Regina Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock announces retirement
Longtime professional and junior hockey coach John Paddock announced his retirement on Monday.
Paddock, 69, spent the last nine seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, with whom he helped draft and develop top Chicago Blackhawks prospect Connor Bedard.
The Pats hired Paddock in 2014 to be their head coach and senior vice president of hockey operations. He was named the club’s general manager one year later and remained in that position until his retirement.
“John has contributed so much to this hockey club over the last nine seasons, both on the ice and in the community,” Pats CEO Gord Pritchard said Monday. “Like any business, the hockey business is all about relationships and throughout his career, John has always made it a priority to first and foremost develop relationships with those he is working with and the players he’s coaching. I believe that is why he’s had such a great career. He puts people first.”
The Pats also announced on Monday that Alan Millar would succeed Paddock as the team’s new general manager and vice president of hockey operations.
NEWS📰: The Regina Pats announced changes to their Hockey Operations department on Monday.
John Paddock has announced his retirement and Alan Millar has been hired as the new VP, Hockey Operations and GM. #LegendsInTheMaking | @TheWHL
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Immediately after ending his playing career with the AHL’s Maine Mariners during the 1983–84 season, Paddock was named the team’s head coach and led the team to a Calder Cup championship. He won the Calder Cup again four years later as the head coach of the Hershey Bears.
Paddock became the head coach of the original Winnipeg Jets in 1991 and remained with the club — eventually as general manager — through the end of their first year as the Phoenix Coyotes. Then, after spending six years coaching in the AHL again, Paddock returned to the NHL with the Ottawa Senators in 2005.
When Senators head coach Bryan Murray was hired as the club’s general manager in 2007, Paddock was tapped to replace him. But the veteran coach lasted less than a season behind the Senators’ bench before being fired and replaced by Murray, who led the team to a first-round exit.
Paddock joined the Philadelphia Flyers organization in 2008 and was an assistant coach with the team in the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons. The Flyers relieved him of his duties in 2014, at which point he shifted to the WHL with the Pats.
During his tenure in Regina, Paddock was twice named the WHL Coach of the Year and was recognized as the league’s top executive in 2017. He was an assistant coach for the WHL All-Star Team at the 2017 CIBC Canada/Russia Super Series.