Originally Posted by
Reider
Regina Pats 4
Brandon Wheat Kings 5 (5 round shoot out)
- Brandon returns the favour in the last game of the season for both teams. The Pats didn't do themselves any favours by allowing the Wheat Kings to score two short handed goals. The defensive breakdown in their own end early in the game, which allowed the Wheat Kings to score 19 seconds into the game didn't help either. The Pats are a young team and these kinds of things happen, but next year the Pats will need to play better defensively if they want to make the playoffs. Good teams capitalize on their opportunities, which is exactly what Brandon did all night tonight.
- Big game for Ty Kolle, who had 2 goals + another one in the shoot out. That's exactly how he needed to finish the season. He'll be in his 19 year old season next year and if he's going to play top 3 or 6 minutes, he'll need to produce at a higher rate than he did this year.
- Austin Pratt scored his 25th of the season, which is fantastic. Hopefully he can score even more next year as a 20 year old. I don't expect him to score 50 goals next year, I just hope that his production does not go down next year. I know he worked hard in the off season to prepare for this year and I think he got the results that he was looking for. Hopefully, the entire team works incredibly hard this off season and they all come back a lot better next year.
- John Paddock says that he won't be going out and acquiring a bunch of good players in the off season, it will largely be up to the current group of players to step up next year. All of the players other than the OA's can return next year, but they probably won't all be back. JP doesn't think that either goaltender would be happy playing 50% or less of the time as a 19 year old next year, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of them gets traded at some point. That's how I felt about the situation anyways. With the Kelowna Rockets hosting the Memorial Cup next year, two WHL teams will play in the Memorial Cup and lots of teams will be looking for good players. The trade market should be healthy and it really wouldn't suck if the Pats could get a nice return for one of their 19 year old goaltenders, at the very least.
- John Paddock is hoping that Ty Smilanic and Jake Johnson report over the next year or two. Smilanic is committed to the University of Denver for the 2020-2021 season, so I'm not liking the odds of him ever reporting. Johnson on the other hand will be in his 16 year old season next year and as far as I know, he is not committed to any US colleges, so there's a chance that he could join the team next year or the year after.
- The Pats are losing 3 OA's, so there will be at least 3 spots available next year. The Pats could use an OA on defense and the other two spots (one forward, one defenseman?) will be up for grabs at main camp.
- The Pats finish the season with a record of 19-45-1-3 (42 points), which is disappointing, but not unexpected. If they want to make the playoffs next year, they're going to have to win at least another 14-16 games, which is just short of doubling their number of wins from this year. They should be able to win more games next year, but the big question is whether or not they can win enough to make the playoffs. That's going to depend on a lot of variables, which can and will be discussed later.
- Even though this was a big rebuild year for the Pats and they lost a lot more games than they won, I'm glad that they were relatively competitive. They weren't blown out of the water 10-0 every game or anything. They have a lot of good young players on the team and all of them should be returning next year unless John Paddock decides otherwise. The team should only continue to improve from here on out.
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