John Paddock went to his first training camp with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the fall of 1970.
He was cut, came back the next year and released again before finally making the team on his third try — as an 18-year-old.
It became a bit of a theme for the Paddock. He was stubborn and relentless, both as a rugged winger and coach and executive during his post-playing career.
TOM HANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
Former Winnipeg Jets coach John Paddock played 87 NHL games and 462 in the AHL.
He came off the family farm near Oak River to play 87 games in the NHL, 462 in the AHL and serve as a coach or general manager for 40 more seasons in the NHL (including stints as head coach and GM of the Winnipeg Jets), AHL and WHL after his playing career came to a close.
Last week, the 69-year-old announced his retirement from the game, closing a nine-year chapter as general manager and head coach of the Regina Pats.
“I’ll miss it a lot, that’s for sure,” said Paddock by phone from his home base in Onanole this week. “I love the game… and I love the compete part maybe more than anything else — trying to win, coaching and the camaraderie — so many people have reached out to me (since the announcement). You’ll miss all those things.
“They’re still your friends but you’re just not going to talk to them as much. Probably (missing) training camp is going to be the bigger one and I hope it gets slightly easier from there. By my count, from my first Wheat King camp when I was 16, it will be 53 training camps I’ve been at of some sort.”
A thoughtful, soft-spoken man, Paddock’s reputation carries considerable weight in hockey circles.
“I always had tremendous respect for John — everyone does,” said Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon, who went head to head with Paddock in the WHL. “I got to know him better when he came back to our league (the WHL in 2014). He had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with his team.”
Any ambitions to continue with the Pats probably evaporated during a recent health crisis. Early in 2022, he was unable to carry out his duties with the club when he contracted COVID-19 while undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
He eventually recovered from the COVID-19, returning to the Pats bench for the 2022-23 season, while treatments now have his cancer, diagnosed three years ago, under control. In retirement, he hopes to golf more, travel some and hang out with his four daughters, three step-children and 10 grandchildren while also helping out on his brother Gord’s farm in Oak River.
“I actually feel the best I’ve felt in three years for sure since I got the lymphoma diagnosis and COVID a year and a half ago,” said Paddock. “I definitely feel better or close to normal, whatever that is for a 69-year-old. I don’t get tired and I feel pretty good.”
Paddock final season wasn’t easy. He took plenty of heat by not trading sensational world junior superstar Connor Bedard to a top contender.
“Obviously it would’ve been a bushelful of assets (coming back) but we were having a pretty good year and secondly, he was never going to be traded,” said Paddock, whose Pats went seven games before being eliminated in the first round of the playoff by the Saskatoon Blades. “He had no intentions of playing anywhere else. If he would have come in and said, ‘I want to go to someplace else to maybe win,’ something would have maybe happened. But he was never going to do that and never wanted to leave.”
Bedard will play in the NHL next fall but the Pats, said Paddock, got a valuable legacy by retaining their captain.
“The amount of times the Regina Pats have been mentioned in social media, television and print, especially in the last year, and I think there’s something about that when they announce the first pick in the draft,” said Paddock.
“I think that’s a different type of win. Our league should be thankful… Connor made millions of dollars for our league and specifically, teams in our division and conference. It might seem strange to some people but in a way it was the right thing to do.”
Twitter: @sawa14
