What a difference two years makes. The last time the Regina Pats came to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, it was a true happening in late November of 2022 with prodigy Connor Bedard performing in front of a capacity crowd of 7,006, in one of those landmark moments you look back on.
It’s a whole different scenario this time around as the Pats come onto Blanshard Street tonight for their once-every-two-seasons visit, tied for last place in the Western Hockey League at 6-15-4 and coming off 6-0 and 9-1 losses in Kamloops and Kelowna to begin their B.C. road trip. Yet truth be told, the Pats missed the playoffs in Bedard’s first season in Regina and only placed sixth in the Eastern Conference in his second and final season and didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs, giving an indication that as good as he is, he perhaps personally cannot lift an entire team at the level of a McDavid or Crosby.
Those kinds of heady issues and arguments are rare in hockey and certainly not in play this time around as the rebuilding Pats meet the Victoria Royals. The Royals are improved from the team that last met the Pats on Blanshard Street in a 9-5 loss as Bedard scored a hat-trick that memorable night. That reeling Victoria team was 3-17-3 at that point and on its way to missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year after finishing last in the league in the bubble season before that. These Royals are much improved at 14-8-5, after making the playoffs last season, but are still a work in progress with building blocks that include two likely first-round NHL draft picks — forward Cole Reschny in 2025 and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff for 2026.
Among the issues is that the Royals enigmatically play to the level of their opponents, as evidenced by a loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors, who currently share the league basement with the Pats, and an overtime win against the WHL-leading Everett Silvertips.
“I’ll agree with that [assessment],” said Royals head coach James Patrick, when asked.
“You can say we do at times play to our competition. But there are no easy games in this league,” added the former NHLer, who took over the Victoria bench early into last season.
Despite the emerging star power of 17-year-old Reschny and 16-year-old Verhoeff — abetted by NHL-drafted blue-liners Justin Kipkie and Nate Misskey — this is mostly a lunch-bucket crew that is most successful when it plays a game that is hounding and heavy on the puck.
“We can play with anybody in this league. But we’re not a good enough team to not play the right way,” said Patrick.
“When we get four lines playing, that’s when we’re good.”
Regina, meanwhile, is coached by Brad Herauf, a former Utah Grizzlies foe of the Victoria Salmon Kings in the pro ECHL.
Herauf’s Pats are looking to the future as GM Alan Millar began the WHL trading season last month by moving star forward and captain Tanner Howe, a signed 2024 second-round NHL draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who has been invited to the upcoming Canada selection camp for the 2025 world junior championship. The Pats extracted a haul for Howe from the Calgary Hitmen that included 17-year-old defenceman Reese Hamilton, ranked for the second or third rounds of the 2025 NHL draft, forward Keets Fawcett and a second-round WHL prospects draft pick in 2027 and a third-rounder in 2025.
Moose Jaw, in last place with Regina, continued the blockbuster trade season Monday by sending NHL first-round draft pick and Canada world junior selection camp-invited forward Brayden Yager and veteran goaltender Jackson Unger to the championship-minded Lethbridge Hurricanes for forward Landen Ward, goaltender Brady Smith, 15-year-old Colt Carter, two WHL prospects draft first-round selections in 2025 and 2028, a second-round selection in 2028, a third-round selection in 2025 and fourth- and fifth-round picks in 2026.
The defending-champion Warriors are in a complete rebuild after last spring winning the first WHL championship in the 40 years of franchise history.
