Millar takes Pats’ reins in wake of Paddock’s retirement

There’s a new man at the helm of the Regina Pats.

The Pats announced Monday that general manager and head coach John Paddock was retiring after nine seasons with the WHL team, and that Alan Millar had been hired as the team’s vice-president of hockey operations and general manager.

An announcement on a new head coach is expected in the coming days.

Paddock, 69, will remain with the Pats as a senior adviser. He has spent 39 years in coaching and managerial roles in the junior and pro ranks.

Speaking to media Monday, Paddock said the day was a tough one.

“In some ways, it’s been dealt with, but this morning when Brad (Herauf, Regina’s assistant coach) said to me, ‘Are you ready for this?’ I wasn’t at that time … For a while it’ll be a continual process to not deal with it, but just to figure out how you’re going to walk in your life without deadlines and pressures and phone calls and stuff like that. But no matter what you’re retiring from, that would be a change,” said Paddock.

“For me it’s an adrenaline thing that, to be honest, I’ve always liked and enjoyed I think. So it’ll be a change, but I just look again to our family situations. Spending time with kids and grandkids has been a significant part of what we do. That balanced it out.”

Paddock said when he signed his last contract in 2018 after the Memorial Cup, he had an idea now would be about the time for retirement. He said he hasn’t wavered in his decision even when team leadership recently came and asked if this was still what he wanted to do.

“I 100 per cent believe it’s the right time. Could I still do stuff? Yeah, I could still do stuff, probably at a long hour level. But it’s just time,” said Paddock.

“The health issues I had a year and a half ago — as you are laying around and you’re not doing much for a few months — probably cinched it that this was going to be the time.”

Paddock’s last season with the Pats will also, likely, be the last season for hockey superstar Connor Bedard in Regina as well. Bedard was picked first in the 2023 NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks.

He brought all kinds of fans to Pats games after his phenomenal showing at the 2023 world junior hockey championship.

When asked, Paddock said he doesn’t know if anyone can really do justice to this last season with Bedard.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime situation for all involved probably, and I say that only because — despite that many, many great players that played in this league and that I’ve played against many years ago and after that and so forth and through the ones in the last eight or nine years — there was never anything like this. That was shown by the crowds on the road; 19 of his last 20 games in the regular season were sold out,” said Paddock.

After a playing career that included 87 games in the NHL — split between the Washington Capitals, Quebec Nordiques and Philadelphia Flyers — Paddock took on front-office jobs in the NHL and American Hockey League.

His NHL resumé includes time as the head coach and GM of the Winnipeg Jets, GM of the Phoenix Coyotes, head coach of the Ottawa Senators, and assistant coach/assistant GM with the Flyers.

Paddock joined the Pats prior to the 2014-15 season, serving as head coach and GM from 2014 to 2018 and 2021-23 and GM from 2018 to ’21. The Pats reached the WHL final in 2017 and the Memorial Cup final in 2018.

He was named the WHL’s coach of the year in both 2015 and 2017 and its executive of the year in 2017. Paddock finishes his time with the Pats ranked second in franchise history in wins (209) and third in games coached (378).

Pats chief executive officer Gord Pritchard said Monday they all knew Paddock’s retirement was coming because they’d been talking about it for a while, but he said it was different making the announcement.

“We’ve worked together for nine years so I think probably it’s hitting me, kind of like it’s hitting him, today a little bit. So it’s definitely, definitely emotional but I think it’s real today and up until today didn’t quite hit home,” said Pritchard.

Paddock was integral to bringing Millar aboard the team. Millar said it all started with a text from Paddock after Millar had made the decision to start looking out for other opportunities.

Millar, 56, began his front-office career with the AHL’s Newmarket Saints. He has worked with the OHL’s Guelph Storm, the AHL’s Saint John Flames, the OHL’s Toronto St. Michael’s Majors and the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.

His WHL resumé includes a two-year stint as the Moose Jaw Warriors’ director of hockey operations and a nine-year run as the Warriors’ general manager. In his tenure in Moose Jaw, the Warriors won 270 games.

Millar said coming back to Saskatchewan is a comfortable decision for him and his family.

“We immensely enjoyed our time in Moose Jaw, we made lifelong friends there, we were married at Buffalo Pound Lake (and) we spend time in Moose Jaw in the summers out at the lake with close friends,” Millar explained.

“The people are fantastic in the province, they’re passionate about their sports, so that familiarity, that comfort, knowing we’re coming to a place that is passionate about the Pats, and the fan base and the partners that we have here, it just, it feels right.”

Millar said he’s getting used to wearing the Pats’ colours but thinks walking into the Moose Jaw Events Centre for the first time with the Pats will be fun.

He most recently served as director of player personnel with Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, selecting the rosters and managing Canada’s under-18 and world junior teams. Millar won gold at the 2021 IIHF under-18 championship, gold at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and gold in both 2022 and 2023 with Canada’s world junior team.

“We saw Alan’s ability to consistently challenge for a championship when he was in Moose Jaw where he had very strong teams that were incredibly tough to play against, particularly in 2017-2018,” Pritchard said in a media release. “It is Alan’s experience and success that excites us as an organization as the Pats start an exciting new chapter in our history. We look forward to Alan leading our hockey program.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick