won four in a row and then lost three straight.

“We talked as an organization back when we were 2-and-7 and thought we deserved to be better than that. It has been a hard, different time to get a handle on these kinds of things,” Paddock said.

“I felt we were put in a hard spot last week playing two of the top teams and all of a sudden we were really banged up up front and we were worn out completely.

“I think going onto six more games on the road, it just felt like there needed to be something.”

Paddock said one of the things the team needs to improve on is playing for each other.

“Dave had them working extremely hard and they follow structure pretty good. For me and talking to the other coaches now, it’s sort of an intangible thing (we need to improve). I don’t think there’s an exact word for it, but I do think we could play for each other a little bit more, a little bit better,” Paddock said.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray