The Regina Pats are back on the ice for the first time since April.
The club’s 2021 training camp kicked off Friday at the Co-operators Centre as the team prepares for what they hope will be a normal 68-game season starting in October.
Last year, the Pats played a shortened 24-game season in the East Division Western Hockey League (WHL) hub in Regina featuring the league’s Saskatchewan and Manitoba-based teams.
“It feels a lot more normal since last year we were in the dorms, going to the rink and then going back to the dorms,” said Pats forward Connor Bedard. “We have a lot more freedom now and it definitely feels more like a normal year and everyone is looking forward to that.”
While it might be considered as a normal season, it no doubt will be special with Bedard being front and centre for the Pats.
Bedard became the WHL’s first player to be granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada before the Pats selected him first overall in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft.
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The now-16-year-old will be looking to build off an impressive WHL rookie of the year season where he put up 28 points in 15 games as a 15 year old.
This season, he hopes to take on more of a leadership role.
“Whether that’s with the young group or with everyone, you want to kind of lead by example and I think that’s kind of my way of leading,” Bedard said.
The organization understands they have a generational talent on their roster in Bedard and it will bring a different level of hype to the team this season.
Bedard has already shown to the coaching staff that he can handle the spotlight.
Head coach Dave Struch said they will have to make sure the entire squad is ready to adapt.
“We will address it with our players because it’s going to be around us. That’s that’s just the reality of it,” stated Struch. “The sooner we move forward with it, the better off we all are.”
Despite being in a rebuild phase, the Pats head coach said the team needs to become above average and build off of their shortened season last year.
Struch noted how their training camp roster is represented by older players who are participating at National Hockey League training camps, which he believes says a lot about the organization, yet there are eager, younger players looking to crack the lineup this fall.
“When we look at what we did last year in the bubble and the development of our program, we have a lot of those players coming back, so we have higher expectations,” Struch said.
“The goal every year is to make the playoffs, but getting off to a good start is going to be really important for us.”
Pats training camp runs through the weekend with the annual Blue and White game scheduled for Tuesday night.
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