With less than two weeks to go until training camp, Regina Pats Head Coach Dave Struch, is excited for the upcoming season.
Struch was on the SportsCage earlier this week, and said looking back on the shortened bubble campaign last spring, he thought there were a lot of bright spots.
“The way we played in that bubble was really good, our veterans lead an unique situation the right way, they played hard and all improved, our young guys played lots, they made lots of mistakes, but they got better, and that’s what it was for,” Struch said.
The Pats finished the 24 game season 9-12-2-1.
With the impact he made last season in just 15 games before going to play for Canada at the World Under 18’s, Connor Bedard is again expected to impress.
However Struch knows that Bedard will have lots of new experiences and growing pains this year, in what will be a full 68 game regular season, complete with road trips.
“It’s going to get hard for sure,” Struch said. “He hasn’t gone into Prince Albert, Brandon or Winnipeg, or of course Moose Jaw, there were rivalries within the bubble but when you actually go on the road into other teams buildings, they’re going to play real hard and there’s no doubt for a young guy it can and will get really difficult,” Struch said.
In 15 games last season Bedard recorded 28 points and was leading the WHL in scoring at the time of his departure to play for Canada.
That being said, Struch expects a competitive battle amongst his group in camp when it comes to who will play along-side the star forward.
“There’s going to be a battle at camp, there’s always three or even four versions of what we foresee it looking like,” said Struch. “John (Paddock) is always working the phones, I’ve always said he’s one of the hardest working general managers in the league.”
That statement proved to be true as the Pats dealt their 2021 first round pick to Lethbridge on Wednesday, for 2003 born forward Zack Stringer.
Related:
Training camp opens September 1st, the Pats will open the regular season October 1 and 2 with a home-and-home against Prince Albert.
They’ll play their first pre-season contest September 10 against Winnipeg.
